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November 23, 2005
name='1'>Now,
Two Lawsuits Filed Against BAPCPA
GeisenbergerCooper
&
Lanza PC filed a lawsuit on Oct. 19 against the Attorney General of
the United
States, the 3rd Region U.S. Trustee and the Attorney General of
Pennsylvania,
according to Jacques H. Geisenberger, Jr. The suit was filed to
prevent
their joint and several enforcement of certain provisions of BAPCPA,
which,
in his opinion, impinges upon an attorney’s ability to properly
advise bankruptcy.
The suit objects to the designation of attorneys as debt-relief
agents. An additional
count is directed to an attorney’s participation in the
reaffirmation of debt
process, specifically the attorney certification requirements and the
change
in language from "hardship" to "undue hardship" of
the certification
itself. Another suit was filed earlier this month.
href='http://www.geiscoop.com/bapcpa.pdf'>Download
the GeisenbergerCooper & Lanza filing.
id='2'>Policy
Makers Consider End to Rate-hiking Campaign
Policy-makers are
considering
how to end the Fed’s present rate hiking campaign.
href='http://money.cnn.com/2005/11/22/news/economy/fed_minutes_statement/index.htm'>Read
the full story and Fed minutes.
id='3'>Insurers
Cool to N.Y. Proposal to Freeze Access to Consumer Credit
Insurance company
lobbyists
urged New York lawmakers in Albany this week to refrain from blocking
insurers’
access to consumer credit information as part of their efforts to
protect consumers
from identity theft, the Insurance Journal reported today. The
lawmakers
are considering a measure that would allow consumers concerned about
identity
theft to place a security freeze on their credit information. Property
Casualty
Insurers Association of America, maintained that utilizing existing
fraud alert
and other identity theft protections would be more helpful to
consumers than
placing a blanket freeze on their credit information. The American
Insurance
Association told the same joint hearing of the New York State
Senate’s Consumer
Protection Committee and Assembly Consumer Affairs and Protection
Committee
that any security freeze legislation aimed at combating identity theft
should
not prevent property-casualty insurers from conducting normal business
href='http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/east/2005/11/22/62282.htm?print=1'>Read
the full story.
id='4'>Settlement
Reached in W. Va. Asbestos Suit
West Virginia
University
(WVU) has reached a settlement in a class-action lawsuit affecting up
to 5,600
former and current employees who may have been exposed to asbestos,
the Associated
Press reported yesterday. As part of the proposed settlement, WVU will
institute
and pay for a medical surveillance program to be conducted for 20
years and
also agreed to pay $1 million to cover potential claims and attorney
fees. A
judge must approve the agreement before it becomes final. A hearing is
href='http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_University_Asbestos.html'>Read
more.
id='5'>Fitch
Takes Dim View of GM Moves
Fitch Ratings said
the plant-closing
plan General Motors Corp. unveiled this week doesn’t go far
enough to return
the auto maker to positive cash flow in 2006, one of several signs
that Wall
Street isn’t satisfied with the effort, the Wall Street
Journal reported
today.The reaction from ratings-firm Fitch, which already has a
"junk"
credit rating on GM debt, helped spark a selloff in GM shares
yesterday that
took the stock down 31 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $23.27 at 4 p.m.
yesterday
in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113270695413204724-search.html?KEYWORDS=bankruptcy&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month%20'>Read
more.
id='6'>Sister
in Lotto Triangle Seeks Bankruptcy
Mary and Ann Lackey
met Robert
Swofford Jr. when all three worked at a mail processing facility in
Lakeland.
He fathered children by both 12 years ago, and for a while they all
lived together
as one happy family, the Orlando Sentinel reported yesterday.
Today,
Ann Lackey Swofford is a millionaire. Mary Lackey has filed for
bankruptcy.
Because Ann Lackey married Swofford and was still married to him when
he won
a $60 million Florida Lotto jackpot a year ago, she is rich. She
reached a divorce
settlement that called for her to get $5.25 million, after taxes, of
the $34.7
million lump-sum jackpot Swofford took. Mary Lackey had to settle for
$2,535
a month in child support after a long legal battle. She owes her
attorney, Robert
Sigman of Maitland, $27,000. Mary Lackey said she had hoped that
Swofford would
be forced to pay her attorney’s fees. When that didn’t
happen, she said she
saw no way out other than to file for chapter 7 bankruptcy.
href='http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-lackey2205nov22,0,3006777.story?coll=orl-news-headlines-state'>Read
more.
