Boxes of bulk chocolate, molds to shape chocolates, sculptures and computers worth almost $90,000 were removed from Chocolaterie Bernard Callebaut when the company was placed in receivership last year, which landed its namesake back in court Wednesday, The Calgary Herald reported. In the latest twist in the Callebaut saga, receiver Deloitte & Touche is asking that Bernard Callebaut and his wife Francesca be found in contempt of its receivership order.

The federal government is questioning whether our neighbors to the north will be looking out for the U.S. taxpayers in a Canadian pharmaceutical company’s insolvency case, The Wall Street Journal Bankruptcy Beat blog reported. The National Institutes of Health and the Department of Health and Human Services objected last week to Angiotech Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s request to gain U.S. courts’ recognition of its case in Canada. The Vancouver drug maker sought that recognition through its Chapter 15 bankruptcy filing with the Wilmington, Del., bankruptcy court.

Struggling Laval custom drug researcher LAB Research Inc. said Monday it has been informed by a U.S. private equity firm that it has longer any interest in acquiring LAB and the company has been forced into bankruptcy by its principal lender, The Montreal Gazette reported. LAB said in a statement the directors have resigned and a receiver has been appointed. The principal lender wants to solicit or entertain offers for LAB and its modern pre-clinical testing facilities in Laval, and in Denmark and Hungary.

Fraser Papers' restructuring plan, and the sale of its U.S. subsidiaries to Brookfield Asset Management, appear to be in the final stages of a painful journey that began nearly two years ago, The Canadian Press reported. Under an amended plan, worked out early this year after the original restructuring was rejected, will see Brookfield — Fraser Paper's majority shareholder — continue to have a major stake in the remaining operating assets. Fraser Papers said Tuesday its creditors will receive about US$44 million in unsecured notes issued by Twin Rivers Paper Company Inc.

Four officials of Concrete Equities, a now-defunct Calgary company that raised $118 million to buy commercial real estate, are under scrutiny as the Alberta Securities Commission tries to determine whether they misled investors, the Calgary Herald reported. Monday, lawyers for the ASC outlined the case they hope to prove, which includes investors who were promised returns of more than 600 per cent and told the investments were risk free, as well as those who weren't told of marketing commissions of between seven and 10 per cent being paid to Concrete Equities.

Fraser Papers got the green light to proceed with its efforts to emerge from bankruptcy protection on Tuesday after creditors approved an amended restructuring agreement, The Canadian Press reported. The insolvent paper producer said the latest restructuring plan won support from 94 per cent of voters who attended a special meeting in Toronto. Votes in support of the plan represented 75 per cent of the dollar value held by the creditors. Under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act, the plan needed support from two thirds of the dollar value of Fraser Paper claimants voting at the meeting.

Canada's largest book distributor, H.B. Fenn and Company Ltd., announced Thursday that it plans to file a proposal under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, CTV.ca reported on a Canadian Press story. In a brief statement, the company said it has "encountered significant financial challenges due to the loss of distribution lines, shrinking margins and the significant shift to e-books, all of which have significantly reduced the company's revenues." " D.J. Miller, of the Toronto-based restructuring and litigation firm Thornton Grout Finnigan, said the move does not necessarily mean H.B.

Canadian drug and medical-device maker Angiotech Pharmaceuticals Inc. filed for Canada's version of Chapter 11 bankruptcy Friday so it could execute a debt-for-equity swap that hands control of the company to certain bondholders, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The filing comes after the Vancouver company attempted for months to execute the swap outside of court, and two days before a deadline to make a $9.7 million interest payment.

A Canadian public-sector pension fund has joined a forestry management firm in a C$415 million (A$415 million) acquisition of Australian timber lands, capitalizing on a failed government investment scheme, the companies said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Alberta Investment Management Corp and a fund run by Australia's New Forests Pty Ltd are buying the timberland assets of Great Southern Plantations, which include more than 2,500 square km (965 square miles) of land in forestry and agricultural regions in six states. The pair are buying the assets out of receivership.

Reorganized newsprint maker AbitibiBowater Inc. filed a motion to dismiss the Chapter 11 case of subsidiary Bowater Canada Finance Corp, Bloomberg reported. Although affiliates implemented their U.S. and Canadian reorganizations in December, the BCFC affiliate was dropped out because creditors of the subsidiary voted down the plan. It was agreed at the time with BCFC noteholders that the subsidiary’s U.S. Chapter 11 case would be dismissed, as would the arrangement proceeding in Canada.