The Bonneville Pacific scandal has apparently cost the husband of Salt Lake Mayor Deedee Corradini his job.
Yan Ross left the law firm of LeBoeuf, Lamb, Leiby & MaCrae after a belated discovery of Ross' and Corradini's involvement with Bonneville Pacific cost the firm at least $51,000 in legal fees.Ross has joined the recently reorganized firm of Anderson & Wat-kins.
Ross' departure from the LeBoeuf firm is no surprise to the Salt Lake legal community, which has been rife with rumors of Ross' departure since June.
Firm spokesman Ralph Mabey declined to say whether Ross was asked to leave the firm or whether his departure was linked to the lost fees and embarrassment to the firm.
"It's the firm's policy not to comment on internal matters," Mabey said.
Ross, too, declined comment through his attorney Harold Chris-ten-sen.
The costly incident with Ross and LeBoeuf began in January 1992. The LeBoeuf firm hired on as counsel for Bonneville Pacific's creditors at that time. First, the firm conducted a required check with its attorneys to see if any had involvement with Bonneville Pacific that could prevent the firm taking the case.
The firm assured the court in its application that it had conferred with all of its attorneys - including Ross - and found no conflict that would keep the firm from taking the case.
In the January application, Mabey noted that Ross had once owned 10,593 shares of Bonneville Pacific stock but had sold the shares. The memo also stated that Corradini owned less than 1 percent of the company and was once a director of a Bonneville Pacific subsidiary. However, that was the extent of the couple's involvement, the document says.
But in April, rumors began circulating that a pending bankruptcy examiner's report on Bonneville Pacific mentioned Corradini in questionable transactions with the company.
Mabey said last year that he talked with bankruptcy examiner Alan V. Funk and learned that Corradini and possibly Ross were more heavily involved with Bonneville Pacific than Ross had told Mabey. He met with Ross to discuss the matter. In May, Mabey filed a memo with the court outlining Cor-ra-dini's and Ross' more extensive involvement with Bonneville Pacific. Mabey's memo said that an off-shore company called Sallah International once held the mortgage on the couple's home, had made a $149,000 loan to the couple and another loan of $50,000 to Cor-ra-dini.
But Mabey still believed the couple's involvement would not affect the firm's ability to fairly represent Bonneville Pacific's clients, he said in the second document. As a precaution, he assured U.S. Bankruptcy Judge John H. Allen that Ross would have nothing to do with the firm's work on the case.
However, the bankruptcy examiner's report that came out a few weeks later suggested that money for Corradini's loans and travel expenses really belonged to Bonneville Pacific shareholders. He reported that Corradini and former officers of the company used Sallah International to personally profit from Bonneville Pacific.
The LeBoeuf firm abruptly resigned from the case. The firm had earlier filed a request to be paid $51,000 for legal work the firm did on the case. The money would have come from the estate of the bankrupt company.
The firm withdrew the request for the $51,000 and failed to file subsequent fee applications for work it had already done on the case. The firm had already been paid $64,000 for earlier work.
After the couple's involvement with Bonneville Pacific broke, the LeBoeuf firm reportedly conducted its own investigation into the matter. However, Mabey also declined to discuss that.
"It's the firm's policy not to comment further," Mabey said when asked about the investigation.
The LeBoeuf firm is a Salt Lake office of a New York City law firm.