Empire Metal Recycling was sinking fast.

So fast, that the 24-year-old company was burning through large amounts of cash just to stay afloat. Like any other business, it had bills to pay — some in the tens of thousands of dollars — but it was being held hostage by an arsenal of invoices their subsidiaries had not paid.

Running out of cash with no additional avenues of income available, the Huntington, W.Va.-based company had no choice. Empire Metal Recycling needed some additional time to get their financial affairs corrected and bankruptcy was their only option.

So on June 12, the latest in a growing list of Tri-State companies filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in Charleston. Two weeks later, court documents and briefs filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court show a company teeter-tottering on the brink of total liquidation