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Cahn's 3rd Bill, This One for December Only, $112,677.60
Friday, June 18 2010 @ 10:29 PM EDT

Here it is, SCO's Ch. 11 trustee Edward Cahn's third bill for Blank Rome, covering only the month of December of 2009, for $112,677.60, self-described as actual, reasonable and necessary, 80% of the actual bill for $140,847.00. For a single month. Well, you may say, litigation costs. Dearly. Yes, which is a good reason not to pursue pipe dreams. Oh, add on $7,019.45 for expenses. Because, let's be real, bankruptcy court isn't about getting the creditors one flat dime, is it? That's my observation after watching Delaware at work.

Here's the bill and all the ancillaries for you to examine:

06/18/2010 - 1128 - Third Application for Compensation of Blank Rome LLP for the period December 1, 2009 to December 31, 2009 Filed by Blank Rome LLP. Objections due by 7/8/2010. (Attachments: # 1 Notice # 2 Exhibit A # 3 Exhibit B # 4 Certificate of Service) (Fatell, Bonnie) (Entered: 06/18/2010)

I suggest your fine-toothed comb. What I notice is that most of the hours, 159.4 out of 290, were for running the business, such as it is, according to Exhibit A, page 3. If Cahn had opted to shut down the business instead of pursuing the crazy litigation, may I assume that would mean these expenses would not be showing up? If so, it's a crying shame. I warned him not to rely just on what the lawyers told him, but no one listens to little old me. Even though I'm usually proven right. It's very frustrating. Their total billing so far is enough to pay back Novell and the other creditors a nice little chunk, even if it's not the whole amount. And something is better than nothing.

Novell is hoping Emily will wake him up shortly and tell him he was having a bad dream.

Update: I should take a break and let you guys find things. I read the entry on page 6 of Exhibit A for a second as "scam and efile" OPA's bill instead of "scan and efile". Yup. Time for a little break. I'll stop back by in a bit after some ice cream.

But one quick thing. What do you suppose this means on page 12?

Dec 15 09 REVIEW VARIOUS MEMOS AND WEB REPORTS REGARDING SCO ACTIVITY - Fatell - 0.30
I wonder if they'd rather not say the "G" word. That was the time period, though, when Groklaw began publishing, beginning on December 12th, our series "Answering SCO Bit by Bit." The next day, she did the same, review news articles about SCO. I sincerely hope she read it and understood it, even if only after the fact. The next day, you see there was a strategy meeting. And they went on to do the Yarro loan, so after the fact is as good as it can get.

A little less strategy and a little more practical application of lessons learned would be nice.

And I see an engineer quit on December 21. That's on page 14.


  


Cahn's 3rd Bill, This One for December Only, $112,677.60 | 265 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
And what happened then?
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, June 18 2010 @ 10:46 PM EDT
For only charging such a paltry amount during the holiday season, in SCOville
they say that the Cahn's small heart grew three sizes that day. And then - the
true meaning of Christmas came through, and the Cahn found the strength of *ten*
Cahns, plus two!

[ Reply to This | # ]

Corrections here
Authored by: alisonken1 on Friday, June 18 2010 @ 11:14 PM EDT
Change subject to what correction is:

Sujbect -> Subject

And make notes in the comments for larger changes or hints

---
- Ken -
import std_disclaimer.py
Registered Linux user^W^WJohn Doe #296561
Slackin' since 1993
http://www.slackware.com

[ Reply to This | # ]

Off topic
Authored by: alisonken1 on Friday, June 18 2010 @ 11:16 PM EDT
Anything not related to this.

Remember HTML mode and clickies.

Use the notes below the comment box for valid markup.

---
- Ken -
import std_disclaimer.py
Registered Linux user^W^WJohn Doe #296561
Slackin' since 1993
http://www.slackware.com

[ Reply to This | # ]

News pick comments here
Authored by: alisonken1 on Friday, June 18 2010 @ 11:19 PM EDT
Be sure to make note of which newspick you're commenting on since they can
scroll off rather quickly.

