The bombshell allegations against the partners of Axium, the Hollywood payroll company that recently declared emergency Chapter 7 bankruptcy, keep coming. According to court documents filed in the United States District Court (Central District of CA division), Goldentree Asset Management is taking partners John Visconti and Ron Garber to court for "diverting untold millions of dollars in cash and other assets to secret bank accounts" and "using Axium as their own personal piggy bank to finance their extravagant lifestyles." Zing! Thanks to our base of well-connected tipsters, we got our hands on PDFs of the court filings. We read through the 35-page document and picked out the juiciest moments for your enjoyment. We're talking multiple identities, cash payments to former supermodels for "consulting" and all sorts of other general shadiness not seen since the halcyon days of Enron. Trust us, it's GOLD.

In the six days since news broke that Axium, payroll company to a number of Hollywood studios, ceased operations after declaring emergency Chapter 7 bankruptcy, we have received countless tips about the company's spotty business practices over the last six months or so. Many of the tips revolved around John Visconti, one of the firm's principal owners and a former chair and CEO of the company. He sounds like a real peach! His CV is full of bizarre fun facts allegations like this: there's a possibility that Visconti isn't his real last name (still digging on that one) and that he used to have bullet proof glass in his office on Wilshire. More goodies, including a handy cheat sheet of the events that led to the company's demise and loss of up to $500 million in liabilities, after the jump!

Is it 2009 yet? The hyperbolic rate in which bad news is proliferating through Tinseltown in the first nine days of 2008 is officially starting to freak everyone the fuck out. If it's not the Golden Globes cancellation putting a $100MM dent in local revenue, it's Warner Bros. getting ready to issue rosé slips to scads of employees. And then there's the sad story of Axium, the payroll company that shut its doors yesterday, leaving hundreds out of work and thousands without paychecks (tip: even if you got a paycheck from Axium, DON'T CASH IT — chances are it will bounce higher than a superball). Tips have been flying into Defamer's virtual P.O. Box fast and furious; follow along for some of the lowlights, including a internal memo issued by Axium subsidiary Ensemble Chimes Global and a firsthand account of the goings-on in Burbank yesterday.

It's looking more and more like Axium's downfall may have been the result of the brass illicitly dipping their hands into the company cookie jar. The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that their president, Ruben Rodriguez, is no longer with the firm AND that the IRS is hot on the trail. To that end, we'd like to share this email from a tipster who used to work with the deep-sixed and Chapter 7'd payroll and accounting service:

Tips began flooding the Defamer mailbox just minutes ago that Axium International, a leading entertainment industry payroll agency that works with Warner Bros. among other studios, shut their doors overnight and have apparently declared bankruptcy. We called their Los Angeles, Burbank and New York offices in an attempt to get comment, and all three calls went straight to the company voicemail (urging us to "call back during regular office hours"). One of our sources told us that Axium "fired everyone without warning" earlier today and is holding onto over $100,000 in payroll money recently deposited from the DGA. An email chain describing the situation that was sent to the LA Producers Yahoo group follows after the jump.