Lenders are preparing to take control of retailer Vivarte from Charterhouse Capital Partners, in a rare French debt-for-equity swap worth more than €2 billion, the Financial News reported. Oaktree Capital Management, Alcentra and Hayfin Capital Management are among the lenders preparing to convert €2 billion of the company’s €2.8 billion debt package to equity and quasi-equity instruments as part of the restructuring, according to a statement from the company. Under the plan, Charterhouse would be likely to lose more than €500 million on its investment in the French retailer.

Former Anglo Irish Bank Corp. Chief Executive Officer David K. Drumm, sued by the defunct lender over an unpaid personal loan, conceded to a U.S. judge he made “a lot of errors” in his bankruptcy filing and wasn’t aware he needed to reveal $1.2 million in cash transfers to his wife, Bloomberg News reported. Drumm, 47, filed for personal bankruptcy protection from creditors in 2010 in Boston, two years after he began moving money to a new account set up for his wife. Anglo Irish argues Drumm can’t use U.S.

A U.S. bankruptcy judge signed off on the sale of some €15 billion ($20.6 billion) of soured loans on the books of what was once one of Ireland's largest banks as the country digs out from the wreckage of its collapsed property market, The Wall Street Journal reported. Judge Christopher Sontchi on Tuesday approved Irish Bank Resolution Corp.'s sale of the loan portfolios at a hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del.

The fugitive businessman who controlled Mexicana airlines before it went bankrupt and was recently charged with illegal use of the airline's funds has asked for asylum in the United States, a federal official said Wednesday, the Associated Press reported. Assistant Attorney General Mariana Benitez said that Gaston Azcarraga is in the United States and has applied for asylum following the expiration of his visa. U.S. officials notified Mexico that Azcarraga is in their country a few days ago, Benitez said. She added that Mexico requested that he be extradited but U.S.

With $7.3 billion up for grabs, Nortel's Canadian, U.S. and European divisions began staking out their claims to the cash that is all that's left of the former telecommunications giant, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Courtrooms in Toronto and Wilmington were twinned with some $1 million worth of technology to allow judges in each city to jointly make the call on who gets the money from the going-out-of-business sale of a company that operated in more than 100 countries and left unpaid bills in all of them.

U.S. and Canadian customers of failed Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox have agreed to settle their proposed class action lawsuits that alleged the company defrauded them of hundreds of millions of dollars, Reuters reported. The class action plaintiffs agreed to support a plan by Sunlot Holdings to buy the shuttered exchange and accept their share of bitcoins still held by Mt. Gox, according to a statement and court filings. Mt.

American investment firms have found numerous opportunities to capitalize on the turmoil in Europe’s banking sector by buying distressed assets. But one major private equity firm, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, is taking a novel approach, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported.

Mt. Gox customers with frozen bitcoin accounts are targeting Chief Executive Mark Karpeles, arguing in court papers he is unfit to lead the Japanese bitcoin exchange through its U.S. bankruptcy case, The Wall Street Journal reported. In papers filed Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Dallas, lawyers for several Mt. Gox customers pointed out Mr. Karpeles has been accused of fraud and said he should no longer have power over Mt. Gox's U.S. assets in his official role as Mt. Gox Co.'s foreign representative.

Among the various US property assets controlled by Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), the zombie corpse of Anglo, there appears to be a circus, the Irish Times reported. Okay, that’s not quite true – it’s actually a shopping centre in Tampa, Florida called the Channelside Bay Mall – but the legal furore surrounding the bank’s efforts to offload it is turning into a circus. IBRC, which has Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in the US, has been hit with a blizzard of lawsuits in recent weeks over Channelside.

A U.S. judge who froze assets belonging to the American affiliate of bankrupt Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox Co. loosened that restraint to see where some of the digital currency flows, Bloomberg News reported. U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman in Chicago today revised his temporary order issued March 11 to allow movement -- and possibly tracking -- of small amounts of Bitcoin. Jay Edelson, a lawyer for Mt. Gox depositor Gregory Greene, told the judge today that he was “trying to find a pot of crypto-gold.” Greene sued the exchange and and its principal, Mark Karpeles, for fraud last month.