Chimene Van Gundy — the ‘Queen of Mobile Homes’ — has gone bankrupt in San Antonio

Chimene Van Gundy, a New Braunfels entrepreneur who has boasted about making millions from buying and selling mobile homes, has gone bankrupt. She’s referred to herself as the “Queen of Mobile Homes” and the “the Mobile Home Millionaire,” buying, repairing and selling more than 600 mobile homes in 17 states. She also has said she owns dozens of mobile-home parks. In recent months, however, Van Gundy and one of her companies have been hit with multiple lawsuits by investors who allege she’s been operating a fraudulent mobile-home investment scheme. Van Gundy filed for Chapter 7 liquidation Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in San Antonio, listing less than $50,000 in assets and debts in the range of $100,000 to $500,000.

Investors say she reneged on promises to pay them back principal and interest on money they loaned her company to buy mobile homes. The Express-News chronicled Van Gundy’s legal troubles in an article that appeared online just hours before her bankruptcy filing. Five individuals and two companies based in California allege in their lawsuit in Comal County district court that Van Gundy has been operating a Ponzi scheme — intending to repay investors with new loans from other “unsuspecting individuals.” Van Gundy filed for bankruptcy just eight days after the California plaintiffs convinced Judge Dib Waldrip to appoint a receiver to take over her company, Outstanding Real Estate Solutions Inc. (ORES), and her personal finances. David Jed Williams and Clayton Matheson, San Antonio lawyers for the plaintiffs, argued that assets were in danger of being lost without a receiver taking control. During an April 19 hearing, ORES’s operations director Meagan Dockens testified she didn’t know where the company maintained its bank accounts and that it had no current financial records.