School chief’s bankruptcy has $1M prize in limbo

The $1 million game show prize that Georgia schools Superintendent Kathy Cox won for charity last summer is in limbo because of the personal bankruptcy filing by Cox and her homebuilder husband.

The investment firm hired to create an account for distributing the money to three public schools for blind and deaf students returned the check to Fox Broadcasting Co. in December, according to Cox and her attorney.

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Kathy Cox won $1 million on the game show ‘Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?’

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• Cox wins $1 million on game show
• Schools chief files for bankruptcy

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The company, Fidelity Investments, did not want to become involved in the bankruptcy case, Cox attorney Karen White said.

White said it is not clear when, or if, the schools will receive the $1 million Cox won last August as a contestant on “Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?”

Lawyers representing the creditors of Kathy Cox and her husband John are considering going after the prize money.

White said Fox could simply keep the $1 million. A Fox spokesman said the company was not prepared to comment.

Kathy Cox, in a statement issued through a spokesman Wednesday, said she still wants the money to benefit the Georgia Academy for the Blind in Macon; the Georgia School for the Deaf in Cave Spring; and the Atlanta Area School for the Deaf in Clarkston.

“It’s sad that banks and lawyers are standing in the way of making that happen,” she said. “I’m hopeful that this money will still end up where it belongs.”

The Coxes filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy Nov. 17, citing $3.5 million in debt related mainly to John Cox’s Fayette County homebuilding business.

White said the bankruptcy trustee representing creditors has asked for records concerning the prize money.

“Whether he will ultimately assert that the state has a superior legal right to that of the [school fund’s] legal right, I don’t know,” she said.

A lawyer representing the bankruptcy trustee confirmed Wednesday the creditors might make a claim on the prize money.

“It is what we’re looking into,” said attorney Alex Teel. “As of yet, we haven’t seen those documents.”

While documents show the couple’s troubles stem from debt associated with John Cox’s home building business, the Coxes spent more than half of a 45-minute recorded bankruptcy hearing Dec. 30 fielding questions about the prize money.

During the hearing, John Cox said his wife nearly backed out of the “Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader” appearance because of their financial troubles. The couple said they first met with a bankruptcy attorney on Aug. 1, five days before the taping of the game show.

“You were so emotional, you didn’t want to go to the show,” John Cox said in an aside to his wife, “and I said, ‘Just go, it’s for a good cause. It doesn’t matter what happens to us.’”