New filing shows Slutty Vegan founder Pinky Cole is $4 million in debt
TheGrio...
When Pinky Cole first filed in February, she reported owing around $1.4 million.
A new court filing from Slutty Vegan founder Pinky Cole claims that she is $4 million in debt.
The Atlanta Business Chronicle, which first broke the news that Cole filed for bankruptcy in February, reported that the amended claim comes after Cole hired a bankruptcy attorney, Jamie Christy of Schreeder, Wheeler & Flint, after originally filing without legal counsel. The 37-year-old entrepreneur reported the new total on May 19.
When Cole filed initially, court documents said she owed $1.2 million to the U.S. Small Business Administration, and an additional $192,000 to the Georgia Department of Revenue. Now the updated filing shows that she also owes $82,000 in credit card expenses, $107,625 to a restaurant supply store called Edward Don & Company, $363,399 in unpaid rent, and $250,000 to an Atlanta-based investment company called CIH Group.
Edward Don & Company is also suing Cole, alleging in a complaint from October 2025 that she owes the $107,625 shown in her current filing, plus an additonal $27,810 in attorney’s fees and interest accumulated on her account.
The news of Cole’s bankruptcy filing broke after Bravo announced that she was joining the cast of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta.” Cole addressed her decision on the show, saying that she was the personal guarantor for all things tied to her business, meaning she had to eat every lawsuit that affected the company.
She also said that her former chief financial officer, Aaron Mattinson, is partly at fault for her current financial situation. Mattison was indicted on several felony charges, including theft, forgery, and money laundering, earlier this month, in connection with a former restaurant of Cole’s called Bar Vegan.
The Slutty Vegan started as an Atlanta food truck in 2018 and quickly expanded into a chain of restaurants in multiple states. Cole explained in an interview with “The Breakfast Club” that the business’s rapid growth ultimately harmed it.
“As a result, we got $20 million in debt,” she told “The Breakfast Club.” “Yes, we were making money, double-digit millions, but if your payroll is high and you have all of these costs and everything is adding up, your bottom line is going to be red.”
The bankruptcy filing also comes a year after Cole almost lost her business in February 2025, but was able to repurchase it in March of that year after transferring ownership for 40 days through a process called assignment for the benefit of creditors, or an ABC. She also closed multiple Slutty Vegan locations to put herself in a position to buy the company back.