The chief restructuring officer for bankrupt USA Capital, a private lender with $962 million in investor money, told about 350 investors Wednesday that he is making progress in recovering money for them.

Tom Allison, president and chief restructuring officer of USA Capital, said his team received a proposal for pledging assets toward a $57 million unsecured loan that USA Capital owners made to themselves. Tom Hantges and Joe Milanowski, majority owners of USA Capital, signed a document pledging the assets and sent it to Allison on Tuesday night. Allison said his attorneys are seeking clarification of the document.

In addition, Allison reported that his team has recovered 25 percent of about $50 million in past-due interest payments on loans plus $52 million in principal loan amounts during his first 30 days as interim manager, getting applause from the investors.

An investor later asked if Allison was going to seek to recover money from investors who received payments from USA Capital for loans in which the borrowers were not making interest payments.

"It depends on how well I do on collections of interest payments," Allison said.

Allison also promised to pursue recovery from borrowers, including Hantges and Milanowski, who signed personal guarantees if it appeared he could recover money for the investors. Allison, however, said he would not spend money pursuing debt repayment if there was no money that could be recovered for investors.

"I am going to do everything in my power to get your money back," Allison told a standing-room-only group of investors at the Lloyd George U.S. courthouse.

"My passion here is to make this business work for all of you," said Allison who twice received applause from investors. "I firmly believe that this is a business here that can be turned around."

Allison said he has spoken to investors who can no longer make payments for cancer medications and to others who cannot pay rent at assisted living facilities since their monthly payments stopped.

Many of the investors are retired. USA Capital solicited investments from individuals and used the money to make short-term loans to developers and others who pledged collateral. Investors were attracted by the double-digit interest payments that USA Capital promised.

Many of the 115 loans made by USA Capital were not being repaid, although USA Capital sent monthly distributions to all investors, including those with bad loans.

Allison said he has not started foreclosure proceedings on any of the loans. He is negotiating with borrowers and awaiting appraisals of the value of the collateral, he said. But he said he did not want to take back properties until he has cash needed to wait for good purchase offers.

Also, Allison has filed a document with the bankruptcy court saying that he wants to borrow up to $25 million from an institution that wants to have a claim on USA Capital assets as security.