Ernest
San Antonio,#2Consumer Suggestion
Tue, March 10, 2009
Kelly's case has moved forward and the court has appointed a Receiver. The Fund filed a motion asking the court to allow the Leaseholders, as Resort Management Group (RMG), to serve as a Special Master to assist the court in the collection, administration and distribution of restitution to victims. Resort Management Group's board of Directors is made up of leaseholders who have vested interests in recovering all the money Kelly defrauded from the leaseholders and protecting the leaseholders' vested interests. The Leaseholders, as a Special Master, have an interest in holding down the costs, unlike a Special Master with no personal investment but who has a financial interest and would generate massive fees for attorneys and other professionals at the cost to Kelly's victims. On December 19, 2008 the court granted the Fund's motion appointing RMG and then the Court, without explanation, amended its Order on December 22, 2008 and appointed Mr. Doetsch of Mayer & Brown as Special Master I believe that the Fund's Motion laid out to the court the Leaseholders' concerns of a Receiver victimizing them like other fraud victims in other cases. Judge Guzman pointed to another case before him, which is like Kelly's case, with assets all over the world and admits that it has been ongoing at a very high cost for eight years. Judge Guzman stated: "The nightmare scenario in this type of case for those of us who are on the public servants' side of this case is for a million dollars in fees to expended from the assets of forfeitable property and no results be obtained for the allegedly defrauded investors. That's a nightmare scenario. That has happened in the past. It's also true in these cases, the dollars to investors is usually pennies. Usually pennies and nobody can predict or guarantee that such a thing won't happen in this case." The record shows that, of all of the other candidates, the court believed Doetsch had the best combination of assets in terms of expertise, specialized expertise and real estate transactions in Mexico. The court stated that its concern was that even if the cost is higher the overall costs would be less because it would take less time to get things up and running. The cost of the attorneys and support staff will be at a blended cost of $465 an hour. This means that regardless of who does the work, one hour of work is at that rate. Everyone should be aware that if you call Mr. Doetsch's group to ask questions or complain the call will cost everyone money, a 15 minute call will cost $116.25! Furthermore, the cost of the Special Master's team is as follows: $400 and $300 an hour for the Mexican attorneys; Panamanian Counsel $250, $225, and $175 per hour; Financial Consulting FTI senior managing director $710; managing director $625; director $520; senior consultant $380 and other consultant $255; claims processing senior managing consultant $325; senior consultant $255 to $275; and team members consultant $165 to $245. Stenger & Stenger, the group the Judge mentioned who has been working on a case like Kelly's for eight years and was appointed as second claims processor, will paid up to $300 per hour. The Court ordered Kelly to pay $1,000,000 to fund the initial phase of the restitution plan which includes the Receivership fees and to transfer $5.4 million from the sale of Hazama Corp Desarrollos, the owner of Pok ta Pok golf course, to the Receiver within one week of the Receiver's request. This money will not be used to pay the victims, it is to pay the Receivership costs first. For more information go to www.ipfund1.com