Tuesday, March 18th 2025, 6:16 pm
Paragon Industries is a pipe manufacturer in Sapulpa with locations in Texas and Muskogee. It is the largest employer in Sapulpa.
Several lawsuits have been filed against Paragon, totaling more than $300 million.
Some of those suits say the company failed to pay for materials they received, while some of the other suits say CEO Derek Wachob took investor money to fund his lavish lifestyle and never paid it back.
2024
September 10: TLLP, LLC filed a $7.6 million lawsuit against Paragon and Global Source Recycling.
It says they loaned Global Source recycling money and the collateral was sitting on land in Muskogee, owned by Paragon and as part of the loan, the Recycling company promised to make payments.
The suit says that according to the agreement, if Global Source Recycling defaulted on the loan, the collateral would immediately be shipped to them.
The lawsuit says the company defaulted on the loan and the collateral was never delivered.
September 25: Amarillo National Bank files a $10 million lawsuit against Paragon and Wachob for non-payment of a loan.
September 27: AM/NS Calvert sues Paragon for $31.5 million plus interest.
The steel company says between January of 2023 and May of 2024, Paragon bought products from Calvert worth more than $15 million and hasn’t paid for them.
It also says that in May of 2023, Calvert and Paragon entered a consignment agreement that resulted in more than $16 million in losses to the Calvert company because of non-payment by Paragon.
October 3: Nucor Steel out of Arkansas sues Paragon for $32 million plus another $8 million in interest, that’s still accumulating. Nucor says Paragon bought large amounts of sheet steel from them and never paid for it. Documents say Paragon placed 47 orders between April and August of 2022.
October 22: A WARN Letter was sent to Paragon employees saying layoffs could happen between December 21st and January 4th. The letters say the company has seen a business slowdown and it's had to reduce its operations, and the layoffs would be permanent. The letter goes on to say they are trying to find ways to limit the number of layoffs as the company is working hard to obtain contracts.
October 24: Former Friends of Wachob Skip and Chad Braver sue Wachob for $30 million for what the suit calls a “fraudulent investment scheme.”
It says Wachob told the Bravers he would buy steel products at low prices and sell them at higher prices, and he would split the profits. The Bravers say Wachob promised to match their investments dollar for dollar. They say they gave him money 24 different times to purchase 82,123 tons of industrial rolled steel valued at $55 million between November of 2023 and August of 2024. It says he never told them Paragon was heavily in debt and not able to pay its bills of around $45 million at the time and had they known that they would never have invested. It says they never got any of their money back and never received any profits from the deals. They accuse Wachob of using all that money to fund his lavish lifestyle.
November 1: A Group of former friends and investors file a lawsuit in Tulsa County against Paragon Industries and Wachob for owing them $11 million for an investment property in Missouri.
November 6: CTAP, a Colorado Piping company, and Sooner Pipe sue Paragon, accusing the company of holding $67 million worth of steel coils and piping belonging to them. It says $12 million in steel coils can't be accounted for and they believe it's being shipped by the truckloads to unknown destinations.
November 18: A lawsuit filed by Interstate Electric says Paragon owes them more than $106,000 for doing routine work on pumps, meters, and generators.
Related: Major Sapulpa Employer Facing Financial Trouble, Possible Layoffs Amid Lawsuits
December 2: Texas Judge issues a final judgment ordering Paragon to pay Amarillo Bank $10 million plus 18% interest.
December 9: Luxury Cars spotted being loaded onto trailers near Paragon.
December 16: Edgen Murray files a lawsuit in Federal Court in Texas for more than $14 million for a fraudulent investment.
Related: New Lawsuit Filed Against Sapulpa's Paragon Industries As Layoffs Loom
December 23: Some employees are laid off just days before Christmas.
2025
January 2: A group of former friends and Investors (Schouten, Mead & Nossman) re-file suit against Wachob & companies in Tulsa County.
January 15: Some salaried employees say they did not receive checks for January.
January 23: Company email goes out saying that salary checks are not available.
January 24: Another company email saying salary checks are not available.
January 29: Employees tell News On 6 that they have still not been paid.
Related: 'I put my heart into the company:' Sapulpa man afraid to lose everything after not getting paid
March 13: The company is now in a court-ordered receivership after the company defaulted on an $18 million loan from Byline Bank.
Court documents say Paragon Industries and CEO Derek Wachob failed to make payments over the last 7 months and failed to provide financial statements from the previous year. The loan was issued in 2020 with the company and its assets listed as collateral.
March 18th, 2025
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