id='7'>JPSCo’s
Parent Inching Away from Bankruptcy
Mirant Corp., the
parent
of the Jamaica Public Service (JPS), will likely emerge from its
current bankruptcy
protection under a new ownership structure, the Jamaica
Observer reported
yesterday. Under a deal which has been agreed to by most of
Mirant’s creditors,
half of the company’s debt will be converted into a large chunk
of shares in
the "new Mirant" that will be placed before the bankruptcy
court next
month. Currently, Mirant has in issue 405 million shares, or 20
percent, of
total authorized shares, but these shares will become meaningless once
href='http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/magazines/Business/html/20051122T200000-0500_93063_OBS_JPSCO_S_PARENT_INCHING_AWAY_FROM_BANKRUPTCY.asp'>Read
more.
id='8'>Skyway
Communications Courts ‘White Knight’ Cash Infusion
Mired in bankruptcy
and protracted
civil litigation, Skyway Communications, the defunct Clearwater, Fla.,
in-flight
entertainment and airplane security firm, is now getting a lift, the
Tampa
Bay Business Journal reported Monday. Skyway is considering two
"white
knights," potential equity infusions that would pay back
creditors 100
percent, said Skyway’s former president Brent C. Kovar, a lead
creditor himself.
At the same time, the bankruptcy case just encountered another head
wind. Lynn
W. Sherman, the debtor’s Tampa bankruptcy lawyer who has been
working to keep
the case a chapter 11 bankruptcy with possible reorganization, as
opposed to
a total liquidation, is now withdrawing from the case. She is the
second attorney
to withdraw as Skyway’s bankruptcy counsel. She took over from
David Steen,
who initially took a Humvee as a retainer on the case but gave it back
href='http://www.bizjournals.com/industries/economic_view/bankruptcies/2005/11/21/tampabay_story7.html'>Read
the full story.
id='9'>Loral
Plans New Hiring Drive
Loral Space &
Communications
Inc., emerging from more than two years of federal bankruptcy court
protection,
is looking at adding as many as 600 employees to the current 1,600
workforce
of its satellite-making unit as part of a continuing push to retain
momentum
in that segment, according to Chairman and CEO Bernard Schwartz, the
Wall
Street Journal reported today. The New York
satellite-communications company
also issued 20 million new common shares to certain creditors. The
company’s
prior common and preferred stock was canceled and holders of those
shares will
get nothing. Once the new shares are distributed, they will begin
trading on
the Nasdaq Stock Market under the ticker symbol LORL.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113270306379904612-search.html?KEYWORDS=bankruptcy&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month'>Read
more.
id='10'>Lawsuits,
Debts Plague Owner of Ohio Firm
Larry Jones opened
offices
in Columbus and Dayton, Ohio, as his business, Erie Shores Computer
Inc. in
Elyria, Ohio, brought in lucrative government contracts, the Plain
Dealer
reported yesterday. The 56-year-old businessman was asked to join at
least two
dozen boards, including PremierBank in Elyria, now FirstMerit. When
Elyria needed
to raise $200,000 for a community center, the mayor tapped Jones to
lead the
charge. Today, Jones is out of money and the public limelight. He
filed for
bankruptcy last month, claiming nearly $4 million in debts.
Jones’ wife, Barbara,
Erie Shores’ board secretary, filed for bankruptcy last year.
href='http://www.cleveland.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news/1132738309165570.xml?nohio&coll=2'>Read
more.
id='11'>Bankruptcy
Reforms Keeping Credit Counselors Busy
Life has been quiet
these
past few weeks for consumer bankruptcy lawyer Robert Waud. The calm
came in
the wake of a deluge of bankruptcy filings before Oct. 17, the
Business Journal
of Milwaukee reported Monday. In U.S. Bankruptcy Court of
Wisconsin’s Eastern
District, 7,207 bankruptcy cases were filed between Oct. 1-Oct. 17.
Sixty cases
were filed from Oct. 18-Oct. 31. "After the 17th I
sent a number of people
to counseling—they simply accept at this point that’s what
they have to
do," said Waud, of Schober & Radtke, New Berlin. "But I
have yet
to have someone come back to me who did the counseling and say,
‘Let’s file,’
" he said.
href='http://www.bizjournals.com/industries/economic_view/bankruptcies/2005/11/21/milwaukee_focus3.html'>Read
the full story.
id='12'>Refco
Tries to Stop Swiss Broker Diluting Stake
Bankrupt futures brokerage Refco Inc. said yesterday that it was
seeking
an injunction in a Swiss court to stop a majority-owned online
foreign exchange
broker from diluting its 51 percent stake, The New York-based firm
said it
had become aware of an attempt by minority shareholders of
Geneva-based ACM
Advanced Currency Markets SA to increase the share capital of ACM
and thereby
dilute Refco’s 51 percent ownership.
href='http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=mergersNews&storyID=2005-11-22T231239Z_01_N22411582_RTRIDST_0_FINANCIAL-REFCO.XML'>Read
the full story.
