According to the Administrator (I called), the distribution has been approved, but an appeal has been filed and distribution is being held up until the appeal is resolved. They can't say when that might be, of course.

Not sure who is appealing. Almost certainly not AMEX, since they agreed to the settlement pot, and how it's divided is probably of no interest to them. I would guess it's the lawyers wrangling over their division of the corpse . . . er, I meant "corpus". (When lawyers pose for a picture, the photographer, in order to get them to smile, asks them to say "fees".)

Proposed distribution is:

- For members of the class who filed claims, with the AMEX cards prior 1 Feb 99, a lump sum of $15.00 for the period up to 1 Feb 99.

- For members of the class who filed claims, with the AMEX cards since 1 Feb 99, full refund of all foreign exchange costs for conversion into dollars since 1 Feb 99.

- As a note, that supposedly means that for charges in Turkey, in Turkish Lira, a sum equal to 6.58% of the US dollar amount charged by AMEX. This would seem to indicate that they were indeed hiking the exchange rates for Turkish Lira well above the 2% supposedly charged. Of course, I don't think they ever actually represented that they were only charging 2% across the board.