NML Capital Ltd. (NML), a hedge fund affiliated with Paul Singer’s Elliott Management Corp. (Elliott), won two favorable rulings from the Supreme Court of the United States (the Court) on Monday, June 16, related to its, now, decade long litigation with the Republic of Argentina over the country’s 2001 default on $100 billion of its debt. The Argentinian bonds were restructured in 2005 and again in 2010, and most bondholders swapped their defaulted bonds out for new, less favorable securities.

Gupta’s $13.9 Million SEC Insider Trading Penalty Affirmed

The BLG Monthly Update is a digest of recent developments in the law which Neil Guthrie, our National Director of Research, thinks you will find interesting or relevant – or both.

Recent Developments

As the name suggests, the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency 1997 (Model Law) seeks to address complexities caused where insolvencies cross borders, while leaving substantive insolvency laws of each country largely unaltered. However, as jurisdictions continue to adopt and interpret the Model Law, inconsistencies in its application are coming to light.

Forum bias, along with some technical issues, are still challenges in cross-border insolvencies in Australia

Just over ten years ago, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy in the US, which turned out to be one of the largest cross-border insolvency cases in history.

Last year also marks:

Winemakers can run into significant tax problems after transferring their businesses to a company or trust structure. While income tax relief may be available on the transfer of the business assets, many winemakers and their accountants fail to realise that such restructures can eliminate or substantially reduce a winemaker’s entitlement to the Wine Equalisation Tax rebate. For winemakers who are heavily reliant on the WET rebate for profitability and cash flow, overlooking such consequences can be disastrous.

In this week’s TGIF, we consider the dangers of being the last one standing in ‘mothership’ preference claims. In the recent decision of In the matter of Bias Boating Pty Limited (receivers and managers appointed) (in liquidation) [2019] NSWSC 47, Black J ordered costs against a number of defendants to a preliminary question of insolvency even though they did not participate in the hearing of that question.

This week’s TGIF considers Re Legend International Holdings Inc (In liq) [2018] VSC 789, the next chapter in the story of Legend International Holdings Inc, where the Court found a company to be insolvent on the basis of a foreign debt.

New York Bankruptcy Judge Sean H. Lane determined that the Australian debtors in a Chapter 15 foreign recognition proceeding satisfied the U.S. property requirements of Section 109(a) of the Bankruptcy Code on the basis of attorney retainers and claims against insiders located in the U.S.