A Butler County judge has found the accounting firm Ernst & Young in contempt of court for failing to produce appropriate witnesses and documentation in a malpractice lawsuit related to the Seven Fields development scam.

Judge Michael Yeager ordered the firm to pay a $134,642 fine.

Yeager's ruling yesterday came six months after he ordered the accounting firm to pay a record civil award of nearly $103 million to Barbara and Thomas Reilly in the suit.

The Reillys had sued Ernst & Young for what amounts to malpractice associated with the bankruptcies of four companies that the Reillys had helped to found.

The contempt issue stems from the Reillys' contention that Ernst & Young produced testimony during the trial last year that understated the company's true value.

The accounting firm put the value at $374 million. The Reillys argued that had the appropriate people and documentation been put on the record, the company's true value would have been reflected as at least $950 million.

The discrepancy boiled down to the definitions and interpretations of various terms, such as net worth.

Yeager determined there was an intentional effort to mislead.

" ... Ernst & Young chose to send [the wrong person], although in direct contravention of this court's order [and with] the desired effect of subverting these proceedings," the judge wrote in a 22-page opinion.

The contempt of court fine will cover legal expenses incurred by the Reillys' five attorneys, who had to track down the information that Ernst & Young was to have voluntarily presented during the trial.

Yeager issued the largest civil award in county history in November when he awarded the Reillys nearly $103 million.

The four companies that the Reillys had helped to found eventually were dissolved and the holdings divided among the victims of a Ponzi scheme that had involved Thomas Reilly, who served jail time for his role. The victims became stockholders of what was known as Seven Fields Development Corp.

Ernst & Young has appealed Yeager's civil award and is expected to appeal the contempt of court fine. The Pittsburgh law firm Buchanan Ingersoll is representing Ernst & Young.