MJS reporting Laser Monks fold printer supply business, abbey, Terry Nelson quoted

The abbey, now all but empty, is listed for sale at $2.6 million.

They were dubbed the Millionaire Monks, a small monastic community in rural Wisconsin feted around the world for its wildly successful Internet business selling laser printer inks and toners.

As recently as 2009, the Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Spring Bank was projecting annual sales of $3.5 million for its for-profit business, LaserMonks Inc. And their prior and chief executive officer, Father Bernard McCoy, was talking expansion - of both the company and the abbey. [oops]

Today, the monks' 15,000-square-foot home on 500 acres in Sparta is all but empty. They sold off their belongings - everything from furniture and farm equipment to religious artifacts - at an auction last month. And they have put much of their land and buildings up for sale.

LaserMonks ceased operating in the spring, though the abbey has since sold its name and customer list to a California firm.[check it out; lasermonks.com] And the monks have gone their separate ways. McCoy, who was touted as the LaserMonks' marketing genius, is now in Ireland, overseeing a community of nuns, according to a family member. Both she and the monks' lawyer said they did not know how to reach him.  [.... I don't like to be the rumor monger but I understand him to be on a non-voluntary sabbatical at their mother house... I thought that was in Switzerland.]

Attorney Kevin Roop of La Crosse, who represents the abbey, blames increased competition and the downturn in the economy for the liquidation of LaserMonks; and the dissolution of the abbey on the business failure and a dwindling interest in monastic life.

But the monks have a history of failed or attempted business ventures. And now their seemingly sudden change of fortune has raised questions about their business acumen and some say less-than-Spartan lifestyle.

"It's very troubling," said Terry Nelson of Minneapolis, a former Trappist novice who writes about monastic communities on a blog he calls Abbey Roads. "A year ago he (McCoy) was talking about growing vocations, building a new church. . . . And then it's just gone? How can a monastery just disappear?"

The details are not entirely clear, but one significant factor appears to be the abbey's debt. Since 2006, the monks have used their property as collateral to secure $3.1 million in mortgages, including a $1.4 million loan from the Valley of Our Lady Inc., a nearby community of Cistercian nuns, according to records on file with the Monroe County Register of Deeds.

The nuns' superior did not return a telephone call seeking comment. But Bryan Simonson, vice president of Stoddard-based River Bank, which loaned the abbey nearly $1.8 million over that time, said the notes were new loans and refinancings of existing mortgages and lines of credit opened for the monks' business and living expenses over the years, and that a portion of the debt has been paid.

Simonson and Roop declined to say how much the abbey still owes. But the banker said the monks have never defaulted on a loan and that he doesn't expect them to do so now.

"I hold the abbey in the highest regard," Simonson said. "They have a very viable exit strategy, and we do not expect to incur any losses." [... sooooo they did declare bankruptcy though...  I assume they are talking about the Cistercian nuns then...]

continue at Milwaukee Journal Sentinal

National papers are now picking up this story.  Very well done investigation Annysa!  I'll maybe give some more commentary in a few days.  Click the labels below if you are interested in the background.  I bet you will see the NYTes out there pick it up this weekend.