Section 506(a)(1) of the Bankruptcy Code provides common-sense instruction that the allowed amount of a secured claim is equal to the value of the collateral securing the claim and that a claim is unsecured to the extent the claim exceeds such collateral value.  The section goes on to provide that the value of collateral ”shall be determined in light of the purpose of the valuation and of the proposed disposition or use of such property, and in conjunction with any hearing on

A creditor who settles with a debtor during a bankruptcy case must be sure to continue following the case during the plan stage, or risk the plan affecting the creditor’s rights against third parties.  Iberiabank learned that lesson the hard way, after a plan was confirmed in the chapter 11 case of FFS Data, Inc.

In my last post I discussed the Meridian Sunrise Village v. NB Distressed Debt Investment Fund Ltd. opinion handed down by the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington in March of this year.

On June 17, 2014, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Dallas granted recognition under chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code of the bankruptcy proceeding in Japan of failed bitcoin exchange, Mt Gox. Mt. Gox shut down after claiming to lose over $500 million (at current values) of customers’ bitcoins, some of which were later located. Mt Gox sought chapter 15 protection in the United States to prevent U.S.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware has affirmed a bankruptcy court order which approved both a sale of the debtors’ assets and the establishment of an escrow account, which essentially provides a “gift” to fund a distribution to the debtors’ unsecured creditors.  What is significant about this order is that it approved the use of gifting in a chapter 11 bankruptcy case.

As the economy continues to emerge from the global recession in the late 2000s, one of the prevailing trends we have seen is the continuation of challenges to distressed investors that have employed a “loan-to-own” strategy. Boiled to its basics, the loan to own strategy is a method of investing by a distressed investor — frequently a private equity or hedge fund — that acquires the secured debt of a borrower at a discount (often deep) with the hope of either being paid at par or using the par value of the secured debt to acquire the company.

On April 29, 2014, Energy Future Holdings filed what it claims is a pre-packaged chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware. The bankruptcy, which ranks among the largest cases ever with over $36 billion in assets and nearly $50 billion in debt, is the product of an agreement with senior bondholders on the terms of a debt-for-equity swap.

Can a foreign person exclude foreign-situs assets in determining insolvency exception to cancellation of indebtedness income?

Once again, those of us in the commercial finance world are reminded of the age-old adage caveat emptor. This time the warning is directed at hedge funds and other investors with a penchant for purchasing distressed debt from bank syndicates.

Recently, a chink to the armor of distressed debt purchasers resonated throughout the secondary market with the decision of the Delaware Bankruptcy Court in In re Fisker Automotive Holdings, in which the bankruptcy court limited the right to credit bid of