Yuba Defaults on $419,922 Owed to Gravel Firm

Already overdue on several loans and on its 1988 property taxes, financially troubled Yuba Natural Resources has defaulted on an additional $419,922 note held by a company that produces gravel on Yuba’s mine field near Marysville, according to Yuba County records.

A notice of default was filed April 20 at the county courthouse in Marysville by Western Aggregate, a subsidiary of Centex Corp. of Dallas, which in 1987 acquired all rights to produce gravel on Yuba’s property. Filing a notice of default is the first step in a foreclosure action.

In an interview Thursday, Centex President Larry Hirsch said his company’s Western Aggregate unit made a six-month loan to Yuba last October for “general working capital purposes.” Principal and interest totaling $419,922 due April 14 were not paid, prompting the company to file a notice of default to “protect our legal rights.”

Marshall Mintz, a spokesman for San Diego-based Yuba, declined to comment on the default Wednesday.

Yuba Chairman Richard Silberman was arrested April 7 on charges of attempting to launder money he thought came from Colombian drug profits. Actually, the funds were supplied by a federal undercover agent. He resigned as Yuba chairman April 11.

Silberman’s arrest has focused attention on Yuba’s deepening financial problems. The company has lost more than $6.5 million since Silberman took control of Yuba in 1983. As of Dec. 31, the mining company had less than $424,827 in current assets, including just $95,000 in cash, to meet more than $10 million in current obligations.

To help Yuba pay its bills, Yuba shareholder M. Larry Lawrence, owner of the Hotel del Coronado, lent Yuba an undisclosed sum of money last month, a loan secured by mining equipment on the property 45 miles north of Sacramento.

Lawsuit Filed

On Wednesday, three Yuba Natural Resources shareholders filed a lawsuit in U. S. District Court here asking that a court-appointed receiver take control of the company and dissolve it. The suit charged Silberman and other Yuba executives and directors with mismanagement, violation of securities laws, breach of fiduciary duties and other charges.

Besides the Western Aggregate default, a Yuba City engineering firm named Von Geldern Engineering Co. filed a mechanic’s lien on April 20 for non-payment of $37,203 in surveying and engineering services.

The two liens on Yuba’s 9,900-acre mining property have been added to a host of other creditor claims on the San Diego-based mining company’s property. Last November, the company defaulted on two loans secured by trust deeds and last month failed to make a $130,000 payment to the U. S. Bureau of Land Management as settlement of a mineral trespass complaint filed by the bureau.

The due date of a $5.4-million loan from Bank of America was extended from April 3 to this month, giving Yuba some breathing space with its largest creditor. The Bank of America loan is secured by Yuba’s one-third interest in Yuba Placer Gold, a gold dredging operation on Yuba’s property that is two-thirds owned by Denver-based Bond International Gold, part of Australian Alan Bond’s financial empire.

The company also owes more than $40,000 in back taxes to the Yuba County tax collector.