Over the past several weeks, several additional Lehman Brothers affiliate entities filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. For procedural purposes, these bankruptcy petitions will be jointly administered along with the petition filed by Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc., the lead debtor. These entities include:
Changes may be coming to the Bankruptcy Code’s safe harbor provisions.[1] In 2012 the American Bankruptcy Institute established a Commission to Study the Reform of Chapter 11 (the “ABI Commission”), composed of many well-respected restructuring practitioners, including two of the original drafters of the Bankruptcy Code, whose advice holds great weight in the restructuring community.
This week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Asbestos Bankruptcy Trust Transparency Bill. The legislation would, if enacted into law, require bankruptcy trusts to file quarterly reports with bankruptcy courts disclosing the names, asbestos-related exposure history, and basis of the victim’s claims for each claimant. These reports would be made available on the courts’ public dockets. Confidential medical records or social security information would not be disclosed.
The Upstream C Reorganization
In the late 20th century, the IRS made a combination of unrelated decisions resulting in a proliferation of upstream C reorganizations. First was the repeal of the Bausch & Lomb rule, meaning that the equity held by a parent corporation in its subsidiary could count as continuity of interest, thus allowing the liquidation of a subsidiary to be treated as an upstream C reorganization. Second, the invention of the check-the-box regulations made subsidiary liquidations (and hence upstream reorganizations) so much easier.
On Friday, the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance closed Bank of Ellijay, headquartered in Ellijay, Georgia, First Commerce Community Bank, headquartered in Douglasville, Georgia, and The Peoples Bank, headquartered in Winder, Georgia, and appointed the FDIC as receiver for each bank. The failed banks were not affiliated with one another.
Yesterday, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency closed BC National Banks, headquartered in Butler, Missouri, and appointed the FDIC receiver.