the financial markets in autumn of 2008, the company Eclipse needed to be restructured and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with the stated plan that a new company, headed by Pieper, would buy the assets of Eclipse and continue manufacturing. Pieper attempted to secure the necessary funds for this acquisition, but was unsuccessful largely due to the economic downturn, which led to several potential investors bowing out at the last moment. Eclipse Aviation ran out of money in mid-February 2009, ceased operations, and laid off its remaining 850 employees. On February 25, a group of creditors petitioned the Delaware bankruptcy court to convert Eclipse's bankruptcy to Chapter 7 liquidation. Soon thereafter, the board of directors (including Pieper) acknowledged the company had no other options but to file for Chapter 7, effectively ending the company's 10-year run, during which it spent an estimated $2 billion in investments and loans. Various reports following the Chapter 7 filing of the company insinuated financial problems for Pieper including an email from Pieper himself On 7 April 2009, following the Chapter 7 filing of Eclipse Aviation, ETIRC BV in the Netherlands also declared bankruptcy. The Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant reported that Pieper had invested US$146 million in Eclipse through ETIRC. Roel Pieper has two lawsuits pending on the demise of ETIRC BV. The first case led by a group of consultants who claim to not have been paid for six months was lost. including a delay and review of a case by a legal firm that specialises in take-overs and bankruptcy claims, and Al Mann, who had Roel Pieper sign a 10 million collateral before he would invest 20 million in Eclipse. Al Mann and Roel Pieper have subsequently settled out of court Although in a court case of 2016 there were still outstanding issues with Mann. in 2019 documents revealed that Roel Pieper had an outstanding debt of 19 million euros and that assets in the Netherlands were being seized. This investment was done with non-collateral US$150 million credit of Russian Sviaz-bank or Svyaz-Bank (). The Russian newspaper Vedomosti reported that this credit became later an object of an investigation in Russia, of which Pieper was not a part. At the same time he was fighting to save Eclipse, Pieper was investing tens of millions of dollars in a Russian technology to extract diesel fuel from coal. The Coal to Liquid project is on