src='/AM/Images/headlines/headline.gif' />
October 27, 2005
id='1'>Refco
Lawyer Knows Bankruptcy
J. Gregory Milmoe’s position as the lead bankruptcy lawyer
for Refco Inc.
has put him squarely at the center of one of the fastest-dissolving
bankruptcies
in U.S. corporate history, the Wall Street Journal reported
Tuesday.
On Oct. 17, Refco struck a tentative deal to sell its futures
trading unit
to J.C. Flowers & Co.—a deal that fell apart Monday. Last
week Milmoe
described Refco’s futures unit as an ice cube "melting at
an extraordinarily
rapid rate." Monday, in court before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge
Robert
Drain of New York, he indicated that the melting was continuing,
as still
more customers of the futures business were heading for the exits.
Read
the full story.
Meanwhile, a seventh firm emerged as a potential bidder for
Refco’s
prized futures business as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange called
for a speedy
end to the bid process, the U.K’s Times Online reported today.
Refco’s bankruptcy
filing last week has quickly become one of the biggest scandals to
hit corporate
America. In the past week, firms including Merrill Lynch and
Interactive Brokers
have expressed interest in acquiring all or parts of Refco.
href='http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,173-1844858,00.html'>Read
the full story.
id='2'>GM
Gets Probed by SEC
General Motors
Corp. (GM)
is being investigated over its pension accounting and transactions
with bankrupt
auto-parts maker Delphi Corp., Bloomberg News reported today. GM is
cooperating
with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after receiving
subpoenas,
the company said in an SEC filing today. The Detroit-based
automaker’s finance
unit, General Motors Acceptance Corp., is also being probed as part of
an SEC
and grand jury investigation of insurers. The agency is studying
whether companies
inflate profit or minimize earnings swings by using unreasonable
assumptions
to value pension assets and liabilities.
href='http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aEFv.353YgKM&refer=…'>Read
more.
id='3'>Governor
Taft Speaks Out about Delphi Bankruptcy
Ohio Gov. Bob Taft
is pledging
to do all he can to save jobs at Delphi’s plants in Ohio’s
Miami Valley,
NewsCenter 7 reported yesterday. Taft has been relatively quiet on the
Delphi
issue, in part because he was out of the country when the Delphi news
broke.
Taft said that he went right to work from Europe, calling Delphi CEO
Steve Miller
and telling him that the state is ready to do what it can to protect
jobs. However,
a final solution depends on union talks and court action.
href='http://www.whiotv.com/news/5182105/detail.html'>Read
more.
id='4'>WorldCom
Banks to Pay $600 Million
Citigroup Inc.,
JPMorgan
Chase & Co. and 12 other banks will pay more than $600 million to
settle
investor claims that they should have uncovered WorldCom Inc.’s
accounting fraud
before selling its bonds, Bloomberg News reported today. The
settlement with
about 60 retirement funds is separate from the $6.1 billion that the
same WorldCom
underwriters and former directors have agreed to pay since May 2004 to
resolve
a class-action investor fraud lawsuit. Pension funds, including the
California
Public Employees Retirement System, opted out of the broader case to
press their
claims individually.
href='http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=ariYT_ljElY0&refer=…'>Read
the full story.
id='5'>Deep
Ellum Venues, Dallas Restaurant File for Bankruptcy
Entertainment
Collaborative
Inc., the company behind Jeroboam restaurant in downtown Dallas and
Deep Ellum
nightspots Gypsy Tea Room and Trees, has filed for bankruptcy, the
Dallas
Business Journal reported yesterday. The bankruptcy filing was a
last-resort
effort by the Dallas-based company, which has been struggling do
business in
the shadow of the lawsuit that stemmed from a high-profile nightclub
brawl.
The company’s legal troubles began in April, when a family filed
a civil suit
against the Gypsy Tea Room and Entertainment Collaborative alleging
negligence.
The suit seeks damages for physical and mental injuries and is
scheduled for
an Oct. 2, 2006, trial, but the parties have been ordered to mediate
the case,
according to court records. The bankruptcy filing puts an immediate
hold on
the civil litigation.
href='http://dallas.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2005/10/24/daily29.html?t=…'>Read
the full story.
id='6'>Interstate
Bakeries Unable to File Report
Interstate Bakeries
Corp.,
the bankrupt maker of Hostess Twinkies and Wonder Bread, said
yesterday that
it won’t be able to file a required report on a defined benefit
pension plan
because of continuing accounting problems, the Associated Press
reported. The
Kansas City-based company said that the continued inability to file
its annual
and quarter reports, some going back more than a year, could lead to
it defaulting
on its debtor-on-possession financing if it can’t get a waiver
from its lenders
by year’s end. Company officials said that a new computer
accounting system
malfunctioned last summer, one of many reasons given for forcing the
company
to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors in
September 2004.
The company also blamed the computer problems for not being able to
file annual
and quarterly reports on the pension plan with the Securities and
Exchange Commission.
href='http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/10/26/financial/f1104…'>Read
the full story.