The Dissolution of 99 Perspectives and Hard Lens Media
Bankruptcy, Legal Chaos and a Calculatingly Concealed Death Rattle
For years, Hard Lens Media cast itself as a scrappy, pro-labor outlet challenging censorship, politics and corporate narratives. But behind the rhetoric, the financial truth is clear: the company is finished.
In a devastating revelation shared by President Kit Cabello in his August 27, 2025 Chicago Corner, LLC v. Hard Lens Media, Inc. deposition, it was confirmed that a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition was filed by co-founder Daniel J. Luepker including the dissolution of their company 99 Perspectives, Inc., whose YouTube Network produces Chicago Reacts, Americans Learn and Chicago Plays. Included in Luepker’s filing was the bombshell news that Hard Lens Media itself, of which Luepker holds a 49% stake, is “in the process of shutting down”.
While bankruptcy filings make clear that the lights are going out, the public-facing story on GoFundMe continues to present Hard Lens Media as a media entity under attack—soliciting donations to fund its legal battles without disclosing that the organization itself is facing its own imminent demise. Now, with the ongoing Federal Copyright Lawsuit, Illinois Labor Department Complaint and Cook County Default Defamation Judgment added to the mix, the truth is even darker.
Creditors: Taxes, Lawyers, and Unpaid Judgments
The creditor schedules reveal where the financial collapse originated. This was not the result of one lawsuit—it was years of accumulated obligations.
Creditor / Type / Amount - Status
Illinois Dept. of Revenue / Taxes (Priority) / $3,000.00
IRS (various years) / Taxes (Priority & Nonpriority)
$3,211.36 (2020)
$18,070.67 (2021)
$40.50 (2022)
$820.00 (2024)
Harold Rider Realty & Mortgage Co. / Services / Claim Unknown
Minchella & Associates, Ltd. / Legal Fees / Listed Creditor
Steven D. Titiner, Titiner & Brouch / Legal Fees / Listed Creditor
Law Offices of Marvin L. Husby / Legal Fees / $41,888.44
99 Perspectives, Inc. / Corporate Claim / $500 interest value
Hard Lens Media, Inc. / Corporate Claim / 49% interest, no value
Total liabilities: $67,030.97
Total assets: $6,017.00
These debts reflect a pattern: tax delinquency coupled with legal bills and judgments that piled up long before the current Chicago Corner lawsuit became a public flashpoint.
Bankruptcy Filing: The Numbers Behind the Curtain
Filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Illinois (Case No. 25-11319, Judge Timothy A. Barnes), Luepker’s July 2025 petition details the full scope of financial ruin:
99 Perspectives, Inc. is listed as a creditor, with Luepker’s 80% ownership interest valued at just $500.
Hard Lens Media, Inc. is listed separately, with a 49% stake but no declared value.
Taxes dominate the debt load:
Illinois Dept. of Revenue: $3,000 (priority).
IRS: More than $20,000 across multiple years, including $18,070.67 (2021) and $3,211.36 (2020), with smaller claims in 2022 and 2024.
Other creditors include law firms and service providers tied to unpaid fees and judgments.
25-11319 Daniel J. Luepker Case type: bk Chapter: 7 Full Docket Link
The trustee’s report lists $67,030.97 in total liabilities against just $6,017 in assets. With nothing left for creditors after exemptions, the trustee filed a “Report of No Distribution.”
The Dissolution of 99 Perspectives, Inc.
The bankruptcy schedules show that 99 Perspectives, the corporate umbrella for Hard Lens Media, is effectively defunct. Its ownership interest was claimed exempt at nominal value, signaling the company has ceased meaningful operations. Hard Lens Media is shutting down with it—despite continuing to present itself publicly as an outlet “under siege.”
The message is clear: whatever remains of Hard Lens Media is not sustainable. Yet this closure has not been disclosed in the organization’s ongoing public appeals for financial support.
GoFundMe Narrative vs. Legal Reality
Hard Lens Media’s ongoing GoFundMe campaign—Help Kit & Daniel Defend Free Speech and Fair Use from a Movie Director—frames its legal struggles as a battle for free speech against censorship. The campaign tells supporters that malicious lawsuits brought by former collaborators at Chicago Corner are designed to destroy Hard Lens Media and suppress independent voices.
