src='/AM/Images/headlines/headline.gif' />
December 1, 2005
name='1'>U.S.
Zeroes In on Bankruptcy Insiders
The Securities and
Exchange
Commission (SEC) is investigating the growing role of hedge funds in
bankruptcy
proceedings on concern that money managers are overstating their bond
holdings
to get access to inside information, Bloomberg News reported
yesterday. The
U.S. regulators are trying to determine whether the funds exaggerate
their stakes
to gain membership on committees that oversee debt restructurings for
bankrupt
companies. The creditors’ committees are privy to developments
that may affect
the value of a company’s bonds, such as takeover offers, before
they are disclosed
to the public.
href='http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/29/news/bxsec.php'>Read
more.
id='2'>Bankruptcy
Court Denies Refco Delay Appeal
A federal
bankruptcy court
yesterday refused to delay a request by Refco Inc.’s unsecured
creditors to
subpoena records connected with the company’s collapse, Dow
Jones Newswire reported
today. Judge Robert Drain said that the committee demand
documents related
to the hidden losses that triggered the scandal-ridden brokerage
firm’s meltdown
last month, and to Refco’s $583 million initial public offering
in August. The
committee is demanding records from Phillip Bennett, Refco’s
former boss, and
other former executives, as well as buyout shop Thomas Lee Partners,
which took
the company public, and company accountant Grant Thornton LLP.
Airlines
id='3'>United
Plans to Issue Equity after Chapter 11 Exit
Glenn Tilton,
chairman and
CEO of United Airlines, said yesterday that the carrier plans to make
a substantial
equity issue in the middle of next year in order to transform its
balance sheet
after emerging from chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the Financial
Times
reported yesterday. The exit from chapter 11 is scheduled to take
place around
Feb. 1, 2006, Tilton said in a speech to the UK Aviation Club in
London. Read
more.
id='4'>Judge
Wants Facts in Delta Case in Context
On the fifth day of
hearings
focused on Delta Airlines Inc.’s request to break a collective
bargaining agreement
with its pilots, Judge Prudence Carter Beatty hinted at how she
may arrive
at a decision on this hotly contested aspect of the airline’s
bankruptcy case,
the Associated Press reported yesterday. Amid testimony by a Wall
Street financier
who advocated a plan seeking wage cuts from pilots, Beatty said that
given the
complexities of the carrier’s business, she wanted to examine
the facts in context.
href='http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/30/AR2005113001921.html'>Read
more.
id='5'>NWA
Losses Grow
Northwest Airlines
Corp.
lost $346 million in the six weeks following its chapter 11 filing,
the company
reported in a bankruptcy court filing yesterday, the
Minneapolis/St. Paul
Business Journal reported today. The Eagan, Minn.-based carrier
lost $136
million from operations and $158 million for reorganization costs from
the time
of its chapter 11 filing on Sept. 14 through Oct. 31. Other losses
were for
such items as interest expenses. For the third quarter ended Sept. 30,
Northwest
posted a loss of $475 million. The company said that it expects to
lose $1.7
billion in 2005.
id='6'>N.J.
Judge Orders the Arrest of Swindler
A Superior Court
judge ordered
Joseph Greenblatt’s arrest yesterday after the accused swindler
failed to show
up for a civil court hearing in her Newark courtroom, NorthJersey.com
reported
today. Greenblatt, who was cited for contempt of court and sent to
jail for
one night in November for failing to provide his financial records to
a court-appointed
receiver, has still provided the information, Judge Harriet Klein said
yesterday.
He was sued on charges of securities fraud and racketeering and the
suit, which
accuses Greenblatt of defrauding investors of more than $40 million,
is a civil
matter, but Greenblatt also faces criminal fraud prosecution in three
other
courts. Greenblatt filed for chapter 11 protection for his various
corporate
entities in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York in May and filed Tuesday
href='http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkyOSZmZ2JlbDdmN3ZxZWVFRXl5NjgyODU1NCZ5cmlyeTdmNzE3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTI='>Read
more.
id='7'>Friedman’s
Settles Fraud Charges for $2 Million, Consents to Injunction
Bankrupt jewelry
retailer
Friedman’s Inc. will pay $2 million to settle allegations of
securities fraud,
the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said yesterday, the
Atlanta
Chronicle reported. The SEC filed a settled enforcement action in
New York
charging the Savannah, Ga.-based company with securities fraud and
violating
certain books and records provisions of the securities laws.
href='http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2005/11/28/daily24.html'>Read
more.
id='8'>Bombardier
Turns In a Loss Amid Job-Cut Costs
Bombardier Inc.
swung to
a net loss of $9 million in the fiscal third quarter, as weakness in
its regional-jet
business and costs to cut jobs at a railcar unit outweighed rising
business-jet
sales, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The board,
meanwhile,
deferred a high-stakes decision on whether to launch the
company’s proposed
CSeries jetliner. The chapter 11 bankruptcy filings of four of
Bombardier’s
U.S. airline customers—Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines,
Independence
Air operator FLYi Inc. and MAIR Holdings Inc.’s Mesaba
Aviation—during
the quarter sapped $40 million from earnings, company officials said.
The chapter
11 filings also prompted Bombardier to boost provisions for credit
guarantees,
contributing to the $40 million impact.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113335609845710106-search.html?KEYWORDS=bankruptcy&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month%20'>Free
registration required to read
more.
id='9'>Krispy
Kreme Likely Won’t Meet Deadline
A number-by-number
revision
of flawed financial statements dating back four years will probably
keep Krispy
Kreme Doughnuts Inc. from meeting a Dec. 15 deadline set by its
lenders for
submitting the overdue reports, the company’s interim CEO said
yesterday, according
to the New York Times. ”To ensure they are properly
stated and accounted
for, it gets done at a very molecular level,” turnaround
specialist Stephen
Cooper told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from the
company’s
Winston-Salem headquarters.
href='http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Krispy-Kreme.html'>Read
more. (Free registration required)
International
id='10'>James
Hardie Signs Asbestos Compensation Agreement
James Hardie
Industries Ltd.
signed a long-delayed final compensation agreement today to pay more
than A$3
billion ($2.2 billion U.S.) to victims of asbestos-related diseases in
Australia
over the next 40 years, Reuters reported today. The agreement with the
New South
Wales state government brings the firm a step closer to setting up a
new fund
to replace one set up in 2001 that was rapidly running out of money.
Hardie’s
share price jumped nearly 6 per cent as investors reacted to the end
of the
uncertainty over a settlement. Tax deductibility of Hardie’s
compensation payments
remains the last key issue to be resolved. The company is awaiting
government
approval for its payments to be tax deductible, and it also aims to
ask its
lenders and shareholders to approve the plan in early 2006 before it
creates
the new fund.
href='http://www.financialexpress.com/latest_full_story.php?content_id=110256'>Read
more.
id='11'>U.K.
Judges “Troubled” By Enron Extradition Bid
Two British senior
judges
said yesterday that they were "troubled" by the U.S.
government’s
bid to extradite three British bankers on Enron-related fraud charges
when the
target of the alleged crimes was a London-based bank, Bloomberg
reported. David
Bermingham, Giles Darby and Gary Mulgrew are appealing a ruling
authorizing
their extradition to the United States to face seven counts of wire
fraud.
href='http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/30/business/enron.php'>Read
more.