Official in Seán Dunne case seeks $147,000

The official overseeing the US bankruptcy of property developer Seán Dunne has asked a Connecticut court for permission to pay his legal firm a further $147,000, bringing to more than $310,000 the amount paid in fees to his practice.

In a fifth request for the payment of fees, Mr Dunne’s trustee Richard Coan sought the court’s approval for compensation and fees covering 372.5 hours of work carried out by his firm, Coan Lewendon, Gulliver & Miltenberger in Connecticut between July 2015 and May 2016.

The bankruptcy proceedings have been before US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Connecticut since March 2013 when the Co Carlow developer filed for bankruptcy unable to repay debts of $942 million due to the property crash, including hundreds of millions of euro to the State’s National Asset Management Agency.

Application

Mr Coan said that during the period covered by the fee application he had co-operated with Mr Dunne’s Irish bankruptcy office, official assignee Christopher Lehane, commenced and prosecuted litigation against the developer’s wife, former newspaper gossip columnist

Gayle Killilea

, and protected the right of the bankruptcy estates to a property at Milbank Avenue in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Mr Dunne was adjudicated a bankrupt in the Irish courts four months after he filed for bankruptcy in the US on an application by Ulster Bank, one of his biggest creditors.

He is vigorously contesting the case taken by his bankruptcy officials to have the multimillion dollar asset transfers to Ms Killilea reversed.

Hourly rate

One of the country’s biggest developers during the boom years, Mr Dunne told creditors at a meeting that in 2005 he agreed to transfer €100 million, about a fifth of his fortune at the time, to his wife in exchange for “love and affection.”

Mr Coan told the court last week that he and his law partner Timothy Miltenberger each charge an hourly rate of $400. Another attorney at the firm who assists with work on Mr Dunne's complex bankruptcy case charges $250 per hour.

Bankruptcy Judge Alan Shiff has already granted interim compensation and fees in the amounts of $59,369, $42,796, $22,875 and $37,437 from 2013 to 2015.

A hearing will be held on July 13th in New Haven, Connecticut to consider the proposed payment of the latest set of fees relating to Mr Dunne’s bankruptcy.