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It is easy to picture Barry Fromm as a figure straight out of fiction. He's donned cowboy boots and tooled around Texas enforcing the law and finding criminals. But he's not a ranger. He's traveled to foreign countries and conducted surveillance operations. But he is not a spy. He even has a lyric ode written about his actions, titled "The Tale of Barry O'Fromm." But he is not a mythic Irish dragonslayer.

He is a lawyer and small business owner whose company specializes in resolving disputes and financial obligations between debtors and creditors. "This business is high risk, high reward," Fromm said. "There is a special sex appeal to that."

The Value Recovery Group was started by Fromm in 1993. He still serves as president and chief executive officer. Fromm has assembled a team of real estate professionals, attorneys, recovery specialists, certified fraud examiners and certified public accountants, among others.

The company was one of 23 chosen by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. for a public sector-private sector partnership to handle the outstanding assets of a savings and loan scandal in the early '90s. Given a $300 million portfolio of assets in Texas, Fromm, feet clad in the aforementioned cowboy boots, and his team holed up in a mobile home.

The team bounced between cities and courthouses, establishing and following paper trails, tracking down debtors, acquiring property and assets and negotiating solutions. When the dust had settled, VRG expanded the portfolio to $1.2 billion -- more than any other group contracted by the FDIC. The service is more than debt collecting, though.

"We flip the paradigm of `debt collectors,' " Fromm said. "It goes beyond creditor's rights. We create solutions that benefit the debtor and collector. We help the debtor solve their financial problems." VRG also conducts asset sales, valuations and dispositions as well as loan workouts in addition to the collection and investigative work.

There are hundreds of millions of fraud cases out there, he said. The complexities of some are just uncanny. But the big, convoluted cases are the ones VRG thrives on. The company has recovered $4 million from no-file assets, cases which included the debtor's name, the lender and the debt amount only. Fromm estimated that 80 percent of his company's revenue is generated from 20 percent of its cases.

VRG handles both secured and unsecured debt. In seven years of practice, more than 13,000 loans have been resolved by VRG financial plans. Currently, the business handles a portfolio of non-performing judgments, deficiencies and charge-offs and troubled real estate land assets worth more than $700 million. The FDIC ranks VRG number one in this aspect of the business.

VRG ranks number two in the nation in gross recoveries among the 29 current collection partnerships formed by the FDIC and the Resolution Trust Commission. On average, the company handles more than 250 claims a day using staff and outside help.

Associates abroad: Fromm relies on a network of law firms, accountants, fraud examiners, reporters and investigators throughout the United States, France, the Caribbean, the Channel Islands and other European jurisdictions.

The company also has partnerships with National Asset Recovery Services and Kroll & Associates, a security, business intelligence and investigation company whose employees list the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency as former employers. These partners along with the LOGS Group, a national law firm that represents creditors in foreclosure and bankruptcy matters, formed Value Recovery Holding, an organization that collects judgments, deficiencies and charge-offs as well as other claims on behalf of the government and private sector creditors.

This is done on a contingency or a partnering basis. Under the contingency agreement, VRH will manage and resolve a claim for a third of the amount collected, but management, litigation and associated costs will be handled by the contracting agency. Under a partnership agreement, these costs are covered by VRH and the gross recovery is split 50-50. VRG has participated in similar partnering arrangements that have produced a 35 percent annual return for its partners.

The capital is out there, and the company has found it, he said. There is some risk getting it, but the reward is good. "The word is out and people are calling us now," he added.

Property acquisition and management is another point of pride for VRG. A $2 million office complex land site in Washington D.C. was serviced and sold by VRG for $8.75 million.

"The Tale of Barry O'Fromm," written by former Columbus Mayor Dana "Buck" Reinhart, hangs just outside his office and recounts through flowing verse the four-year struggle with the government over the D.C. property. Another property in Pennsylvania cost $7 million and was sold for $21 million.

A place to call home: A piece of property owned and managed by VRG, but not obtained through a collection, is the InfoDepot, where VRG is housed at 919 Old Henderson Road. Fromm is the managing partner of the shared office community. The facility features newly constructed and renovated single- and multi-office suites, a shared reception area and professional staff, fitness center and outdoor deck.

The facility's most attractive feature is its technology links, which include DSL Internet access, remote access to e-mail, files and phone system and a network-enabled telephone system. The property is highlighted by a unique landmark that oddly accentuates the services offered within the building -- a vintage 1909 train caboose.

Fromm purchased it in June from a man in Michigan who had owned it for more than 25 years. It formerly ran on the Central Vermont railroad stretching from New England to Eastern Canada. Though the caboose is recently painted and still sporting all of its original features, it has seen some miles.

So has Fromm. He travels "only a day or two a week." He's spent portions of this year in Paris and England, and has made frequent visits to Texas. He lists Puerto Rico, Barbados and South America as other places he's visited in the name of a case.

The work is extremely hard stuff, Fromm said. But, it's fun and attractive because there is a Dick Tracy-feel to it. "You have to learn to think like a crook," he said. "But you also have to understand fear and the dynamics of stress." Once these are understood, it makes it easier to find the debtors and work out a solution.

"We're tenacious," he said. "We'll never quit."

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