History:
Mendocino Brewing Company started out as the Hopland Brewing Company in 1983. The company went public to support its popularity-driven expansion in 1994, advertising its IPO with flyers in 6packs.

By the time the dust settled, the majority stockholder and beneficial owner was Vijay Mallya.

5/n

@jannamark I wasn’t expecting to find this, but was delighted reading it.

@greedy Thank you. Could you please elaborate on what you find delightful in this? (I get tunnel vision while writing)

@jannamark Stumbling about the story and becoming engrossed in it.

"Beneficial owner" sounds like a good thing, but not necessarily for workers, customers, or society as a whole. A beneficial owner is someone who gets the benefits of business ownership while the actual owner, usually a trust or other ownership structure, assumes the risks.

Wealthy individuals such as Mallya can get the benefits of owning a business, such as money and access to other assets. The actual owner gets the risks of ownership.

6/n

In this case the actual owner was Mendocino Brewing Company Incorporated, publicly traded as MENB with assets including both the Mendocino Brewery in Ukiah, CA and the Olde Saratoga Brewery in New York.

Mendocino Brewing Co Inc is itself the property of United Breweries Holdings Limited (UBHL) aka United Breweries (UB), a conglomerate that Vijay Mallya originally inherited from his parents.

Everything was going along relatively well until 2012

7/n

Vijay Mallya suffered an economic blow in 2012 when another United Breweries property, Kingfisher Airlines floundered.

Forbes covered the airline's demise throughout 2012:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2012/02/20/indias-incredibly-shrinking-kingfisher-airline/#79a865fc7614

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2012/07/14/once-again-kingfisher-airlines-grounded/#7a49272de0c3

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2012/10/24/kingfisher-airlines-looking-at-its-final-days/#2b15dd7d1153

Kingfisher Airlines was grounded in 2012.

2012 also marks the start of Mendocino Brewing Co Inc's difficulties, according to my understanding of the company's SEC filings

https://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/companysearch.html

8/n

(Please note that I am not a business analyst or financial journalist. I merely wish I can inspire one to take a look and fill in the blanks.)

Kingfisher Airline-related debts reached Rs 9,000 crore. A crore denotes ten million. Or about $1.4 billion USD.

In 2013 the self-styled King of Good Times told his employees he didn't have the money to pay them their back pay:

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/I-dont-have-money-to-pay-your-salary-dues-Vijay-Mallya-tells-Kingfisher-staff/articleshow/20478449.cms

9/n

In 2014 an investigation into how Kingfisher Airline managed to qualify for a loan despite a poor rating lead to further inquiries. Mallya was questioned and his offices searched in 2015.

In Feb 2016, the Punjab National Bank declared UB Holdings a willful defaulter.

https://www.indiatvnews.com/business/india-all-you-need-to-know-about-vijay-mallya-s-rs-9000-crore-loan-default-377593

10/n

Mallya left India ahead of a debt recovery tribunal move to attach his passport. He denied media reports that his departure was absconding or fleeing in a March 10, 2016 tweet:

https://twitter.com/TheVijayMallya/status/708057289467547649

"I am an international businessman. I travel to and from India frequently. I did not flee from India and neither am I an absconder. Rubbish."

Since then he has not traveled to India frequently or at all, and has instead been fighting extradition.

11/n