Personal Bankruptcy
On November 17, 2008, Cox and her husband declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy due to the failure of the husband's home construction business, listing $3.5 million in debt and $650,000 in assets. The bankruptcy also affected the money won for the schools on Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader. Fidelity Investments, the investor charged in creating a fund for the donor schools, donated the winnings back to Fox in December 2008 from the schools, placing the prize in a limbo that would not benefit anyone.
On August 19, 2009, protesters representing deaf and blind children picketed the office of bankruptcy attorney Gary W. Brown in Newnan, over his efforts to take control of the winnings. According to Brown, the winnings belong to the bankruptcy estate, and should be used to pay back creditors.
In October 2010, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge W. Homer Drake signed off on an agreement to split the $1 million winnings into two equal parts: one half for creditors and the other half for the three state-run schools for the blind and deaf.
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