---
- Ken -
import std_disclaimer.py
Registered Linux user^W^WJohn Doe #296561
Slackin' since 1993
http://www.slackware.com

[ Reply to This | # ]

Cahn's 3rd Bill, This One for December Only, $112,677.60
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, June 18 2010 @ 11:34 PM EDT
PJ, Cahn and Blank Rome are making a nice piece of change from this deal. They have no reason whatsoever to shut down this crazy litigation machine. While I don't doubt Fatell and others have read Groklaw, and likely realize they don't even have a pair of deuces in their hand to win this insanity, as long as they can keep billing, they'll keep this game up.

It appears being a Chapter 11 trustee is very like being a state-appointed estate executor. Very lucrative, and I've heard the executors usually drain the estate, leaving little or nothing for the real heirs. That is why a will is so important for an estate of any value, it's the only way to prevent such a scam. Cahn is simply following the same pattern with the assistance of the Delaware BK court.

Thanks to the BK court, the Nazgul can do nothing, nor can MoFo. Judge Gross listens only to Cahn now, no one else. SCO certainly knew what they were doing when they went into Chapter 11 in Delaware. However, with the crushing defeat of SCO in Utah, the game is over. The FUD really went THUD this time, and I know of no one who pays attention to SCO's ludicrous claims any longer (I know plenty of people).

I hate the fact that Novell and IBM have to continue burning time and money on this nonsense. But, whoever is bankrolling this from the other side is no longer getting their money's worth. In fact, I would guess any further efforts on their part is a serious waste of funds. So, let them burn up their resources on what is now an ineffective assault on Linux and FOSS. The irony is Cahn is taking them for a ride as well.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Cahn's 3rd Bill, This One for December Only, $112,677.60
Authored by: Gringo on Friday, June 18 2010 @ 11:45 PM EDT

Reveiwing items on the bill, I saw that during that billing period at least - December 2009, there existed an Assent Purchase Agreement with Unixis, as well as a deposit retained from them. I thought that was all dropped some time ago. I wonder if they are seriously in the running to by SCO's Unix business?

[ Reply to This | # ]

Stock options and Utah's Blue Sky Laws
Authored by: Gringo on Friday, June 18 2010 @ 11:53 PM EDT

According to the billings, there was time spent worrying about stock options, and in that context, research of Utah's Blue Sky Laws.

What are Blue Sky Laws? Speculative schemes which have no more basis than so many feet of "blue sky" or, to put it another way, to stop the sale of stock in fly-by-night concerns, visionary oil wells, distant gold mines, and other like fraudulent exploitations.

You wouldn't think a fine corporate citizen like SCO would have anything to worry about in regard to Blue Sky Laws, would you?

[ Reply to This | # ]

Very, very disturbing
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, June 18 2010 @ 11:53 PM EDT
I find it extremely disturbing that an attorney from Blank-Rome was reading
Groklaw *before* they went to court.

This means that they were fully aware that they had no case to bring against IBM
or users of Linux, but that they tried to trick the court system to give them
Unix copyrights anyway. This cynical action on the part of the bankruptcy
trustee destroys any reasonable basis for confidence in our bankruptcy system.

It essentially means that the bankruptcy trustee was intent upon defrauding
justice.

The bankruptcy trustees job is to protect the *estate*, not to attempt a swindle
like some two bit crook. Unfortunately, the bankruptcy judge has been
protecting the bankruptcy trustees back all the way to this dead end.

[ Reply to This | # ]

p 21 X/Open motion to reconsider
Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, June 19 2010 @ 06:05 AM EDT

I don't remember any motions from X/Open.

Open Group did appear in the later asset sale docs.

Maybe this is referring to Wayne Gray stuff?

