Lawrence Loan Fuels Speculation on Yuba’s Status

M. Larry Lawrence, a major Yuba Natural Resources shareholder and owner of the Hotel del Coronado, lent the troubled company an undisclosed sum of money “for general business purposes” last week, Yuba acknowledged Monday, feeding speculation that the company is desperate for cash.

On April 10, Lawrence filed a notice of a lien on Yuba Natural Resources, an action that usually occurs simultaneously with a loan, real estate attorneys said. Filed at the Yuba County recorder’s office here, the financing statement lists three pages of silica mining equipment as security for Lawrence’s loan.

Marshall Mintz, an attorney representing Yuba, acknowledged Lawrence’s loan Monday but did not specify the amount or purpose. Lawrence did not return several telephone calls, and Alan Aiello, a Lawrence aide who is also a Yuba board director, declined to comment.

Under siege by creditors and the Yuba County tax collector, Yuba was critically low on cash as of the end of its third quarter Dec. 31, the last period for which financial information on the company is available.

The company was due to pay a $5-million loan from Bank of America on April 3 and $130,000 to the federal Bureau of Land Management on April 1 as part of a mineral trespass settlement for illegally mining public land. The company is also in default on two promissory notes secured by trust deeds as well as on $40,000 in property taxes.

The company is being sued for $1.8 million by U. S. Machinery, a Sacramento mining equipment manufacturer that leased equipment to Yuba. U. S. Machinery President Herbert Caplan said Yuba was supposed to have either bought or returned the equipment at the end of a five-year lease that expired in 1987, but has done neither.

Remaining Silent

Since the arrest of Yuba’s then-chairman and chief executive Richard Silberman on April 7 on alleged money-laundering charges, Yuba has declined to comment on financial matters. Last week, for example, Mintz declined to identify Yuba’s current board of directors or to say how many Yuba shares certain directors and investors hold.

In the 1986 proxy statement for Yuba’s annual shareholders meeting, the last such statement filed by Yuba, Lawrence was listed as being the sole owner of 5.8% of Yuba’s shares and joint owner of 18.2% of Yuba stock. Lawrence is thought to have invested additional funds at Yuba in December when Aiello and Rebecca Wood, another Lawrence aide, joined Yuba’s board.

Lawrence was in the original group of investors that helped Silberman finance the $6-million acquisition of a controlling interest in Yuba in 1983. Silberman was replaced by Peter Jensen as Yuba’s chief executive last week.