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.
Chapter 15 Headlines
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.
Two so-called vulture funds in the United States, which hold $75 million of subordinated bonds issued by the former Anglo Irish Bank, are threatening to scupper an attempt by the bank’s liquidators to protect $1 billion of its US assets from seizure by its creditors. The Irish Times understands that the funds, Burlington Alpha and Burlington Beta, are linked to Elliott Management, the giant hedge fund controlled by US billionaire Paul Singer. Mr Singer is one of the US Republican Party’s biggest contributors.
The adoption of cross-border protocols by judges in Canada and the U.S. on Wednesday will allow the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway bankruptcy to move forward so that the victims of the Lac-Megantic train disaster may receive compensation as quickly as possible, the trustee assigned to oversee the case said, Bangor Daily News reported. “The U.S. case and the Canadian case are being administered primarily for the victims,” Robert Keach, a Portland lawyer who was appointed Aug. 22 to serve as trustee during the bankruptcy proceeding, said after a hearing in Bangor.
The liquidation vehicle for Ireland's failed Anglo Irish Bank has filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States, it said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The Irish Bank Resolution Corporation's (IBRC) liquidators said they filed an application under Chapter 15 of the U.S. bankruptcy code in the district of Delaware on Monday. Chapter 15 grants a foreign company protection from creditors looking to seize its assets in the country. "These assets form part of the liquidation process currently underway," the liquidators said in a statement.
A U.S. court has approved a multimillion-dollar settlement in a securities fraud class-action lawsuit against a bankrupt energy exploration company for which embattled Sen. Pamela Wallin was a director, The Globe and Mail reported. Between June 2007 and December 2011, Wallin was a paid member of the board of Oilsands Quest Inc., a Calgary-based exploration company. As a director, the Saskatchewan senator was named in the lawsuit along with fellow board members, TD Securities and Calgary consulting firm McDaniel and Associates.
Lone Pine Resources Inc. failed to make a US$10.1-million, semi-annual interest payment on its senior secured notes Thursday, setting the clock ticking on a possible default the could force the natural gas and light oil developer to seek protection from creditors, Stockhouse reported. The company, incorporated in Delaware but headquartered in Calgary, said failure by Lone Pine Resources Canada Ltd. to make the payment will result in default on the 10.375 per cent senior notes maturing in 2017 unless remedied within 30 days.
Syncapse, the social media marketing management company that had hoped to provide enterprise-level solutions for companies such as Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson on Facebook, has filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in U.S. federal court, Business Insider reported. Syncapse was one of Facebook's "preferred marketing developers," a company that qualifies to serve ads into, and gather analytics from, the social network. The move suggests that the economics of social media marketing, absent being acquired by a bigger company, are more difficult than they may appear.
Japan's Elpida Memory Inc asked U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware on Wednesday to enforce its reorganization plan sale to Micron Technologies Inc, a final step to creating the world's second-largest maker of memory chips, Thomson Reuters News & Insight reported. Boise, Idaho-based Micron has been losing money as the market for personal computers steadily loses ground to smartphones and tablets. Acquiring Elpida will allow Micron to create greater economies of scale and will rank the company behind Samsung Electronics in the memory chip market.
A federal appeals court has resolved a split among judges in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan that could help determine when recognition as a foreign main proceeding should be granted in Chapter 15 bankruptcy petitions, Thomson Reuters News & Insight reported. The ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also helped clarify that liquidators of investment funds chartered offshore will not be precluded from U.S. courts under Chapter 15.