[ Reply to This | # ]

Good work if you can get it.
Authored by: SilverWave on Saturday, June 19 2010 @ 07:28 AM EDT
:-(

---
RMS: The 4 Freedoms
0 run the program for any purpose
1 study the source code and change it
2 make copies and distribute them
3 publish modified versions

[ Reply to This | # ]

Cahn's 3rd Bill, This One for December Only, $112,677.60
Authored by: JamesK on Saturday, June 19 2010 @ 07:34 AM EDT
{
I read the entry on page 6 of Exhibit A for a second as "scam and
efile" OPA's bill instead of "scan and efile"
}

I think you had it right the first time. ;-)


---
IANALAIDPOOTV

(I am not a lawyer and I don't play one on TV)

[ Reply to This | # ]

What do you expect from a company called "Blank" Rome?
Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, June 19 2010 @ 09:11 AM EDT
Well, the company's name is its programme: blank. Empty. Fini. Nothing left.
They started with Rome, now they proceed here ...

[ Reply to This | # ]

"most of the hours ... were for running the business"
Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, June 19 2010 @ 12:22 PM EDT
Maybe they should have kept Darl on. It would have been cheaper!

[ Reply to This | # ]

The enginner quit
Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, June 19 2010 @ 04:30 PM EDT
"And I see an engineer quit on December 21."

That's *the* engineer.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Cahn's 3rd Bill, This One for December Only, $112,677.60
Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, June 19 2010 @ 05:22 PM EDT
Of course he would ignore you - keeping it going kept him earning a
"living" for a "lock of months" as they say here in NI

[ Reply to This | # ]

So is SCOXQ.PK going to pay to rest of Novell's converted money?
Authored by: kh on Saturday, June 19 2010 @ 08:13 PM EDT
Give all assets to the original owners, remove excess money by court appointed
trustee firms and put what's left of SCOXQ.PK into Chapter 7?

It all makes you wonder what normally goes on in bankruptcy court. Is this just
normal business in the court?

[ Reply to This | # ]

Heare is what *really* happened to SCO :-)
Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, June 19 2010 @ 09:20 PM EDT
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/murphy/suicide-by-victory-more-on-sco/1832

[ Reply to This | # ]

docs gone from epiq?
Authored by: benw on Sunday, June 20 2010 @ 12:25 AM EDT
The docket is now only listing as far as April 5. What's going on there?

[ Reply to This | # ]

Billing rates
Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, June 20 2010 @ 01:27 AM EDT

You'll see in Exhibit B that billing rates range from $210/hour to $775/hour.

Now, the individual who bills $775/hour is an expert in business restructuring and bankruptcy, a subject of which I know almost nothing, so I can't judge whether the rate is reasonable or not.

But the person who bills $210/hour spent quite a bit of time on "scan and efile documents". Now, I know how to do that. I think that with a bit of training, like maybe 15 minutes, a typical Walmart checkout clerk could do that. I don't think it's reasonable that a task like that should be billed at $210/hour, or even half that rate.

[ Reply to This | # ]

You warned Cahn???
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, June 21 2010 @ 12:33 AM EDT
I believe it's a quite self-centered to believe that Cahn actually reads
anything posted on a small blog.

As for you "usually being proven right" - I'm quite dubious as I'm
still waiting for all those bad things you prophesied that would happen as a
result of the Novell-Microsoft agreement.

As for the IBM-Hercules muck-up - you might want to do a bit of legal research
on the goings-on between IBM and Amdahl back in the 80s: quite relevant and
quite negative to your position.

That case history also goes a long way to giving precedent to Psystar's
position.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Cahn's hours
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, June 21 2010 @ 11:53 AM EDT
One thing I've never been able to figure out is how much time Cahn has been
spending as trustee. He's not shown on Blank Rome's bills. Do we know?

[ Reply to This | # ]

Blank Rome 4th Bill just posted
Authored by: _Arthur on Tuesday, June 22 2010 @ 05:57 PM EDT
Blank Rome's Fourth Bill, covering both January and February, has just been
posted on Epiq. #1129

Almost another quarter of million gone to legal finagling.

The $100K asset sale costed $72K in legal wrangling alone, exclusive of OPA's
cut.

Who could have thunk they'd sell something at a loss ?

[ Reply to This | # ]

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