Not sure who to sympathize with here...

[woeisme]

Just read this article on Yahoo, summary is that a contractor took tens of thousands from a guy, didn't do the work. Court ordered the man to repay the money he stole, then the guy filed BK. The debt shouldn't have been discharged since it was based on a fraudulant activity, but the guy he owed the $ to said he didn't get the BK paperwork because he moved, so when the contractor didn't pay after being court ordered to, he had him arrested, and at that point found out that he had filed BK, and of course this was a violation of the automatic stay. So now the guy who's money was stolen in the 1st place had to pay the debtor for violating the stay, had to pay attorney fees, etc. So I can sympathize with both really, being someone who has filed BK I'd be totally ticked if I was then thrown in jail when the debt was never disputed prior to discharge, but on the other hand, if the other guy really didn't know about the BK and never got a chance to dispute the discharge of the debt because it was fraudulant, got to sympathize with him too.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080922/ap_on_re_us/blaming_the_victim

[momof5]

The contractor is a criminal. He stole some serious money. He did repay $25,000 of it BUT now the victim has to repay that! Its his money in the first place. BK or not this thief should go to prison. Once for stealing from an innocent person and a second time for filing BK as its quite obvious he did it to try and cover his own A@@! Theres a pretty good chance that there are probably other victims out there as well. BK should not protect people like this, it should not be used as a shelter for obvious criminal activity.

So he files now, all debts erased including those to compensate people he committed crimes against. A couple of years from now he goes and does this to other people again( he got away with it once, why not?) and then files again. Sounds like a criminals life to me.

[BROKENN]

The guy never would of had his automatic stay violated if he had been caught for his FIRST crime. BK would never had been a reality. Jail would of.........

You wouldn't of done that W.

[woeisme]

according to the article, he was caught, convicted of fraud and forced to pay restitution to the guy. to me, his BK judge/trustee should have never allowed that amount to be discharged, they are the ones that screwed up, not the guy who "violated" the automatic stay considering it was for debts that were criminal and therefore nondischargable. but once the debts were sucessfully discharged, it was a violation of the stay to have him arrested... such a mess!