A unit of Malaysia’s state-owned investment fund 1MDB -- which has spurred investigations around the world into deal-making and political patronage under former Prime Minister Najib Razak -- is seeking bankruptcy protection in the U.S., Bloomberg News reported. Brazen Sky Ltd., which is fully owned by 1Malaysia Development Bhd., filed for chapter 15 in Southern District of Florida court, according to a filing. The document listed voluntary liquidation pending in the British Virgin Islands, where Brazen Sky is incorporated.

LATAM Airlines yesterday turned back two challenges to its bankruptcy reorganization plan, putting the carrier a step closer to emerging from chapter 11 after seeking protection from creditors in the early months of the pandemic, Reuters reported. LATAM said in a statement it was pleased by a U.S. bankruptcy court's decision confirming its reorganization plan in which two groups of creditors lost their appeals. LATAM, which filed for bankruptcy in 2020, won court approval to exit chapter 11 in June.

The Bank of Mexico on Wednesday said it is not wed to hiking interest rates in line with the U.S. Federal Reserve and will evaluate all available data to bring down inflation, Reuters reported. There has been much market speculation on whether Banxico, as the Mexican central bank is known, will follow in lockstep with the Fed as it embarks on what has become the sharpest round of U.S. rate hikes since the 1980s.

The former Mexican airline Interjet has been formally accepted into a domestic bankruptcy process by a district judge. Interjet will now be able to negotiate up to 40 billion pesos in debt (nearly US$2 billion) with its creditors, SimpleFlying.com reported. On Tuesday, a Mexican judge approved the airline Interjet formally entering a bankruptcy process. Interjet ceased operations in December 2020, after a years-long crisis fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Canadian economy accelerated in the second quarter as the nation benefited from surging commodity prices and got a boost from the lifting of Covid lockdowns, though signs are emerging the momentum is waning, Bloomberg News reported. Gross domestic product rose at a 3.3% annualized rate after a 3.1% increase in the first three months of the year, Statistics Canada reported Wednesday. Growth was led by stronger household consumption and business spending on inventories. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected 4.4% annualized growth in the second quarter.

There was much relief for investors in U.S.-listed Chinese firms after Beijing and Washington struck a long-pending audit deal, but legal experts and China watchers warn the two sides could still clash over how the accord is interpreted and implemented, Reuters reported. U.S. regulators have for more than a decade demanded access to audit papers of U.S.-listed Chinese companies, but Beijing has been reluctant to let U.S. regulators inspect its accounting firms, citing national security concerns.

A U.S. judge on Friday recommended that victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks not be allowed to seize billions of dollars of assets belonging to Afghanistan's central bank to satisfy court judgments they obtained against the Taliban, Reuters reported. U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn in Manhattan said Da Afghanistan Bank was immune from jurisdiction, and that allowing the seizures would effectively acknowledge the Islamist militant group as the Afghan government, something only the U.S. president can do.

Creditors filed a lawsuit against Mexican multimedia conglomerate TV Azteca S.A.B. de C.V., controlled by business mogul Ricardo Salinas Pliego, after the company skipped out on payments to U.S. based investors for over a year while continuing to pay other debts in Mexico, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported.

Cineworld Group Plc equity holders are set to be left with nothing, a short seller warned after the cinema operator said this week that it was considering filing for U.S. bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. Argonaut Capital Partners LLP’s Barry Norris told Bloomberg Television that Cineworld’s pursuit of acquisitions that were funded by debt had left it with a “completely unsustainable” capital structure. A spokesman for Cineworld declined to comment on Argonaut’s position or interview but requested that Bloomberg highlight the firm’s Aug.

Canadian employers continue to report record levels of job vacancies, pointing to a drum-tight labor market that’s likely to keep the central bank on an aggressive hiking path, Bloomberg News reported. Unfilled positions rose by 32,500 in June to 1.03 million, Statistics Canada reported Thursday. It marks the fourth straight month of vacancies near or above the 1 million threshold. The job vacancy rate -- the number of unfilled jobs as a share of all positions -- was 5.9% in June, matching a record high.