January 162008

 

name='1'>Former North Carolina District Attorney Files

for Bankruptcy

Michael Nifong, the
former

face='Times New Roman' size='3'>North Carolina
size='3'>district attorney who pursued

rape charges against three
w:st='on'>

size='3'>Duke
face='Times New Roman'

size='3'>University
size='3'>lacrosse players and then resigned

after he was accused of withholding evidence, has filed for bankruptcy,
Bloomberg News reported today. Nifong,

stripped of his law license by the North Carolina State Bar for his
handling of the case, listed debt of $180.3

million and assets of $243,898 in documents filed today in U.S.
Bankruptcy Court in Durham, N.C.

size='3'> He resigned from his post as Durham County District
Attorney in July. Three Duke lacrosse players

were indicted after a
w:st='on'>

size='3'>Durham woman
alleged she was raped at a March 2006 team

party. The charges were later dropped, and the young men sued Nifong for

prosecutorial misconduct. Collin

Finnerty, David F. Evans and Reade Seligmann are listed as unsecured
creditors, each owed $30 million, in

Nifong's bankruptcy filing. Three other current and former players who
sued Nifong are also listed as

creditors. 

href='http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601079&sid=aCZsc7aJFP5k&refer=home'>Read

more.

Mortgage
Lending

name='2'>Subprime Write-Downs Hit $174 Billion,

Suits to Rise

A report by insurance
analysts Advisen Ltd. found that companies

burned by the crisis in the subprime mortgage industry have written down

a staggering $174 billion from their

books and will likely face numerous lawsuits,
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Bankruptcy

Law360 reported yesterday.

face='Times New Roman' size='3'>The

figure includes Citigroup's $18 billion write-down revealed Tuesday.
Advisen Editor-in-Chief Dave Bradford

predicted that subprime-related write-downs could reach a staggering
$350 billion in another six months when

defaults peak and foreclosures soar as interest rates on subprime
mortgages are reset. The report released by

Advisen – an information provider to the commercial insurance
industry – reveals that 112

corporations have reported subprime write-downs so far, which represent
just a small percentage of the companies'

total subprime exposure. 

href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/secure/ViewArticle.aspx?Id=44106'>Read

more. (Registration required.)

name='3'>J.P. Morgan Posts 34 Percent Fall in Net on

Subprime-Related Write-Downs

J.P. Morgan Chase &
Co.'s fourth-quarter net income fell 34

percent as the company recorded $1.3 billion in markdowns on subprime
positions and saw sharply higher credit

costs, the Wall Street
Journal reported

today. J.P. Morgan's return on equity, an important measure of
profitability at financial firms, fell to 10

percent from 16 percent as credit-loss provisions more than doubled to
$2.54 billion. Profits at the company's

investment bank, which includes the markdowns, fell 88 percent to $124
million. 

href='http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB120047373238594231.html'>Read

more. (Registration

required.)

name='4'>New Century Failed to Give Up

Documents

New Century Financial
Corp. failed to hand over more than 700,000

documents to the investigator appointed by a bankruptcy court to probe
suspected accounting wrongs, the

Associated Press reported yesterday. Blaming errors by an outside
vendor, the defunct mortgage company said in

court papers filed Monday that its lapse was 'an unfortunate setback' in

efforts to cooperate with Michael J.

Missal, the veteran bankruptcy investigator named to find out what went
wrong at New Century. Missal has asked

for more time to complete his report, which was originally due to be
filed this week in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court

in

size='3'>Wilmington,
w:st='on'>

size='3'>Del. He said
wrangles over documents with New Century and

its former auditors at KPMG held up the investigation. Missal
has requested until March to complete his

work. 
href='http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/01/15/ap4534339.html'>Read
more.

name='5'>American Home Unveils Fresh Woes on

Expenses

American Home Mortgage
Investment Corp. accidentally paid about

$190,000 in travel and expense reimbursements to 236 employees it
dismissed last year, but claims it would

be too costly to try to get the money back, the
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Wall Street

Journal reported today. The mortgage lender,
arguing that it couldn't afford the

$45,000-a-month cost of maintaining them, asked Bankruptcy Judge

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&#

10;Roman' size='3'>Chris

size='3'>topher Sontchi on Friday to let its
former employees keep their

reimbursements. Judge Sontchi will consider the request at a Feb. 1
hearing. 

href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120045940529794153.html'>Read
more. (Registration

required.)

