FAI founder's wife agrees to inspection of records she took

CHESAPEAKE

The court-appointed receiver for Financing Alternatives Inc. said Wednesday that the wife of the company's founder agreed to an inspection of documents and records she took from the business earlier this year.

During a hearing in Chesapeake Circuit Court on Wednesday, Paul K. Campsen, who has taken over FAI's operations, told Judge Randall Smith that Michele Christian will allow him to go through the information after Jan. 1.

Christian took the documents in October, days before Smith order ed Campsen to take control of the business.

The Virginia Attorney General's Office sued FAI in July, charging the company with cheating thousands of consumers nationwide who paid millions of dollars

for computers and flat-panel television sets but didn't receive them as promised.

Christian, wife of company founder George H. Christian, had refused to turn over FAI's financial records and e-mails to Campsen. She contends that she is a secured creditor of the company with a lien against its assets, giving her the right to collect the documents.

During the hearing, representatives of Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell said the agreement was acceptable. There was no one in court representing the Christians.

Smith agreed Wednesday to pay Campsen about $45,000 for his work as receiver through the end of November, he said. The Attorney General's Office will cover his bill with almost $80,000 recovered from the company's bank accounts and by collecting other money owed to the company, Campsen said.

Campsen said he and the state may sue Christian for transferring nearly $850,000 worth of FAI's assets, including $150,000 in cash, before the judge froze those assets in early October. "At some point, we are going to explore that option," he said.

He and the Attorney General's Office also are looking into filing a contempt charge against her husband. The FAI founder cut a lock on a company-leased storage unit and put it in his own name, Campsen said.

Janette Rodrigues, (757) 222-5208, janette.rodrigues@pilotonline.com