United States

Bitcoin company CoinLab Inc. has thrown its support behind Japanese bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox's U.S. bankruptcy case, a change of course for CoinLab, which has sued Mt. Gox for $75 million, The Wall Street Journal reported. Lawyers for CoinLab said in court papers Friday that they wouldn't object to Mt. Gox's formal request for U.S. bankruptcy protection, despite earlier hints that they might challenge that request. Court documents offered no explanation for CoinLab's decision. Japanese insolvency expert Nobuaki Kobayashi, who is leading Mt.

The court-appointed trustee overseeing the US bankruptcy of property developer Sean Dunne intends to ask the American court’s permission to seek access to family law documents in Ireland, the Irish Times reported. Timothy Miltenberger, lawyer for Mr Dunne’s trustee Rich Coan, told the Connecticut bankruptcy court yesterday that he intended to apply under US bankruptcy law to obtain information about the Co Carlow developer’s finances under confidentiality conditions.

Brazilian bank Banco Cruzeiro do Sul SA on Wednesday sought Chapter 15 relief in Miami, where a liquidator suspects some of its assets are located, after a Brazilian regulator took over its operations, Law360 reported. The bank’s liquidator and foreign representative, Eduardo Felix Bianchini, is asking a Florida bankruptcy judge to recognize the liquidation pending before the Central Bank of Brazil as the foreign main proceeding. The Central Bank seized Banco Cruzeiro’s and its affiliates’ assets in June 2012.

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.

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.

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.

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.