A federal judge has approved the $1.9 million request for legal and professional fees for work done overseeing ski resorts and other seized properties in an investor fraud case in northern Vermont.
Michael Goldberg, the court appointed receiver put in charge of the Jay Peak and Burke Mountain resorts, made the fee request in a filing last month. He wrote that the $1.9 million represented the bills accumulated from the time the resorts were seized by the federal government in April through Oct. 31.
Judge Darrin P. Gayles, in a two-page order issued late Tuesday afternoon, granted that request.
The judge called the receivership “complex,” involving numerous entities at the center of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s investor fraud lawsuit against Jay Peak’s owner Ariel Quiros and the resort’s former CEO, Bill Stenger.
“The professionals have provided valuable services, including locating additional funds for the receivership estate, disposing of assets, and negotiating settlements — all to the benefit of the investors and creditors,” Gayles wrote.
“In addition,” the order stated, “the professionals have operated and maintained a large ski resort, working for months without pay and at significantly reduced rates.”
The money to pay the fees is expected to come from a recently approved $13.3 million settlement between the receiver and Citibank, a financial institution Quiros had used to take out a line of credit.
The judge on Tuesday awarded $1,883,900 in attorney and professional fees as well as $69,566 for reimbursement of expenses. That totals $1,953,466 for the work put into stabilizing the resorts that were on the brink of bankruptcy.