Four years after New York grocery chain Tops’ exit from Chapter 11, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain ruled that the Tops’ Chapter 11 trustee may proceed with litigation against certain private equity investors. The trustee alleged that the investors drove the company into bankruptcy by paying themselves more than $375 million in dividends while neglecting to address Tops’ unfunded pension liabilities.
Over the span of two weeks in July 2022, two of the largest retail-facing cryptocurrency platforms, Celsius and Voyager, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Following are this week’s summaries of the Court of Appeal for Ontario for the week of November 14, 2022.
Another domino has fallen. Earlier this year, we wrote about the challenges facing the crypto industry that resulted in the bankruptcy filings of Three Arrows Capital, Celsius Network, and Voyager Digital. We noted that other crypto entities could also end up in chapter 11, and that prediction has proven correct.
The farming and agricultural industry has been dealing with financial challenges even before the pandemic. Those who were in financial jeopardy before the shutdown are forced to rely on taking on even more debt now just to survive. Currently, the sum of debt across the farming sector amounts to a staggering $496 billion according to the USDA.
Second Circuit Denies Appeal of Windstream Debtors’ Confirmation Order on Equitable Mootness Grounds
Bankruptcy is a formal process geared toward preserving stakeholder value. Often, the proceedings include negotiations between stakeholders that are arduous, time-consuming and expensive. Positioning the company for healthy and sustainable growth is often viewed as a postemergence priority, as companies naturally prioritize the near-term financial realities threatening their very survival.
Every now and then we get an example of how a process should work.
That’s exactly what we have, regarding confirmation of a contested Subchapter V plan, in the case of In re Lapeer Aviation, Inc., Case No. 21-31500 in the Eastern Michigan Bankruptcy Court.
In an opinion issued October 12, 2022, (Doc. 264), the Lapeer Court declares that, (i) most of the plan confirmation standards are satisfied, but (ii) the plan is deficient under two confirmation standards and, therefore, cannot be confirmed.
The Irish Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment signed into law the European Union (Preventive Restructuring) Regulations 2022 on 29 July 2022. This is the first significant piece of legislation dealing with corporate rescue in Ireland since 1990, when the jurisdiction's examinership process was first codified.
In In re Roberts, No. 22-10521, 2022 WL 4592086 (Bankr. D. Colo. Sept. 23, 2022), the Bankruptcy Court of the District of Colorado (the “Bankruptcy Court”) held that a Debtor’s alleged ownership interest in cannabis-related companies did not require a dismissal of the case and that a Chapter 7 trustee could administer the Debtor’s assets. This represents a significant change from prior decisions from this Court, which has usually dismissed any bankruptcy case involving cannabis.
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