A federal judge ruled on Friday that the public trustee in Alice Rogoff’s Alaska Dispatch News bankruptcy case may hire a Seattle legal firm with expertise in recovering assets, the Alaska Journal of Commerce. Bankruptcy Judge Gary Spraker didn’t buy into an argument by Rogoff’s attorney that such a move would be a wasted expense. Public trustee Nacole Jipping is obligated to examine the affairs and records of Alaska Dispatch News LLC and requires special legal expertise to do so, her attorney, William Artus, had argued in asking Spraker’s permission to hire extra counsel. “To suggest the distribution would be smaller if (another attorney is hired) is not sufficient basis, or any basis for that matter, to not employ special counsel,” Spraker said in response to Rogoff’s bankruptcy attorney, Cabot Christianson, who argued extensively in written and oral arguments against hiring Bush Kornfeld of Seattle. Christianson claimed that Rogoff would be the recipient of 88 percent of any money recovered during the chapter 7 process because she is owed $16.6 million in “loans” she claims to have made to the Alaska Dispatch News. Therefore, she would see the biggest losses in a lower monetary recovery after contingency fees are paid out.
