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1. Amounts Paid Through the Defense Fund
a. Minns Agreement
The Defense Fund paid $185,000 in legal fees under the Minns
agreement. Of the $220,201 claimed by the Hongsermeiers for the
corresponding legal services, see supra note 48, $122,293.30 is
potentially compensable, see supra Part III.D.1., meaning that
$97,907.70 is noncompensable ($220,201 - $122,293.30 =
$97,907.70). Given the fungibility of money, a case can be made
for allocating the Fund’s $185,000 expenditure between the
potentially compensable fees and the noncompensable fees on a pro
rata basis. We are not aware of any authority requiring us to do
so, and we think such an approach would run counter to the
remedial purpose of section 7430. Accordingly, we allocate the
first $122,293.30 of the $185,000 expenditure to the potentially
compensable fees and the remaining $62,706.70 ($185,000 -
$122,293.30 = $62,706.70) to the noncompensable fees.
Next, we must identify the contributions to the Defense Fund
from which the Fund’s $185,000 expenditure derived. Owing again
to the fungibility of money, any methodology we use will be
somewhat arbitrary. Nevertheless, we believe it is reasonable to
treat the $185,000 expenditure as having derived from the
$268,200 contributed to the Fund by the Hongsermeiers and the
group of 112 from January 2001 through November 2001.
The following table lists the persons described in the
preceding paragraph (i.e., the Hongsermeiers and the group of
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