Committee Articles

As expected, the Risk Limitation Bill (Risikobegrenzungsgesetz) passed the German Parliament (Bundestag) in July, which intends to ban stakeholders acting in unison to influence the management of a listed company concerning its future or its overall business purpose.  Originally, it came under fire from financial investors for being overzealous in its quest for transparency, but further legal ramifications will affect investors of all sizes.

In June 2005, the new Brazilian Bankruptcy Law (the Law) became effective. The Law took its inspiration to some extent from chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. Efforts under the previous, more rigid law (or concordata) to restructure business enterprises inevitably ended up in liquidation, which is what the Brazilian concept of bankruptcy (falência) tends to encompass.

Successful cross border asset protection and recovery efforts involve the right combination of accountancy based investigative methods, business intelligence and forensic technology expertise.  This article addresses the third piece of that investigative puzzle – digital forensic methods being utilized when bank secrecy and other difficulties present barriers to collecting your evidence.

The Caribbean has long been a favorite location for persons seeking to shelter assets in offshore trusts as glamorized in popular culture in, among other things, books and movies such as The Firm. There is circuit court case law in the bankruptcy context that should give offshore asset protection planners pause when drafting their next trust instruments.

INTRODUCTION:

Since China’s new Enterprise Bankruptcy Act came into force on June 1, 2007, the role and capacity of the newly created independent administrator has drawn broad attention among bankruptcy practitioners both in China and across borders. This is because the introduction of the independent administrator into the new bankruptcy proceedings, as the functional counterpart of the trustee under the Bankruptcy Code, is an important step towards a market economy in the insolvency area.

Recently the European Communication and Cooperation Guidelines For Cross-border Insolvency have been published (in our jargon called CoCo Guidelines). These Guidelines aim to overcome the cumbersome procedural model of the EC Insolvency Regulation dealing with assets of one debtor spread over several or all jurisdictions in the EU. This can add up to 26 member states (not Denmark).

There have been several articles recently published discussing and critiquing the early chapter 15 case law. [1] However, two articles in particular are worth noting. The first is entitled "A Tale of Two Proceedings: ‘Turnabout Is Fair Play’ in the Yukos U.S. Bankruptcy Cases," which discusses some of the intriguing issues presented by the Yukos chapter 11 and chapter 15 cases and their implications for future cross-border restructurings.

Case Filed Under § 304 – discussing Chapter 15

In re Atrimm, S.r.L., 335 B.R. 149 (Bankr. C.D. Cal. 2005)

Prior to its repeal with the enactment of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act, §304 provided authority for adjudicating international insolvency issues before the U.S. Bankruptcy courts where a proceeding had already been filed or would be more appropriately filed in a foreign jurisdiction.