Dec. 2—The owner of United Furniture Industries has gone silent and can't be reached even by company board members or bankers, according to a report by the New York Post. His disappearance comes after he reportedly counteracted a board plan to save the company instead of laying off some 2,700 workers in overnight emails and text messages.

The New York Post reports that David Belford, a wealthy Ohio businessman, has kept mum since the layoffs of his entire workforce in Mississippi, North Carolina and California in the days before Thanksgiving — despite efforts by lenders and lawyers representing axed workers to reach UFI, according to multiple sources.

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"No one has heard from the owner. He's not returning anyone's phone calls. It's such a horrible situation," one source with knowledge of the situation told The Post.

The Post said it made several attempts to contact Belford.

Philip Hearn, an attorney who has filed one of three federal lawsuits against the company, told the Post that their were rumors Belford had left the country.

According to the Post, the United board held an emergency meeting on Nov. 20 and made a decision to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. But the next day, Belford nixed the plan, Hearn told the Post.

"Belford said 'We are not going forward with a Chapter 11,'" Hearn said. "It sounds like the management team came up with a plan to save the company and Belford said, 'That's a wrap — not doing it.'"

Belford's silence has left UFI's lenders and a handful of people close to the company scrambling to figure out what to do with its assets, leases and jilted employees, sources told The Post.

Despite the company's dire situation, it has not filed for bankruptcy protection or liquidation. Belford is the only person with the authority to make legal decisions, a source with knowledge of the situation told The Post.

"He irresponsibly shut down his company without advance notice to anyone," the source said. "And he has the means to do this the right way."

Officially, UFI blamed "unforeseen business circumstances" for the layoffs, but privately Belford is pointing a finger at the company's lenders, which include Wells Fargo, Hearn alleged.

Wells Fargo told The Post it had no inkling of Belford's decision.

"Wells Fargo was saddened to learn of the abrupt shutdown of United Furniture Industries, Inc. and its affiliated companies ("UFI")," the bank said in a statement to The Post. "Once notified of the company owner's decision, we immediately reached out to UFI's senior leadership to address the consequences of the actions taken by the company's owner and support its employees."

UFI was highly leveraged and needed additional capital, sources tell The Post.

One fired human resource worker, Bill Burke — who was hired three weeks before the mass layoffs — continues to field questions from frantic workers about how to get new health care insurance. UFI had given him a company cell phone that hasn't been disconnected.

"I'm answering it from my home," Burke told The Post. "My future is just as uncertain as everyone else's."

The roots of United were planted in 1983 in north Mississippi with the opening of Comfort Furniture.

In 2000, United Furniture was created with the merger of Comfort Furniture, Parkhill Furniture and United Chair. By December 2008, United Furniture received the exclusive licensing agreement as the U.S. manufacturer of Simmons Upholstery.

In August 2015, Simmons Case Goods was added to the United Furniture product lines. That allowed United to include coordinated upholstery and case goods under the Simmons brand.

United purchased the Lane brand in 2017 from Heritage Home Group LLC for an undisclosed sum. Lane, which was founded in 1912 in Virginia and merged with Tupelo-based Action Industries in 1972, was once one of Northeast Mississippi's largest employers.

Lane was a part of Furniture Brand International, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2013. Most of the assets of Furniture Brands was bought by KPS Capital Partners for $280 million, and in the aftermath, Heritage Home Group was formed.