Last year, a U.S. bankruptcy court held that a bankruptcy trustee could settle a Financial ‎Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) suit against a broker-dealer by its former employee ‎seeking damages and expungement of alleged false and defamatory FINRA Form U-5 ‎termination disclosure language, over the objection of the former employee-debtor.2  Once a ‎bankruptcy case is filed by a former employee, the claims become property of the bankruptcy ‎estate.

Settlement of collection disputes over amounts and payment terms for bond-related claims, including in bankruptcy cases, involves issues of binding minority bondholders and releasing the indenture trustee, as well as straightforward determinations of collectability economics.   Bondholders unhappy with a proposed settlement can be bound nevertheless when the deal is incorporated into a bankruptcy plan of reorganization and majority bondholders out-vote them, but only if certain requirements are met.  A recent bankruptcy court decision, In re Lower Bucks Hosp., 471 B.R.