North America

Lawyers for customers of an insolvent cryptocurrency exchange have asked police to exhume the body of the company’s founder, amid efforts to recover about $190 million (€170.5 million) in Bitcoin which were locked in an online black hole after his death. Miller Thomson LLP sent a letter to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Friday, requesting authorities “conduct an exhumation and postmortem autopsy” on the body of Gerald Cotten, founder of QuadrigaCX, citing what the firm called the “questionable circumstances” around his death earlier this year, The Irish Times reported.

Mexican carrier Jaguar Transportation stopped its trucking services this morning (Dec. 10) and could be shutting down as part of Celadon's U.S. chapter 11 filing on Dec. 9, FreightWaves reported. Several freight and logistics professionals confirmed to FreightWaves that cross-border account representatives for Jaguar Transportation said that they had ceased services. At one of the company's locations, the news prompted drivers who feared they would not be paid to block access to scores of trucks and trailers.

Alberta may consider buying back some of its bonds in an effort to smooth its maturities as its debt outstanding rises, Bloomberg News reported. The buy-back strategy, including terms and amounts, is still under analysis, according to Jerrica Goodwin, an Edmonton-based spokeswoman at Alberta’s finance ministry said. The plan, which may start as soon as the next fiscal year beginning in April, won’t reduce overall debt outstanding but could allow Alberta to spread out maturities over the longer term, she said.

Canada’s biggest banks are facing a storm of challenges, with a slowdown in consumer spending and a dearth of public listings pushing some big lenders to make hefty job cuts as their profitability falters, the Financial Times reported. The decision by Bank of Montreal (BMO), Canada’s fourth-largest bank, to slash its global workforce by 5 per cent highlights the growing problems facing the country’s financial services sector.

Seadrill Chairman John Fredriksen, the oil rig firm’s top shareholder, is stepping down with immediate effect, the company said on Thursday, as it holds discussions with lenders about restructuring its massive debts, Reuters reported. The 75-year-old billionaire investor, who said his support for the company remained unchanged, will be replaced by Glen Ole Roedland, who has worked in shipping, oil, gas and other industries, Seadrill said. The company, which is listed in Oslo and New York, only emerged from U.S.

A surge in the number of people who can’t pay their debts is raising eyebrows in Canada, BNN Bloomberg reported. Some 11,935 consumers filed for insolvency in September, according to the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy — a 19-per-cent increase from a year earlier and the biggest annual gain since 2009. So far in 2019, there have been 102,023 consumer insolvencies, the second-most for the first nine months of a year in records dating back to 1987.