Legal trouble in Alaska: How attornies screw up

(ANCHORAGE, AK) Oct. 4-When I got the call from Rob Kane that lawyer Paul Stockler had settled with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Anchorage I was amused. Stockler was sued by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court trustee for records of his expenditures while working for Mark Avery.

Stockler had been handling finances for Mark Avery while he owned and ran Security Aviation. As such he had access to millions of dollars of Avery's money, and had the power to write checks and pay accounts. According to court documents Stockler had paid off millions in debt before Avery filed Chapter 11.

A glitch in this case is that Kane has been implicated and in some cases denied being a "real" creditor of the court because the trustee believes that Stockler and Kane worked together to steal money from Avery.

According to Kane, Stockler was supposed to pay him but re-routed several hundred thousand dollars of Kane's to the U.S. Bankruptcy court, when Avery filed for Chapter 11.

Later I received a stack of papers that showed that Stockler had e-traded millions of dollars in stocks over the Internet, and lost plenty. Where did the money come from? His interest in a bar in downtown Anchorage. I don't think so.

Now he is settling with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court Trustee, and why? What does he have to loose?

Being able to practice law in Alaska that's what.

Where does this leave Kane?

We will see as his case is coming up in November, and his attorneys think that that no one has ever proved in court that he is guilty of coercion with Stockler, or has planned, or executed illegal dealings.

Kane is irritated with Stockler because he never paid money owed to him for jobs he did for Avery.

Time will tell.