Terrill allegedly withheld assets

By Amy Lester, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- State Representative Randy Terrill allegedly did not report all of his assets when he filed for bankruptcy.

The bankruptcy trustee, who represents the creditors, wants Terrill to pay that money back.

"In a bankruptcy filing, it's incumbent upon the person who's filing the bankruptcy to make known to attorneys filing bankruptcy what funds they have, what accounts they have, what funds they have coming to them," NEWS 9's Legal Analyst Irven Box said.

More than $11,000 Terrill allegedly had coming to him is now in question. In court documents, the bankruptcy trustee said Terrill loaned the money to his campaign committee, before the bankruptcy.

Court documents also said, as treasurer of the committee, he allegedly paid most of the money back to himself after filing for bankruptcy, even though it was available the day he filed.

Now, the trustee wants that money.

"The trustee's asking him to pay it back and pay it into the funds that would then be divided among the creditors of Mr. Terrill," Box said.

In this pleading, the trustee asks Terrill to turn over the more than $11,000, produce all of his campaign committee documents, his full federal and state tax returns and bank statements.

This information will be used to check if there are more assets the creditors should know about.

"If it's inadvertent, then there's no crime. It's just something that the bankruptcy trustee will follow up and get back into trustees funds, but if it's something that's done deliberate, that would rise to being a criminal violation," Box said.

Box said if there's proof the money was deliberately hidden, it could constitute fraud.

"The thing for Mr. Terrill to do, and his attorneys to do as quickly as possible, is try to show that this, if it were inadvertent or a mistake, to show it was a mistake," Box said.

Terrill said if something was inadvertently or unintentionally omitted, the lawyers need to fix it and he wants it fixed. He said he wants to resolve this as quickly as possible.

Terrill's lawyer will respond to the trustee's allegations and then a judge will decide if he has to pay the money back.

Terrill also said no loans, in the traditional sense of the word, were made to the campaign. He said he received $1500 for re-imbursement for routine campaign expenses.