Bankruptcy Blogs

Backstreet Boys’ Bankruptcy Claims ‘Incomplete’

06/19/13
Richard Shotwell/Associated Press
From left, Nick Carter, A.J.
[more]

Detroit Creditors Asked to Take Haircut (at Sweeney Todd's Barbershop)

06/19/13

Everyone gathered last week at the meeting convened by Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr knew that the news would be dire. Nonetheless, Orr’s report on Detroit’s financial condition and his proposal for the treatment of the city’s creditors – an offer of approximately ten cents on the dollar for the city’s unsecured bonds - still managed to drop jaws. Therein lies

[more]

The Daily Docket: Kodak Seeks $406M Rights Offering

06/19/13

Eastman Kodak Co. said it reached a deal, subject to court approval, that would allow it to repay its second-lien creditors in cash instead of equity in the company. Click here for the Daily Bankruptcy Review article.

[more]

Detroit Creditors Asked to Take Haircut (at Sweeney Todd’s Barbershop)

06/19/13

Everyone gathered last week at the meeting convened by Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr knew that the news would be dire. Nonetheless, Orr’s report on Detroit’s financial condition and his proposal for the treatment of the city’s creditors – an offer of approximately ten cents on the dollar for the city’s unsecured bonds – still managed to drop jaws. Therein lies

[more]

Lawsky's Consultant Crackdown; Fed Policy Side Effects; Co-op Bank Update

06/19/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ... Consultant Crackdown: Deloitte Financial Advisory Services has struck an agreement with New York's Department of Financial Services that will see the advisory firm pay $10 million and receive a one-year ban from soliciting new work in the state in order to settle allegations it mishandled its anti-money laundering review of U.K. bank Standard Chartered. The agreement, which also requires Deloitte "to implement reforms designed to address conflicts of interest," is part of…

[more]

Basel Rules Echo Missteps of S&L Era

06/19/13

In the S&L crisis, regulators manipulated capital to prop up ailing thrifts. Today, regulators embrace risk-based requirements assuming they can correctly predict the future.

[more]

Banking Runs on Talent, and the Industry's Running Low

06/18/13

Even great bankers cannot succeed when forced to compete in a market with an influx of new banks and a shortage of skilled bankers, wise directors, and experienced regulators.

[more]

Texas Construction Firm Caught in Rare Spider’s Web

06/18/13

You are a construction company in Harlingen, Texas, the heartland of tough, that’s been around since 1937. You’re working at a San Antonio road project, already strained by fuel prices that are higher than what you forecast in your contract bid, when which of the following triggers your collapse:

  1. Wind damage from a tornado.
  2. Untimely delays from an understaffed inspections department.
  3. An endangered spider that’s smaller than a dime.

It’s a lesson never to underestimate the power of small things.

[more]

Update -- The Sixth Circuit Rules IRAs Are Exempt

06/18/13

A few weeks ago, I posted about an apparent movement to challenge the bankruptcy-exempt status of IRAs based on boilerplate language commonly found in the account agreements of many of the nation's largest brokerages. The legal argument rested on hyper-technical interpretations of the Bankruptcy Code and the account agreements, but nonetheless several lower courts had ruled that debtors could lose their IRAs to the bankruptcy trustee.

[more]

Supreme Court to Consider Pro Se Challenge to Exemption Surcharge

06/18/13
In an unusual move, the Supreme Court granted cert yesterday to consider the petition of a California man who filed a pro se petition for cert seeking to review the decision of a bankruptcy court to surcharge his homestead exemption under section 105.   No. 12-5196, Law v. Siegel.   The petition for cert and other documents can be found here courtesy of scotusblog.com.  
[more]