Over the past year, we have been tempted from time to time to write about other luxury products and services. Case in point? A recent review that we did about Bluefish, a once high-flying personal concierge business, based out of Florida. When we first profiled them, we were impressed with their growth, range of services and their Partner level program which seemed to go beyond typical concierge services and offer access to unique events.

We probably should have dug deeper. Several readers subsequently pointed out to us that Bluefish has been forced into bankruptcy. We spoke to CEO Steve Sims again after we learned of this and he characterized the current mess as an attempt by others to take over his company. Sims is fighting back. Here’s an excerpt from the South Florida Business Journal:

Bluefish Concierge bills itself as a white-glove celebrity event and travel service, but its gloves are off in Palm Beach County Bankruptcy Court, where it faces an involuntary Chapter 7 filing by its creditors.

The West Palm Beach-based company has filed a motion to dismiss the bankruptcy proceeding, saying it is a bad-faith attempt in collusion with its competitors and former employees to take over its business. It also sued its former COO and a company it formerly partnered with, along with three of that company’s employees, claiming they “looted” clients while telling them Bluefish Concierge was going out of business and they would take it over.

Sims says that he is still able to provide promised services to his clients, but that the expansion he planned will have to wait. No kidding, since according to court documents the company owes over $4 million, and has less than $25,000 in assets.

What did Helium Report learn?

For now, the lesson for us is to stick to what we know best. Luxury fractional programs – real estate, jets, yachts and cars. The demand for these programs is exploding and we intend to be the experts where consumers will turn for the latest information and analysis.

In real estate alone, there are over 1,000 projects and companies that are selling luxury alternatives to vacation homes – private residence clubs, destination clubs, resort homesites, and condo hotels. Lots for us to do.