HomeGold creditors are poised to recover a few more pennies on each dollar they lost when the Columbia lender went bankrupt in March.

U.S Bankruptcy Judge Thurmond Bishop will decide today whether to approve a bid that would provide $2 million more than expected to repay HomeGold creditors.

But the hunt for fuller recovery will reach next into the pockets of former directors and officers whom creditors blame for their losses.

HomeGold’s court-appointed trustee, Ralph McCullough, plans to sue them later this month, hoping to further close the gap between HomeGold’s $300 million in debts and its $25 million in assets.

Credit-Based Asset Servicing and Securitization, or C-Bass, bid $15.2 million for HomeGold’s largest asset — its stake in a mortgage pool administered by Wachovia bank in Charlotte.

The bid was $2 million more than C-Bass’ initial bid last month, and $9 million more than what an examiner thought it would fetch in a fire sale. If Bishop approves the deal, the cash will change hands Dec. 1.

While some smaller mortgage pools and other property remain to be sold, they will not come close to recovering HomeGold’s losses. The largest group shorted by HomeGold’s collapse was the 8,000 people who bought $275 million in bonds through Carolina Investors

Bondholders, many of them retirees and other small investors, sued former chairman Jack Sterling of Greenville, former president Ronnie Sheppard of Columbia and others. The former officers and directors have denied they are liable.

The creditor lawsuits are being withdrawn, to be replaced by suits from McCullough’s new legal team, most of them trial lawyers involved in the individual lawsuits.

The first skirmishes are under way. McCullough is attempting to block the former HomeGold executives from tapping an insurance policy that can pay up to $10 million of legal costs and damages.

The ex-officers have said the policy was taken out to protect them first. But McCullough said the company also has coverage under the plan, and any money that goes to lawyers for the former executives would be taken from investors.

“It seems inequitable and inappropriate,” McCullough said. “The money ought to go to the creditors.”

Bishop ruled Oct. 27 that the ex-officers’ lawyers should be paid their expenses to date from the policy — estimated at up to $400,000. He said he would decide later whether to limit defense costs paid from the policy.

Contact DuPlessis at (803) 771-8305 or jduplessis@thestate.com.