In other news,
href='http://www.newyorkbusiness.com/news.cms?id=12342'>Man
Financial may have to pay an additional $5 million for Refco’s
key futures-trading
unit because the sale wasn’t closed Monday, the Associated
Press reported
yesterday. Man Financial, the Chicago-based brokerage arm of giant
hedge fund
Man Group, beat several other bidders in a marathon auction Nov. 9
and 10
to buy Refco for $323 million. The purchase agreement approved by
federal
bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain Nov. 10 had said that if the sale
wasn’t closed
by Nov. 21, the purchase price would be increased by $5 million.
id='13'>Attorneys
Ask Delphi Judge for Documents
Attorneys for
investors who
sued Delphi Corp. just days before the auto parts maker declared
bankruptcy
are asking a bankruptcy judge to allow them access to company
documents in their
case against the company’s former executives, the Associated
Press reported
yesterday. The investors also objected to the company’s
executive compensation
plan. The plaintiffs in the suit against Delphi executives include a
Mississippi
and an Oklahoma pension fund, an Austrian fund manager and a Dutch
pension fund.
The suit alleges Delphi’s former managers fraudulently inflated
the company’s
financial results.
href='http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/051122/delphi_bankruptcy_lawsuit.html?.v=2'>Read
more.
id='14'>Sidney
Moncrief Files Bankruptcy, Faces New Lawsuit
Sidney Moncrief,
the former
NBA and University of Arkansas at Fayetteville basketball star, has
filed for
chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, ArkansasBusiness.com reported
yesterday. Moncrief,
who has been at the center of several collection lawsuits since 2004,
has listed
debts between $500,001 and $1 million and assets in the same financial
range.
On Oct. 10, just three days before Moncrief filed for bankruptcy
protection,
Twin City Bank of North Little Rock sued Moncrief in Pulaski County
Circuit
Court in an attempt to collect $20,780 on a defaulted promissory note
he signed
in September 2004.
href='http://arkansasbusiness.com/news/headline_article.asp?aid=42496'>Read
the full story.
id='15'>Interstate
Bakeries Corp. Announces Sales and Delivery Route Consolidations
Interstate Bakeries Corp. said today that it plans to consolidate
sales and
retail operations in its North Central, South Central and Southeast
profit
centers by standardizing distribution and consolidating delivery
routes and
bakery outlets throughout the individual PCs, PRNewswire said in a
press report
yesterday. The company’s 16 bakeries within these regions are
currently expected
to remain open. The company’s preliminary estimate of charges
to be incurred
in connection with the consolidations in the North Central, South
Central
and Southeast PCs announced today is approximately $3 million,
including approximately
$1 million of severance charges and approximately $2 million in
other charges,
with virtually all such charges resulting in future cash
expenditures.
href='http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/11-22-2005/0004221777&EDATE'>Read
the full release.
International
id='16'>Bankruptcy
Recovery Bill Published in Scotland
Legislation to help
individuals
and small businesses in Scotland get back on their feet following debt
problems
and bankruptcy was published at Holyrood, the Scotsman reported
yesterday.
The Executive’s Bankruptcy and Diligence (Scotland) Bill aims to
strike a better
balance between creditor and debtor rights and to support enterprising
Scots
who take responsible risks in business. The bill, if passed next year,
would
reduce from three years to one the period in which those declared
bankrupt face
severe borrowing restrictions and are banned from holding
directorships or certain
public sector posts.
href='http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2283382005'>Read
more.
id='17'>Kazakhstan
Senate Approves Bankruptcy Changes
Deputies of the
senate have
approved the law "On Changes and Amendments in Several
Legislative Acts
on Bankruptcy" in the first reading today at a plenary meeting of
the chamber,
Kazakhstan Today reported today. The draft law suggests an
introduction
of an institute of external supervision over the bankruptcy procedure
to provide
safety of the debtor’s property, reveal evidences of a
deliberate bankruptcy,
analyze financial condition of the debtor and his/her actions to avoid
performance
of commitments before his/her creditors and to strike deals on
alienation of
basic funds. Read
more.