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.
Chapter 15 Headlines
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.
Lone Pine Resources Inc. is requesting U.S. Bankruptcy Court approval of its reorganization plan, contingent with its also receiving the Canadian bankruptcy court's blessing early next year, The Wall Street Journal reported. The company is scheduled to ask the Canadian court to approve its plan during a sanction hearing on Jan. 9. That approval will implement the plan in Canada, but it still would require U.S. court confirmation. Lone Pine is requesting that on Jan. 14, the U.S.
The liquidation vehicle for Ireland's failed Anglo Irish Bank has been granted bankruptcy protection in the United States, it said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The bank, whose failure cost Irish taxpayers some 30 billion euros ($41 billion) in the financial crisis, was put into an accelerated liquidation process during an emergency session of Ireland's parliament in February. Now known as Irish Bank Resolution Corp, or IRBC, the liquidating bank applied in August for U.S. court protection to prevent creditors from going after more than $1 billion in U.S. assets.
Lawyers for State-owned Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, formerly Anglo Irish Bank, pleaded for protection from a US bankruptcy court saying that the liquidated bank was a “very unique” case, the Irish Times reported. The Delaware bankruptcy court heard the bank’s case for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection, guarding about €1 billion of US assets and blocking legal actions against it, at a hearing yesterday.
Anglo Irish Bank and its successor Irish Bank Resolution Corporation overcharged customers by an estimated $1.6 billion (€1.2 billion) and continued to overcharge since the Government liquidated the bank in February, a forensic banking specialist has claimed in a US court, the Irish Times reported. The expert witness made the claim in a legal challenge taken against IBRC’s application for bankruptcy protection in a court in Delaware by developer John Flynn and related parties who claim they were overcharged $11 million on loans of about $200 million with the bank.