A Little Something For Charlie

Dottore Companies LLC, the court-appointed receiver that shut down Dream Center Education Holdings, a chain of privately owned colleges, is asking for more than $2 million in legal fees and expenses, about half the cash the organization had on hand when its thousands of students and employees were locked out last March. When Dream Center closed its was revealed that $16 million in federal financial aid owed to students had disappeared, and unpaid bills in the hundreds of millions of dollars were owed to teachers, vendors and landlords. Mark Dottore, the CEO of Dottore Companies, has submitted bills for pricey hotel suites, airport spa services and the following entry on a time sheet for an executive of his Cleveland, Ohio firm: “Make up something for Charlie”  (Charlie Dottore is the firm’s forensic investigator). Mark Dottore brushes off criticisms of his bills, which include $6000.00 for a one-night trip to Las Vegas for himself and two members of his teams for negotiations with a group trying to buy one of the defunct chain’s campuses. In total, the firm and its general counsel, Mary Whitmer, have requested $1.6 million in hourly fees and $41,000 in reimbursable expenses. Outside lawyers billed an additional $520,000 in fees and about $7,000 in expenses. Dottore calls the charges reasonable and appropriate, acknowledging only some errors which he blamed on a new software system. The judge overseeing the case notes that the request puts Mr. Dottore in a better position to extract money from Dream Center’s “cash-strapped” remains than other creditors.