Bitcoin company CoinLab Inc. has thrown its support behind Japanese bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox's U.S. bankruptcy case, a change of course for CoinLab, which has sued Mt. Gox for $75 million, The Wall Street Journal reported. Lawyers for CoinLab said in court papers Friday that they wouldn't object to Mt. Gox's formal request for U.S. bankruptcy protection, despite earlier hints that they might challenge that request. Court documents offered no explanation for CoinLab's decision. Japanese insolvency expert Nobuaki Kobayashi, who is leading Mt.
Chapter 15 Headlines
Brazilian bank Banco Cruzeiro do Sul SA on Wednesday sought Chapter 15 relief in Miami, where a liquidator suspects some of its assets are located, after a Brazilian regulator took over its operations, Law360 reported. The bank’s liquidator and foreign representative, Eduardo Felix Bianchini, is asking a Florida bankruptcy judge to recognize the liquidation pending before the Central Bank of Brazil as the foreign main proceeding. The Central Bank seized Banco Cruzeiro’s and its affiliates’ assets in June 2012.
A U.S. bankruptcy judge signed off on the sale of some €15 billion ($20.6 billion) of soured loans on the books of what was once one of Ireland's largest banks as the country digs out from the wreckage of its collapsed property market, The Wall Street Journal reported. Judge Christopher Sontchi on Tuesday approved Irish Bank Resolution Corp.'s sale of the loan portfolios at a hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del.
Mt. Gox customers with frozen bitcoin accounts are targeting Chief Executive Mark Karpeles, arguing in court papers he is unfit to lead the Japanese bitcoin exchange through its U.S. bankruptcy case, The Wall Street Journal reported. In papers filed Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Dallas, lawyers for several Mt. Gox customers pointed out Mr. Karpeles has been accused of fraud and said he should no longer have power over Mt. Gox's U.S. assets in his official role as Mt. Gox Co.'s foreign representative.
Among the various US property assets controlled by Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), the zombie corpse of Anglo, there appears to be a circus, the Irish Times reported. Okay, that’s not quite true – it’s actually a shopping centre in Tampa, Florida called the Channelside Bay Mall – but the legal furore surrounding the bank’s efforts to offload it is turning into a circus. IBRC, which has Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in the US, has been hit with a blizzard of lawsuits in recent weeks over Channelside.
Two months before Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy it was sued by a customer seeking the return of funds in a case that highlights some of the red flags raised in the run-up to the collapse of what was once the world's biggest bitcoin exchange, Reuters reported. New York resident Marko Simovic filed a civil action at the Tokyo District Court on Dec. 24, seeking to recover $105,000 he had on deposit at Mt. Gox and about $14,000 in interest, court filings show. Simovic, who described himself as a software developer who previously managed the bitcoin operations for a hedge fund, said Mt.
A federal judge in Chicago froze the U.S. assets of the chief executive of Tokyo-based Mt. Gox as part of a customer lawsuit against the defunct bitcoin trading exchange, The Wall Street Journal reported. Separately, regulators took steps to gain greater control of the fledgling virtual currency and protect consumers from bitcoin scammers.
Suntech Power Holdings Corp., the Chinese solar-panel maker that defaulted on $541 million of bonds, filed for bankruptcy court protection from U.S. creditors as it liquidates in the Cayman Islands, Bloomberg News reported. The company filed its Chapter 15 petition late Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan as part of a restructuring agreement with petitioners seeking an involuntary filing last year. In November, Suntech told the court that the proposed action by U.S. creditors could derail restructuring efforts.
Hibu, the Reading-based Yellow Pages company, has placed six US subsidiaries into Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection as the firm attempts to restructure its overseas operations, following the firm’s UK restructuring which started last month, IT Pro Portal reported. Hibu filed with the US Bankruptcy Court in New York, listing over $1 billion (£600 million) in assets and liabilities. Just over half of Hibu’s revenue comes from the US, where it operates the “Yellowbook” (the US version of the Yellow Pages directory) across most states. The firm employs almost 5,000 personnel in America.
China's onetime solar-power giant Suntech Power Holdings Co. plans to file for bankruptcy protection in U.S. court as its leaders negotiate with the holders of more than $500 million in U.S. convertible bonds, according to people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported. Suntech Power Holdings, which was once the world's largest solar panel maker, defaulted on its U.S. debt in March, and financial professionals in the Cayman Islands—where the holding company is incorporated—have been trying to negotiate a repayment plan with bondholders.