U.S. District Court rules that accounting firm can halt unsuccessful
efforts to contact 16 descendants of Armenian Genocide victims
Wednesday, December 12, 12:57
A U.S. District Court judge ruled this week that an accounting firm
can halt what so far have been unsuccessful efforts to contact 16
descendants of Armenian Genocide victims who are due payouts from an
insurance fund, Glendale News-Press reports.
Judge Christina Snyder said the numerous attempts by Holthouse,
Carlin, and Van Trigt to reach out to the final batch of 159 claimants
had been sufficient.
There is less than $500,000 left in the settlement account, according
to the latest status report filed in court.
Snyder also ruled that the attorneys working on the case – Mark
Geragos, Brian Kabateck and Roman Silberfeld – can spend up to $15,000
to continue trying to contact the non-responsive
To that end, Snyder ruled that all settlement money set aside by
French insurer Axa S.A. shall remain in the compensation fund.
Snyder also ruled that the money due to four claimants who have since
died should be paid to their descendants so long as they can prove
they are heirs.
Snyder also ordered banks that handled past settlement transactions to
hand over various forms and documents to see if any fraudulent
transactions have occurred.
The request comes in the wake of questionable financial activities
involving Los Angeles attorney Berj Boyajian, who endorsed 17 checks
totaling more than $312,000 that were made payable to compensation
claimants.
He then deposited them into an account called Boyajian and Associates
at Union Bank.
The original lawsuit stems from allegations made by Glendale-based
attorneyVartkes Yeghiayan that there were accounting discrepancies in
the fund set up by Axa S.A.
He had initially requested an audit of all 3,000 claims.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
