It has been a year since Stan Lee Media filed for bankruptcy and was dissolved, but the activities of that ill-fated Web-based company, founded with Peter Paul at the height of the Internet boom, continue to be the subject of investigations by both the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission.  Comic book fans don't need to worry too much--legendary comic book creator Stan Lee is not expected to be charged in any of the investigations.  As the New York Post put it, the problem lies not with Lee, but with 'the unsavory bunch that surrounded the 80-year-old cartoonist and drove his name and company, Stan Lee Media, into the ground.'

Stephen M. Gordon, a former Executive Vice President at Stan Lee Media, was convicted of fraud in August (see 'Political Fundraiser Sank Stan Lee Media'), and Gordon's statements at his sentencing trial about an extensive stock fraud may have precipitated the SEC's entry into the case.  Meanwhile Peter Paul, the entrepreneur who founded Stan Lee Media and fled to Brazil when the company went down in lames, has been extradited back to the U.S. and now resides in a Brooklyn lockup.  The Justice Department is investigating an August 2000 fundraiser for New York Senator Hillary Clinton underwritten by Paul, who is now being represented by the rabidly anti-Clinton legal organization, Judicial Watch.