Summary:
This case involves two bankruptcy cases putatively filed by Melanie Mangum. At a hearing in November 2011, the Trustee raised several concerns regarding that case- First, no Power of Attorney had ever been presented authorizing Ms. Mangum’s husband, Donald Mangum, to represent his wife. The two parties also had several previous bankruptcies. Third, the Trustee had discovered (while reviewing Ms. Mangum’s Facebook statement that she enjoyed spending time at her beach house) that Ms. Mangum had unscheduled real property located at Carolina Beach. Further, Ms. Mangum had never appeared in her prior case, which Mr. Mangum had explained by claiming that she was terminally ill with only a days to live.
As a result, the Trustee searched an found a recorded Power of Attorney for Ms. Mangum, revoking Mr. Mangum’s authority and appointing Melinda Canady as her new attorney-in-fact. The Bankruptcy Administrator then subpoenaed both Mr. And Ms. Mangum, directing them to appear at the BA’s office. Mr. Mangum attempted to contact the Trustee to discuss “terrible mistakes” made in this case, but the Trustee declined to discuss the case until the Magnums complied with the subpoenas.
At hearing, Mr. Mangum testified about the lengths to which he went to file and continue these cases without Ms. Mangum’s knowledge, including signing her name without permission, intercepting mail from the bankruptcy court, lying about her terminal illness, and having another woman impersonate Ms. Mangum on telephone calls with the original attorneys. This was done to prevent foreclosure on their house.
The Bankruptcy Court dismissed both ot Ms. Mangum’s cases ab initio and directed the major credit reporting agencies to expunge the bankruptcies from her credit report. The Bankruptcy Court further barred Mr. Mangum from filing bankruptcy for ten years, from ever assisting in the preparation of a bankruptcy petition for any other individual, ordered a $2,500 sanction be paid and referred the matter to the U.S. Attorney for further criminal investigation.
Commentary:
By dismissing these case ab initio, the Bankruptcy Court noted that it lost jurisdiction to investigate the actions of the original attorneys in these cases.
For a copy of the opinion, please see:
Mangum- Fraudulent Identity in Filing Bankruptcy.pdf
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