On March 14, 2023, Judge Ashely M. Chan of the U.S.

“The trustee may avoid . . . any obligation . . . incurred by the debtor, that was madeor incurred“ with actual fraudulent intent or as constructive fraud.

–From § 548 of Bankruptcy Code (emphasis added).

Similar language is contained in the Uniform Voidable Transactions Act—and in its predecessor acts—for 100+ years. [Fn. 1]

But actions to avoid debts as fraudulent transfers are rare—and largely unknown, it seems.

A Bad Experience

On 27 March 2023, the European Commission concluded that an Italian loan of EUR 400 million granted in 2019 in favour of Alitalia constituted illegal and incompatible aid that has to be reimbursed.

Alitalia has benefitted from numerous public support measures over the years. The airline found itself in a financial pickle and was declared bankrupt in May 2017. To ensure the continuity of its operations, the Italian State provided the airline with two loans, one of EUR 900 million granted in 2017 and the second of EUR 400 million in 2019.

The Cayman Islands is the preeminent offshore jurisdiction for corporate, fund and finance vehicles. It is also a creditor friendly jurisdiction, where properly constituted security has statutory protection from the reach of liquidators. We explore some of the options available to lenders and companies when navigating troubled waters.

1 Introduction

This quarterly civil fraud update provides a summary of reported decisions handed down in the courts of England and Wales in the period of January - March 2023.

BRIBERY

It is widely anticipated that the next twelve months could be a challenging period for many businesses in the UK and that there could be a significant rise in the number of companies in financial distress.

Where this is the case, the directors of those companies will need to be increasingly mindful of the duties they have to the company's creditors, as well as to its shareholders.

Boy Scouts of American achieved a confirmed plan of reorganization in its bankruptcy.

That confirmation is now affirmed on appeal by the U.S. District Court in Delaware[fn. 1]—and is heading to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals for further review.

The District Court’s affirming opinion is 155 pages long and highly detailed. This article tries to summarizes the opinion’s highlights—attempting to make the complex clear.

100% Payment Plan

The core of the opinion, around which most everything else revolves, is this:

The focus is on the CTA with a double sided trust arrangement, which has become the market standard for insolvency protection of the relevant payment claims of the individual employee by way of a CTA solution at the latest since the judgements of the Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht, BAG) of 18 July 2013 (6 AZR 47/12) and 22 September 2020 (3 AZR 303/18, CTA rulings).

Im Fokus steht dabei das CTA mit einer doppelseitigen Treuhand, das sich spätestens seit den Urteilen des Bundesarbeitsgerichts (BAG) vom 18.07.2013 (6 AZR 47/12) und vom 22.09.2020 (3 AZR 303/18, CTA-Urteile) als Marktstandard zur Insolvenzsicherung der relevanten Zahlungsansprüche des einzelnen Mitarbeiters im Wege einer CTA-Lösung durchgesetzt hat. Das BAG hat in den CTA-Urteilen die Insolvenzfestigkeit des doppelseitigen CTA für die Insolvenzsicherung von Wertguthaben aus Altersteilzeitarbeitsverhältnissen (6 AZR 47/12) sowie von bAV-Zusagen (3 AZR 303/18) erkannt.

Persuading a bankruptcy judge to find “excusable neglect” after missing a filing deadline is usually a tough sell. You’d think it would be particularly hard when the party seeking relief was “belligerent and disrespectful to the Court and opposing counsel.”