WSJcomBankruptcyBeat

Ambac Financial Group Inc. said it doesn’t owe hundreds of millions of dollars in back taxes that the Internal Revenue Service is going after, a claim that contributed to Ambac’s filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last fall. Read the Daily Bankruptcy Review story here.

Young Buck has an important gig on July 1. But the Nashville rapper won’t be performing before his adoring fans. Instead, he’ll be answering questions about the whereabouts of performance and appearance fees he’s supposed to turn over as part of his bankruptcy.

The days of crash-and-burn bankruptcies may be flaming out.

An AlixPartners LLP survey released Wednesday found that most restructuring professionals expect that more than 50% of the large companies filing for Chapter 11 in the next 12 months will have at least a semblance of a turnaround plan in place when they enter bankruptcy.

And nearly all those surveyed, 97%, said those so-called prearranged and prepackaged filings have become a permanent part of the bankruptcy landscape.

The allegations have all the literary ingredients for an alluring spy novel: corporate profits made from price-fixing schemes, secret meetings held throughout Europe and a conspiracy among industry giants who have a tight grip on one arm of the worldwide retail supply chain.

A California bankruptcy court Monday ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act violates the equal-protection guarantee of the U.S. Constitution.

In a decision Monday signed in Los Angeles by 20 judges of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California, the court found that “there is no valid governmental basis for DOMA.” Read the full decision here.