 | | Featured Premium Content | | | | | WSJ Pro Bankruptcy: Appeals Court Won’t Return Serta Simmons Lender Dispute to New York
A federal appeals court won’t send the dispute between Serta Simmons Bedding lenders to New York, reaffirming its prior ruling that the mattress company overstepped by handing control of the company to one lender group over another, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans said it would not rehear its landmark December decision that Serta likely breached its debt contracts with a restructuring plan that favored a majority of its senior lenders while excluding others. READ MORE | | |  | | Editor's Picks | | | | | Spirit Airlines to Exit Bankruptcy Under Go-Private Deal
Spirit Airlines Inc. won court approval to leave bankruptcy via a lender-backed take-private deal after rejecting a takeover offer from rival Frontier Group Holdings Inc., Bloomberg News reported. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane said yesterday he would authorize Spirit’s restructuring plan, which hands control of the Florida-based discount airline to top bondholders. That group includes Ken Griffin’s Citadel Advisors, Pacific Investment Management Co. and Western Asset Management Co., according to court documents. READ MORE | | Synapse Executive Alerted Accountants Before $100 Million Missing Funds Scandal
A grand jury is investigating criminal misconduct at a Silicon Valley fintech firm where customer funds went missing, and has questioned an executive who raised alarms before the company collapsed, the Wall Street Journal reported. Synapse connected financial technology firms with banks, helping startups that marketed flashy savings apps find a place to park their digital customers’ funds. The middleman managed billions of dollars at its peak, before its sudden collapse in April left thousands of people unable to access their money. (Subscription required.) READ MORE | | Residents of Bankrupt NY Senior Home Face Big Losses in Private Equity Deal
Residents owed $130 million after their senior living community went bankrupt are poised to suffer big losses but won’t be left empty-handed under a sale agreement approved by a New York federal court, Bloomberg News reported. Current and former residents of The Harborside, a 329-unit continuing-care retirement community in Port Washington on Long Island’s North Shore, are anticipated to receive an initial $6 million distribution after a sale of the facility for $86 million to Chicago-based private equity firm Focus Healthcare Partners, according to a plan approved by a bankruptcy court on yesterday. They would also get additional distributions including as much as $36 million in the next one to two years after the senior home’s affiliate, Amsterdam Nursing Home Corp., sells its skilled-nursing facility on New York City’s Upper West Side. READ MORE
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April 24-26 | Washington, D.C. | | | | |  | | Daily Roundup | | | | | Funding Cuts at CFPB Seen Leading to ‘Regulatory Vacuum’ for Big Banks
Trump administration plans to slash funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau leave large federal banks without a functioning fraud watchdog—a major regulatory gap, according to a group of state attorneys general, the Wall Street Journal reported. With the CFPB’s “dormancy,” no federal regulator is conducting anti-consumer-fraud examinations on very large banks such as JPMorgan and Wells Fargo, a group of 23 state led by New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a court filing Wednesday. The AGs didn’t accuse any banks of wrongdoing. (Subscription required.) READ MORE | | Fed's Barr, Stepping Down from Regulatory Post, Warns Against Weaker Bank Rules
The Federal Reserve's top regulatory official cautioned yesterday against a weakening of bank rules and oversight that could make firms vulnerable to surprise shocks, Reuters reported. Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr, who is stepping down from the regulatory post at the end of February, cautioned against any push to significantly weaken existing bank rules and supervision, and urged watchdogs to complete international capital standards. READ MORE | | Commentary: Nikola’s Bankruptcy a Reality Check for Diesel Alternatives
The promise of zero-emission freight has suffered a big setback with Nikola Corp.’s bankruptcy. A company that once positioned itself as a disruptor in the trucking industry is dying a slow death, according to a commentary in Freight Waves. The electric- and hydrogen-powered truck manufacturer, once heralded as the Tesla of trucking, struggled with financial instability, supply chain challenges and a series of setbacks that ultimately led to its demise. READ MORE | | Buyout Firms Vie for Discount Retailer Family Dollar
Private equity firms Apollo Global Management and Sycamore Partners are among the bidders who are competing to acquire Family Dollar, a discount retail chain operated by Dollar Tree, Reuters reported. A deal for Family Dollar, which could value the retailer at several billion dollars, is not imminent, the sources said, cautioning that Dollar Tree could choose not to sell the business. It is also possible that a different suitor for Family Dollar could emerge. READ MORE | | I.R.S. Fires 6,700 Employees Amid Tax Filing Season
The Trump administration started firing about 6,700 employees at the Internal Revenue Service on Thursday, according to people familiar with the matter, extending its cost-cutting measures to the federal agency responsible for collecting tax revenue from millions of Americans, the New York Times reported. The job cuts at the I.R.S. are hitting probationary employees who were recently hired around the country. More than 5,000 of those workers are part of the agency’s compliance teams, which deal with auditing and collections. The layoffs are coming a week during tax filing season, when the I.R.S. will be inundated with paperwork and questions from taxpayers. READ MORE | | | | |
