Bankruptcy Blogs

A Bummer Party for SOX, As Libor Party Gets Messier

07/30/12

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Happy Birthday, Dear SOX: Remember that big financial law that came between the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and the Dodd-Frank Act? Policymakers and pundits have spent so much time lately debating whether to roll back those two laws that we (I'll omit the auditing department from this blanket reference) have forgotten the Sarbanes-Oxley Act that was supposed to clean up auditing conflicts, public disclosures and do other things to renew our faith in public...

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Exit Consents Killed in England?

07/27/12

The English High Court just ruled in Assenagon Asset Management S.A. v. Irish Bank Resolution Corporation Limited (formerly Anglo Irish Bank) that a popular technique used to pressure bondholders to participate in a debt restructuring, as deployed by Anglo Irish in late 2010, violated English law and the terms of the Trust Deed.

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The Broke and the Beautiful: Curt Schilling Edition

07/27/12

This week on The Broke and the Beautiful, Curt Schilling’s 38 Studios is in the news, and we’ve got a feeling the Black Eyes Peas aren’t too happy with their ex-manager. Also, the bankruptcy of Westlife’s Shane Filan has sparked debate over “bankruptcy tourism.”

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Sued? Fear Not!

07/27/12

Often, the final trigger leading a client to call me is getting suedfor a credit card. Fear !! Scarlet Letters!! Branded For Life!!  The suit can be a good thing.  You have defenses, and now you start planning for your financial fresh start instead of being hunkered down in your sweat box.  Even though there’s not enough money for a bankruptcy filing just yet.

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Editor's Note

07/27/12

Several BankThink opinion columns written by Joel Sucher, published between October 2011 and June 2012, mentioned the law firm of Stephen J. Baum, Litton Loan Servicing, or both. The columns should have disclosed that Baum's firm, working on behalf of Litton, had attempted to foreclose on the writer's property in 2009. American Banker's editors were unaware of this history at the time the columns were published....

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Here's Why the Visa/MasterCard Swipe Fee Agreement Will Fail

07/27/12

If the agreement is approved, any merchant who has accepted Visa or MasterCard since 2004 will be unable to sue regarding interchange, network rules, merchant fees and related issues, even if that merchant is not receiving funds from the settlement.

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Sovereign Debt

07/27/12

From the the second volumn of J.F. Molloy, Court Life Below Stairs (rev ed. 1885), regarding events after the death of George III's spouse, Queen Charlotte:

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