OC Gets Final Bankruptcy Payout , From the IRS
OC INSIDER by Rick Reiff
Seven and a half years after Orange County filed for bankruptcy and six years after it returned to solvency, the bankruptcy case is finally, officially ending. The last dispute, over whether the federal government was entitled to collect taxes on settlement payments to cities, school districts, etc., was settled when the IRS agreed to turn over the impounded funds plus interest. The resulting $6 million and change should be distributed by July among some 200 government entities that lost money with Bob Citron, minus a roughly $95,000 cut for former state treasurer Tom Hayes, the county’s court-appointed negotiator. All told, the county netted about $870 million in settlements with Wall Street (roughly half of it from Merrill Lynch), leaving a ballpark $700 million of unrecovered losses, plus another $100 million or so in bankruptcy related professional fees and financing costs. But Citron had earned roughly that much in above-market gains before his scheme soured. So you could say that for all the anguish, the county pretty much broke even. Erstwhile public servant Hayes, whose deal entitled him to 1.5% of everything he was able to recoup above the first $200 million, winds up grossing about $10 million. Hayes said he recently resigned as president (No. 2) of LA-based investment firm Metropolitan West, where he remains on the advisory board: “I’ve formed a little LLC and I’m doing some project work and I sit on some boards and I’m the trustee of a bankrupt insurance trust.” Hayes said the OC debacle, like the current Enron fiasco, stemmed from poor financial management: “Will it happen again? Sure, it will happen again because most people find the basics of the financial control system too boring,but it probably won’t happen again in Orange County”
EE RR thanks family, friends and colleagues for putting up with his whimpering over turning 50
Also just-turned 50: Identical twins and popular Las Vegas casino operatives Dan and Dana Napier. Dan, assistant VP of marketing for the MGM Grand, celebrated at the Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel
Wedding bells are ringing Aug. 10 for young lawyers (law school students) Michael Penn and Ashleigh Aitken (daughter of old lawyer Wylie Aitken). “It was very L.A.,our hairdresser set us up,” says Penn, referring to Madeline Gomez in Tustin
The Insider hears that Golf Digest editor Ron Whitten is looking over Shady Canyon GC as a candidate for the “Best New Private Golf Course” award, TBA in the January 2003 issue … 25th anniversary: Steve Churm of Churm Publishing (OC Metro) and wife Cinda
Assemblyman Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana) has been named Legislator of the Year by the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce
After nearly three years in Europe studying, teaching and writing, former OCBJ reporter Matt Padilla is back, along with Lucia Rizzo, who he met in Madrid and married. They’re job hunting
Stop the presses: “The color that your gym is painted can help, or hurt, your ability to lose fat,” says a press release from Daniel Campbell of World Gym in Lake Forest.
