Trustee appointed to run SME, members want audit – Bloomberg Businessweek

A federal bankruptcy court official has appointed a trustee to oversee the Southern Montana Electric Generation and Transmission Cooperative as it reorganizes its finances, while members of a Red Lodge cooperative hope the trustee seeks an audit of SME’s books.

Lee A. Freeman Jr., a Harvard-educated attorney who lives in Livingston, was appointed Monday as trustee to run the Billings-based electric cooperative. Freeman has handled utility cases in New Hampshire and Vermont and is involved in proceedings before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

SME provides wholesale power to the city of Great Falls and five rural electric co-ops. It filed for bankruptcy protection Oct. 21 listing $21.4 million in debt.

“They went through a lot of money. We know so little. So much was secret,” said Judith Gregory, a member of the Beartooth Electric Cooperative, which buys its power from Southern.

Southern’s bankruptcy documents show the co-op obtained a $5 million line of credit from National Rural Utilities Co-Op Financial in April and the money was gone by September, she told The Billings Gazette.