Winding Down. If a corporation’s board of directors decides that the business needs to be wound down, there are a number of legal paths to consider. Determining the best approach is fact-dependent, and the corporation and its board should get legal advice before making a decision.

In re Carroll, 520 B.R. 491 (Bankr. M.D. La. 2014) –

A chapter 7 trustee sought to substantively consolidate the bankruptcy estates of individual chapter 7 debtors with the separate bankruptcy estate of their wholly owned limited liability company (LLC).  Only the debtors, and none of the creditors, objected to substantive consolidation.

Today’s blog article, which looks at offshore leases in the United States, is the fourth in a Weil Bankruptcy Blog series, “Drilling Down,” a series that will look at issues at the intersection of the oil and gas industry and bankruptcy law.  In Part One we provided an overview of the oil and gas industry, in 

In two recent cases, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has indicated that Section 316(b) of Trust Indenture Act of 19391 (the “TIA”) requires unanimous consent for out-of- court restructurings that impair bondholders’ practical ability to receive payments, even if the bondholders’ technical, legal ability to receive payments remains intact.

Bill could significantly alter medical and financial disclosures in asbestos cases

West Virginia State Senate passes SB 411, creating the Asbestos Bankruptcy Trust claims Transparency Act and the Asbestos and Silica Priorities Act. Next, the bill goes to the House of Delegates for review and likely passage.

In In re Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, No. 14-97-bk(L), 2015 WL 727965 (2d Cir. Feb.

Liebzeit v. Intercity State Bank (In re Blanchard), 520 B.R. 740 (Bankr. E.D. Wis. 2014) –

A Chapter 7 trustee sought to avoid a mortgage on the debtors’ property using the “strong arm” powers of a hypothetical bona fide purchaser of real estate.  The complication was that the debtors sold the real estate on land contract before they granted the mortgage.

As disclosed recently in a bankruptcy court filing, on January 27, 2015, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) imposed a $10 million civil money penalty pursuant to the Bank Secrecy Act (the “BSA”) on Trump Taj Mahal Associates LLC. Trump Taj Mahal consented to the imposition of the penalty (subject to the bankruptcy court’s approval) and admitted that its conduct violated the BSA. This $10 million penalty, reported to be the largest BSA penalty ever imposed upon a casino, highlights the government’s ongoing focus on the gaming industry.

What began as a garden variety bankruptcy claims objection has ended with a sharply-worded, sixty-page opinion, in which the Sixth Circuit’s Bankruptcy Appellate Panel ( “BAP”) affirmed a bankruptcy court’s $200,000 sanctions order entered against the creditor’s attorney.

As we noted in Parts 1 and 2 of this series, any buyer of assets from a company in any degree of financial stress should be concerned about the transaction being attacked as a fraudulent transfer. Officers and directors of a selling entity also have concerns about this risk due to potential personal liability.