U.S. Unit of Maclaren, a Stroller Maker, Is in Bankruptcy For years, Maclaren strollers have carried babies - along with a certain prestige - on the sidewalks of well-heeled neighborhoods from Park Slope to Palo Alto. But in late 2009, Maclaren's cachet was damaged when a million of its strollers were recalled after the fingers of 12 children were amputated on the hinges of its foldable model. Now the company has taken another hit. The United States unit of Maclaren has filed for bankruptcy, and among the creditors are seven families whose children were injured and had filed lawsuits, as well as one of the company's lead designers. Farzad Rastegar, the owner of Maclaren, did not return numerous calls seeking comment, nor did Bevin Gove, the global head of public relations. Bahman Kia, listed on the bankruptcy filing as Maclaren's chairman, said he was no longer affiliated with the company and declined to comment further. The Maclaren unit has filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which means that it plans to liquidate the business. Maclaren has a complex corporate structure, with separate entities in Europe and Hong Kong. A North American division was set up two years ago. On Friday, Maclaren products remained for sale on numerous Web sites, and the Maclaren showroom in the Soho neighborhood in Manhattan remained open for business. A clerk answering the telephone said he knew nothing about the bankruptcy. The filing by Maclaren, which has its headquarters in Norwalk, Conn., was made in Federal Bankruptcy Court in Connecticut on Dec. 29. But the news began surfacing on several popular parenting blogs, like daddytype.com and babygizmo.com, only at the end of last month. "The corporate behavior here seems out of step with my perceptions of the Maclaren brand as a parent," said Greg Allen, the founder and publisher of Daddy Types. Bankruptcy lawyers said that the filing was unusual in several respects. Because Mr. Rastegar appears to control Maclaren globally, it is unusual to put just one division of a company into a Chapter 7 liquidation. Many of the creditors in the Maclaren case also appear to be individuals and entities associated with the company's principals. Maclaren owes the company's Chinese affiliate, Maclaren (HK) Limited, about $13 million. Another $1.6 million is owned to Mr. Rastegar himself or to companies affiliated with him. In its bankruptcy filing, Maclaren USA, whose corporate name is American Baby Products, says that it has just $45,413 in assets and $15.9 million in liabilities. "The bankruptcy filing has raised some red flags that the trustee believes merit some further investigating," said Elizabeth J. Austin of Pullman & Comley in Bridgeport, Conn., the proposed counsel for the bankruptcy trustee assigned to the case. Among the largest creditors of Maclaren is the Netto Collection, which is owed $1.1 million, according to bankruptcy court records. David Netto, the collection's founder and a well-known interior designer for the New York socialite and Hollywood sets, had designed a successful line of high-end baby cribs and changing tables that retail for about $1,500 each. The products gained popularity when celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow and Christy Turlington used the furniture for their children's nurseries. In 2009, as part of a push to extend its brand beyond strollers, Maclaren acquired the Netto Collection and made Mr. Netto creative director of Maclaren Nursery. "I feel a sense of disbelief that I worked for people for three years who would treat me this way," said Mr. Netto, who resigned from his post this week. Maclaren was founded in Britain by Owen Maclaren, who pioneered the lightweight, collapsible baby buggy in the mid-1960s. Mr. Rastegar, an Iranian-born businessman, acquired Maclaren in the late 1990s after it had been in the British equivalent of bankruptcy. In 2009, the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced that Maclaren USA was recalling all its single and double umbrella strollers, about a million in all, because the hinge mechanism posed a hazard as it was unfolding. At that time, there were 15 reported incidents where a child's finger was caught in the hinge, resulting in 12 fingertip amputations. As of last year, there were 149 reported incidents and five more amputations. A free repair kit remains available for affected strollers. Caroline Poxon, of Long Island, said she and her husband were shopping in April 2009 and tried to put their 2-year-old son, Matthew, in their Maclaren stroller. When she went to lock the stroller, Matthew's finger got caught in the hinge. "He was screaming and I panicked, and I had to unlock the stroller to get his finger out," she said. The top of his finger was hanging off, the tip. They rushed Matthew to a hospital, where doctors were able to sew the top of his finger back on. The Poxons sued Maclaren. "A stroller should not be able to amputate a child's finger," Ms. Poxon said. I bought a Maclaren because it's supposed to be the safest. Her lawyer, Andrew Siben, said that the Poxons" case should be covered by insurance, but that the bankruptcy would most likely delay its conclusion. In an article that he wrote for The Harvard Business Review last year, Mr. Rastegar, who lives in Weston, Conn., said his company had intended to issue a news release about the recall but The Daily News of New York reported it first. Maclaren was not prepared for the onslaught of calls from concerned parents, and its system crashed. In hindsight, wrote Mr. Rastegar, he should have been more available for media interviews to quell concerns. "We were like athletes forced to play the big game a day early - in the rain," he wrote.