Thanks ninja, this was the post I was to come up with.

Since you haven't given any details of your payout strategy, Zhou's one seems better.

One thing is for sure, You are not refunding the most vocal nor the people with the highest balance first.

Although selfish and unethical it would make sense for your reputation to do so.
It would also make sense to pay-out the highest balance first if it mean the same amount of work.

You seems to suggest it would be impossible to refund 100% of claims (if accurate), does that mean Tihan did not cover the lost BTC ?

I'm surprised you claim to be doing this benevolently, Want it or not you have the reputation of at least 4-5 people in your hands and I'm sure people would happily give you a % of their fund to get their claim processed faster.