DD Growth Premium 2X Fund (the Company), was a Cayman Islands Ponzi scheme that concealed vast trading losses by attributing fanciful values to worthless bonds. As the GFC unfolded in 2008, RMF Market Neutral Strategies Limited (RMF) redeemed US$23m for its shares in the Company (the Payment). The Company was placed in liquidation a short time later and the Company's liquidators sought to claw the Payment back.

In Official Assignee in Bankruptcy of the Property of Cooksley, in the matter of Cooksley v Cooksley, the Federal Court of Australia was asked to consider a letter of request from the New Zealand High Court for assistance under the Bankruptcy Act 1996 (Cth) and the Foreign Insolvency Act 2008 (Cth). By the letter of request from the High Court, the New Zealand Official Assignee sought assistance to enforce income contributions by a New Zealand bankrupt resident in Australia.

In Ramsay Health Care Australia Pty Ltd v Compton, the High Court of Australia considered the Bankruptcy Court's discretion, under s52 of the Bankruptcy Act 1966 (Cth), to go behind a judgment to satisfy itself that a debt is truly owing before making a sequestration order against a debtor.

The English Court of Appeal has recently outlined the methodology for calculating interest when a surplus remains following full payment of debts by a company in administration.

The English High Court in Bank and Clients Plc v King and Brown considered guarantor liability in circumstances where the guarantors, Messrs King and Brown, alleged representations had been made by the Bank that would relieve them of their liability.

Applicable law

The Italian Government has been delegated to enact a comprehensive restatement of the whole set of rules of insolvency procedures, with specific innovative addresses regarding (to mention only the most important) the concordato preventivo procedure, venue rules, an out-of-court mediation alert process to timely address a risk of insolvency, new forms of security and a streamlined set of priorities among creditors

Introduction

The Court of Padua (15 June 2017) ruled that, in the procedure provided by Legislative Decree No. 270/1999, the three-year statute of limitations period provided by Art. 69-bis of the Italian Bankruptcy Law starts from the declaration of insolvency and not from the authorization of the plan for the sale of the business

The case

The Court with two recent decisions (6 April 2017, No. 8903 and 13 April 2017, No. 9547) confirmed that the Public Prosecutor is entitled to file for bankruptcy also in case he became aware of the insolvency in the course of a probe regarding other companies or individuals and within the concordato preventivo procedure.

The case

A decision of the Court of Rimini dated 1st December 2016 states that the competitive bid process provided by Art. 163-bis of the Italian Bankruptcy Law is not mandatory when there is a strict connection between the lease of business and a proposed third-party loan to support the concordato proposal

The case