Michael Vick is back in court again-this time in civil court facing charges that he made and authorized illegal gifts to friends and family in the months leading up to his bankruptcy.It's uncertain how this new dispute will end. One of Vick's bankruptcy lawyers is already belittling the claim. Attorney Paul Campsen says the legal proceeding filed earlier this month is nothing more than "a garden-variety attempt to collect money."
It is an attempt to collect money, but there's nothing garden-variety about it. In the next few months, Vick will find himself trying to explain what to most people would be an embarrassing series of financial decisions.
Between October 2006 and November 2007, for example, Vick wrote and cashed 67 checks that he made payable to "cash." According to court records, the total cash he collected from his 31 bank accounts during this period was $751,765. That's an average of nearly $54,000 in cash in his pocket each month during the final seven months of his dogfighting operation and the first seven months of investigations and charges that led to his incarceration.