The problem?
Nowhere does the fundraiser acknowledge Luepker’s bankruptcy or the dissolution of 99 Perspectives.
Most of the debts in the bankruptcy filing stem from taxes, unpaid services, and prior legal disputes, not the Chicago Corner case.
The fundraiser narrative suggests the organization’s survival hinges on fighting censorship. The court filings prove the organization is already winding down.
Copyright Infringement remain active, and a Cook County court has already entered a default judgment against HLM in the defamation lawsuit.
Most troubling in all this, is that donors are being asked to defend an organization that Luepker himself has admitted in court filings, is “in the process of shutting down.”
The Hard Lens Media Legal Defense Fundraiser — by a self-declared pro-labor entity— also shows striking contradictions:
Does the outlet really advocate for fair labor and creator rights, or silence them?
Is it using crowdfunding to fund an actual free speech defense, or to cover up its own ethical lapses related to the intellectual property claims and theft of viewer tip revenues alleged by former unpaid volunteers?
Is it really fighting against censorship, or weaponizing its platforms for retaliation against whistleblowers with legitimate grievances?
The copyright, defamation lawsuit and continued harassment videos on its YouTube channel—most notably a “Chicago Corner Cooking Series” mocking Vasilatos and his colleagues at the Chicago Corner worker owned co-op, continue. This underscores the gap between its public claims of “censorship” and its use of speech as a weapon. Former volunteers turned whistleblowers now face smear campaigns inciting more harassment against them rather than an actual dialogue regarding the facts related to their cases.
Prior Scrutiny: Labor and Retaliation Complaints
The financial unraveling also comes in the wake of prior scrutiny over Hard Lens Media’s internal practices. Reporting by The Chicago Sentinels documents unpaid labor, retaliatory behavior, and violations of state and Federal labor statutes at the organization, undercutting its image as a worker-rights advocate.
Ethical Questions for Donors and Supporters
The bankruptcy filing, lawsuits and the GoFundMe appeal tell two irreconcilable stories:
In Court: 99 Perspectives and Hard Lens Media are collapsing under unpaid taxes, unpaid legal bills, labor complaints, intellectual property disputes, and defamation claims.
In Public: Hard Lens Media is a thriving independent outlet, silenced by censorship and in desperate need of financial support to survive its legal challenges to insure its right to free speech with impunity against allegations of slander.
The question for supporters is not whether free speech deserves defense—it’s whether they are continuing to be misled into donating to a media outlet that is officially shutting down while fundraising to defend against its own campaign of misinformation and libel.
Final Takeaway
99 Perspectives and Hard Lens Media’s collapse is not a David vs. Goliath tale of censorship, but a cautionary story of financial mismanagement, unpaid obligations, and questionable transparency. Supporters deserve truth; not a smear campaign presented for clicks, financial support and sympathy.
GoFundMe donors who believe they are defending an embattled indie media outlet are, in reality, funding the final legal bills of a company already in its death throes. Luepker’s bankruptcy filing and the ongoing lawsuits provide the clarity that their GoFundMe narrative does not: this is the end of the line for 99 Perspectives and Hard Lens Media, the news operation it supported.
NEXT: The Real Story Behind Hard Lens Media’s ‘Persecution’: Bankruptcy, Defamation, and Misrepresentation.
Editorial Note: This article is based on publicly available filings in 25-11319 Daniel J. Luepker Case type: bk Chapter: 7, Chicago Corner, LLC v. Hard Lens Media, Inc., No. 1:24-cv-00246 (N.D. Ill.), Vasilatos v. Hard Lens Media, No. 2024L014288 (Cook County), deposition testimony, copyright registrations, and HLM’s own public statements. All claims are documented and verifiable.
All Public Court Documents regarding the disputes between Chicago Corner, LLC and Hard Lens Media, Inc. as well as supporting documents can be viewed online at at:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1JzLnAksc9pXoTU5c1QqwO9vc_5gmbopS