A bankruptcy court-appointed investigator looking into accounting issues at Irvine’s New Century Financial Corp. said delays getting documents and interviews will push his report back two months to March.
Michael Missal, a partner with Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis LLP’s Washington, D.C., office, was appointed as examiner in the case by Delaware’s bankruptcy court in June.
He’s investigating what caused New Century to have to restate its 2006 financial statements, as well as the company’s handling of its cash after it filed for bankruptcy in April.
Missal had been scheduled to file his report this month.
He blamed New Century’s foot-dragging in turning over documents, including hundreds of thousands of e-mails, according to an Associated Press report.
KPMG, New Century’s former auditor, also resisted and handed over material only in response to subpoenas, according to the AP report.
The accounting firm recently handed over 400,000 pages and still has not come up with all the documents Missal wants to see, he said in a court filing.
Missal said he plans to interview New Century executives this month. He’s had to use subpoenas to get documents and interviews, Missal said.
The examiner earlier finished a report on New Century’s handling of cash after its bankruptcy filing.
On Wednesday, the judge overseeing New Century’s case rejected the company’s bid to keep the results of the cash handling report sealed indefinitely.
Judge Kevin Carey called the company’s arguments a “smoke screen” and gave it until Feb. 6 to come to terms with federal bankruptcy monitors, who have called for the report to made public.
