The bankruptcy judge overseeing the Fair Finance Co. case is scheduled to hear proposals this morning in Akron asking for reimbursement of about $1.7 million in legal and professional fees and expenses of about $1.8 million from the money recovered so far.
The largest request, for $1.34 million, is from the Cleveland offices of law firm Baker & Hostetler, where Fair Finance trustee Brian Bash and his legal team work.
Beachwood forensic accountant Howard L. Klein Co. is asking for more than $309,000.
Akron-area lawyer Michael Moran, who with David Mucklow initiated the Fair Finance bankruptcy proceeding in 2010, is seeking $74,720.
The bills, submitted this year to bankruptcy court, are for 2010 expenses only.
The hearing before Chief Judge Marilyn Shea-Stonum is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Seiberling federal building, 2 S. Main St.
If Shea-Stonum approves the bills as submitted, that would leave about $100,000 remaining in what has been recovered so far.
Trustee Bash has said that there could be as much as $78.5 million in assets to recover and distribute to investors.
About 5,300 Ohio residents and organizations, primarily in Northeast Ohio, bought more than $200 million in uninsured investment certificates from Fair Finance.
Akron-based financial services firm Fair Finance was forced into bankruptcy in February 2010 after FBI raids on its offices just before Thanksgiving 2009.
The company’s Indiana co-owners, Timothy Durham and James Cochran, along with Chief Financial Officer Rick Snow, have been arrested and are awaiting trial in Indianapolis on federal charges that they operated Fair Finance as a Ponzi scheme. Durham and Cochran bought Fair Finance in early 2002 from the Fair family, which had been running the business for decades.
Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com.
