New Century bankruptcy examiner seeks more time

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A court-appointed lawyer probing the collapse of subprime mortgage lender New Century Financial Corp NEWCQ.PK has asked for more time to finish his investigation, saying the company, former executives and former auditor KPMG LLP have delayed his work.

Michael Missal, a specialist in securities enforcement and investigations, asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey in a Tuesday court filing to give him until March 17 to complete his report, two months after the current January 15 deadline.

Carey, who sits in Wilmington, Delaware, appointed Missal in June as New Century's examiner, to investigate alleged misconduct at the Irvine, California-based company.

New Century had been the largest independent U.S. provider of home loans to people with poor credit before filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last April 2, in one of the first major collapses of the current U.S. housing crunch. It is now defunct, having liquidated many assets.

In the filing, Missal said he has made substantial progress in his investigation, but that "significant delays" in obtaining information from New Century and KPMG require that he obtain more time to review documents, conduct interviews and finish his analysis.

He said he plans this month to interview several former New Century employees who had previously refused to be questioned, despite receiving subpoenas. Missal said these interviews are "likely to reveal important information."

New Century has said it overstated some earnings, that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission opened a formal probe into its activities, and that federal prosecutors in California began examining accounting errors and trading in its stock.

Missal is a partner at Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis LLP in Washington, D.C.

He was lead counsel to the examiner in WorldCom Inc's bankruptcy, former U.S. Attorney General Richard Thornburgh, and for a CBS Corp (CBS.N) panel that reviewed a "60 Minutes" program segment concerning President George W. Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel, editing by Richard Chang)