Adelphia Communications Corp. creditors asked a judge last week to cap the legal costs claimed by Bank of America Corp. and other banks in the bankruptcy case, saying they have wasted some of the $100 million already paid by the company.
The Greenwood Village-based company shouldn’t have to pay any more legal fees to the banks under loan agreements signed before its 2002 bankruptcy filing, the cable operator’s committee of unsecured creditors said.
“The banks cannot be allowed the unfettered discretion they believe they have had,” David Friedman, an attorney for the creditors, said in papers filed last week in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York.
“The banks to date have wasted an enormous amount of money, incurring fees that are not reasonable,” the filing said.
The creditor panel sued more than 400 banks in July 2003, alleging they helped Adelphia founder John Rigas defraud the company of more than $5 billion. The suit claims the primary engines for the fraud were syndicated loans drawn on by both Adelphia and private Rigas companies.
The lawsuit is pending.
Rigas, 81, was convicted of federal fraud charges in July 2004.
