ATHENS — Former University of Georgia football coach Jim Donnan has agreed to a proposed bankruptcy settlement with a West Virginia company and investors who say the ex-coach owes them $40 million lost in a Ponzi scheme, according to documents filed in federal court.

The deal would require Donnan to repay $7.35 million to retail liquidation company GLC Limited, which says it’s owed more than $13 million by the former coach. Donnan would also agree to repay 80 percent of the losses of investors he recruited for GLC. Investors had filed claims saying Donnan owned them about $27 million.

A federal judge in Ohio, where GLC is being restructured in bankruptcy court, signed off on the settlement Wednesday. The agreement still needs approval of a judge in Georgia, where Donnan and his wife filed for Chapter 11 protection last July. A hearing was scheduled for July 19 in Athens.

Donnan served as UGA’s football coach from 1996 to 2000 and is also an former ESPN analyst. He was a major and early investor in GLC Limited, which would buy appliances and furniture for resale and promised investors payouts of 50 to 70 percent interest annually. The company says Donnan not only profited from money he put into GLC, but also charged commissions of up to 20 percent for recruiting fellow college coaches and others to invest money in the firm.