In 1981, he founded a law firm specializing in corporate law and tax planning, John H. Cox and Associates. In 1985, he founded Cox Financial Group Ltd., which specializes in investment counseling, income tax planning, retirement planning, and asset protection. Although Cox takes credit for the financial turnaround of the Japp family Chicago potato-chip firm, its owners sued Cox in 1998, alleging financial misconduct, a case that led to Cox paying a $1.7-million settlement in 1999. They claimed that Cox had "engaged in self-dealing; charged excessive and unnecessary fees; misappropriated partnership funds; and violated the partnership agreements and Illinois law," with regard to their investments in apartment buildings and condos. Cox who had been their financial and legal adviser, as well as the company CEO, characterized it as a "frivolous lawsuit," an attempt by the family to get a more favorable deal in a real estate transaction. He said, "a few investors demanded to be bought out of real estate holdings for an outrageous price, $10 million." He had supplied details of the non-disclosure settlement agreement with the family during divorce proceedings with his former wife, admitting to having compensated the family in exchange for certain limited partnership interests. The majority of the allegations in the suit concerned the more than $2.2 million invested by the family in Illinois real estate partnerships. Cox controlled those ventures, either directly or through his firms, plus providing the partnerships with tax consulting and legal services. By 1997, those investments returned just below 3%, and were worth $1.6 million. The plaintiffs said they received just total of $291,300 in cash distributions over five years and hired a corporate accounting expert, Lee A. Gould, to review the financial records of the real estate partnerships. In a 1998 court affidavit Gould contended that between 1993 and 1996, Cox and his firms charged "unanticipated and undisclosed" fees for management and servicing, far exceeding what had been projected in the partnership agreements: $380,000. Cox "purportedly made approximately $4,000,000 in loans to the limited partnerships," 40% of which did "not have any independent corroboration or verification of any sort to indicate that they were in fact made." Gould contended, "The pattern of self-dealing has caused economic damage to the limited partnerships."
John H. Cox Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth, Family
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