Creditors file petition to drive businessman and former mayoral candidate into Chapter 7 involuntary bankruptcy.
BY JACOB PALMER | OB DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
Sho Dozono’s creditors have filed a petition to drive him into Chapter 7 involuntary bankruptcy.
Dozono, the Portland-based businessman and former mayoral candidate, owes $567,715 to a trio of creditors in the Northwest and indicated in an OregonLive.com report that he intends on paying them back.
“I wanted to work something out with these guys,” Dozono said when reached on the phone Tuesday night. “They jumped the gun and filed this in bankruptcy court. I don’t dispute that I owe the money.”
Dozono said he’s the victim of a changing economy. His former company, Azumano Travel, was crippled in the financial crisis of 2008 when it lost its prized customer, Wells Fargo Bank. “That was $80 million in business,” Dozono said. Dozono sold off the corporate side of Azumano in November 2012 to CI Travel of Norfolk, Virginia. Dozono, 71, said he borrowed the money hoping to rebuild the retail side of his travel agency. It didn’t work out, and he ultimately sold that portion of Azumano to CI as well.
The IRS has filed tax liens against him, hoping to resolve the $200,000 in back taxes the institution says Dozono owes.
The Portland Business Journal provided some background on Dozono’s civic history:
Sam Adams defeated Dozono, who received around 34 percent of the vote, in the 2008 primary for Portland mayor.
Dozono, a resident of Portland since the 1950s, has long advocated for a better public education system. He created the Portland Schools Foundation (now known as All Hands Raised), a major independent funder of Portland-area schools.