Meat
Company’s Liquidation Leaves Little

Left for Creditors

A federal judge on Monday

signed off on the sale of all of Topps

Meat Co.'s assets for more than $1.25 million, essentially closing the
beleaguered meat processor's bankruptcy

proceedings, Bankruptcy
Law360 reported

yesterday. Previously one of the largest producers of ground beef in
the

w:st='on'>
size='3'>U.S., the company
was

forced into bankruptcy after initiating the second-largest beef recall
in the nation's history after it was

linked to six cases of E. coli poisoning in
w:st='on'>New York
size='3'>. According to the approval order on

Monday, the Topps name and most of the company's equipment was sold to
TMC Acquisition Co. for $800,000. It will

also buy 2.2 million pounds of Topps' hamburgers for up to 10 cents a
pound. The sale leaves only $107,500

remaining to be split among the nearly 5,000 unsecured creditors,
including those seeking damages because of the

E. coli outbreak. 

href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/Secure/ViewArticle.aspx?id=44196'>Read

more.

(Registration required.)

NYRA
Gets Exclusivity Extension

Bankruptcy Judge

size='3'>James M. Peck agreed on Monday to
extend the New York Racing

Association’s (NYRA) exclusivity period, allowing the bankrupt
racing franchise to make it through the

confirmation hearing of its reorganization plan next week,

size='3'>Bankruptcy Law360 reported yesterday.

With the courts approval, NYRA’s

exclusivity period has now been extended to Feb. 14. 
size='3'>A confirmation hearing on the

third amended plan of reorganization NYRA filed in the fall is scheduled

for Jan. 23, pushed back from its

original Dec. 27 date. 

href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/Secure/ViewArticle.aspx?id=44130'>Read

more. (Registration required.)

name='8'>Radnor Looks for Exclusivity Extension for

Chapter 11 Plan

Radnor Holdings Corp. has
sought more time to finalize and obtain

support for its chapter 11 plan without the threat of competing plans
being filed in the company’s

bankruptcy case, the Associated Press reported yesterday. The former cup

maker, which is modifying its chapter 11

plan with the help of its creditors and new owner, said in court
documents Monday that it would like to have the

exclusive right to obtain support for the document until April 21.
Radnor's current deadline to obtain creditors'

support was scheduled to expire on Monday. The court is scheduled to
consider Radnor's request for an exclusivity

extension on Feb. 11. 
href='http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/01/15/ap4534841.html'>Read

more.

size='3'>Commerce Dept.

Report Shows Consumers Holding Back on Spending
size='3'> 

The Commerce Department
issued a report yesterday indicating that

consumers cut back on their spending at the nation’s retailers in
December, wrapping up the weakest sales

year since 2002, the Associated Press reported yesterday. The reported
showed a 0.4 percent drop in retail sales

in December, which followed a brisk 1 percent gain in
November.  The report was much

weaker than many economists were expecting. They were forecasting
overall sales to be flat last month and for

sales — excluding autos — to drop by 0.1 percent. 

href='http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/16/business/16econ.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=business&pagewanted

=print'>Read more.

International

name='10'>EU Lawmakers Reach Compromise on Consumer

Credit

European Union lawmakers
reached a broad cross-party deal yesterday on a

measure aimed at making it easier for the bloc's 490 million consumers
to obtain cheaper personal loans, Reuters

reported yesterday. Under the measure, consumers would have to be given
standardized information about loans so

they could compare offers easily and thereby spur competition to drive
down the annual percentage rate of

interest. People would also have a right to withdraw from a loan within
14 days -- a new feature in many EU

states -- and to repay the loan early. The European Parliament's biggest

bloc, the centre-right European People's

Party (EPP), decided to back an accord reached last Friday between EU
states and the assembly's Socialists and

Liberals on the proposal. Amendments tabled by the EPP are now expected
to be dropped in advance of today’s

vote on the measure as the party has also agreed there should be no
conciliation. 

href='http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSL1525305320080115'>Read

more.