Established in 2015 as a trusted neutral forum to meet increasing demand for effective transnational dispute resolution, the Singapore International Commercial Court (the "SICC") is a division of the General Division of the High Court and part of the Supreme Court of Singapore. On January 18, 2024, the SICC handed down its first insolvency-related ruling.

Introduction

In Short

Debtors in non-U.S. bankruptcy or restructuring proceedings commonly seek to shield their U.S. assets from creditor collection efforts by seeking "recognition" of those proceedings in the United States in a case under chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code. If a U.S. bankruptcy court recognizes the debtor's foreign proceeding, the Bankruptcy Code's automatic stay prevents creditor collection efforts, including the commencement or continuation of any U.S. litigation involving the debtor or its U.S. assets. A U.S.

One year ago, we wrote that 2022 would be remembered in the corporate bankruptcy world for the "crypto winter" that descended in November 2022 with the spectacular collapse of FTX Trading Ltd., Alameda Research, and approximately 130 other affiliated companies that ignited the meltdown of many other platforms, exchanges, lenders, and mining operations because they did business with FTX.

In most cases seeking recognition of a foreign bankruptcy proceeding in the United States under chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code, the foreign debtor's "foreign representative" has been appointed by the foreign court or administrative body overseeing the debtor's bankruptcy case.

On 31 October, 2023, in Sanjay Kumar Agarwal v State Tax Officer 1, 2023 SCC OnLine SC 1406, the Supreme Court of India (SC) in the exercise of its powers of review under Article 137 of the Constitution of India, (Rainbow Review) affirmed the view expressed by another bench of the SC in State Tax Officer (I) v. Rainbow Papers Limited 2022 SCC OnLine SC 1162 (Rainbow Judgment) that may have far reaching effects on the treatment of dues to the Government or governmental authorities in insolvency resolution proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC).

In In re Golden Sphinx Ltd., 2023 WL 2823391 (Bankr. C.D. Cal. Mar. 31, 2023), the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California denied a motion filed by a creditor of a chapter 15 debtor seeking discovery from a bank that had provided financing to one of the debtor's affiliates.

Introduction and background 

Corporate restructurings are not always successful for many reasons. As a consequence, the bankruptcy and restructuring laws of the United States and many other countries recognize that a failed restructuring may be followed by a liquidation or winding-up of the company, either through the commencement of a separate liquidation or winding-up proceeding, or by the conversion of the restructuring to a liquidation. Chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code expressly contemplates that the status of a recognized foreign proceeding may change, and that a U.S.