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May 22000

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Brought to you

exclusively by the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI).

color='#000000'>May 2, 2000

 


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style='color:black'>Press Conference To Be Held Today on H.R.
833


style='color:black'>Sen.

Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.)
and other

senators will hold a news
conference

this morning to discuss
opposition

to bankruptcy revision
legislation

currently pending in the
House (H.R.

833). The results of the
news conference

will be sent via an ABI
Network Update

to ABI members later today,
and will

be posted in tomorrow's
headlines.


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style='color:black'>Texas Cargo Airline Kitty Hawk Declares
Bankruptcy

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style='color:black'>Kitty

Hawk, an air cargo business
based

at Dallas/Fort Worth
Airport, announced

it and all of its
subsidiaries had

filed for chapter 11
yesterday in

the Northern District of
Texas in

Fort Worth, the
style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>Ft.

Worth Star Telegram
reported.

The company, which operates
out of

the west cargo area of D/FW
Airport,

reported book value assets
of $907

million and debts of $512
million

as of March 31, citing a
soft market

for air freight and
maintenance costs

that ran higher than
expected. "This

was a cash flow
problem," said

Fort Worth bankruptcy
attorney John

D. Penn of Haynes and
Boone LLP,

which represents Kitty
Hawk. A day

earlier, the company's
board dismissed

founder M. Tom Christopher
as chairman

and chief executive, who
founded the

airline in 1975. His
dismissal came

shortly after the abrupt
resignation

of Paul Tate, who joined
Kitty Hawk

on April 1 as senior vice
president

and chief financial
officer. In addition,

Kitty Hawk announced that
Conrad Kalitta

had resigned from the Board
of Directors

on Saturday. The company
said it cannot

make a $17 million interest
payment

on debt due May 15, and is
in default

on $35 million in plane
repairs. The

company operates 105 owned
and leased

aircraft, has 2,290
employees and

operates freight cargo
service to

50 cities through its hub
in Fort

Wayne, Ind. Kitty Hawk
announced Friday

that it was suspending its
international

business, which primarily
included

daily service between Los
Angeles

and Honolulu and weekly
service to

the Pacific Rim. Haynes and
Boone

attorneys
style='mso-bidi-font-weight:

normal'>Robert D. Albertgotti and
style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>Sarah

B. Foster are also
working on

the case.
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style='color:black'>TransCoastal Marine's GMP Unit Files Chapter
11


style='color:black'>TransCoastal

Marine Services Inc.'s
(TCMS) Dickson

GMP International Inc. unit
announced

yesterday it had filed a
voluntary

chapter 11 petition,
according to

a newswire report.
Transcoastal Marine

said the action was
triggered by $28

million in claims made
against the

company by Chevron Global
Technology

Services Co. relating to
Dickson's

fabrication of platforms
and wellheads,

installed and operating
offshore Venezuela,

totaling $86 million.
Dickson GMP

said it believes Chevron's
claims

are unfounded and without
merit, but

that Chevron's pursuit of
the claims

has made it impossible for
TransCoastal

Marine to complete a
recapitalization

that would allow an equity
infusion

into Dickson. TransCoastal
Marine

sells pipeline installation
and repair

services.


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style='color:black'>P-SUB I Announces Voluntary Chapter 11
Filing


style='color:black'>TIS

Mortgage Investment Co.
announced

yesterday that P-SUB I
Inc., an indirect

wholly owned subsidiary
that owns

and operates two shopping
centers

in San Francisco's North
Bay area,

filed for chapter 11 on
Friday, according

to a newswire report. P-SUB
I said

it filed in order to
protect the shareholders

equity pending a resolution
of the

company's differences with
its major

lender, Ocwen Federal Bank,
which

purchased a secured
financing by P-SUB

I Inc. from a previous
lender in January.

P-SUB I said it believes
that the

loan maturity is June 1,
while Ocwen

asserts that the loan
matured in January

and is now in default.
P-SUB I is

in discussions with
possible sources

of replacement financing
for the loan.

TIS Mortgage Investment Co.
is a San

Francisco-based real estate
investment

trust (REIT) that, through
its subsidiary

companies, owns and
operates apartment

communities in California's
Central

Valley and shopping centers
in San

Francisco's North Bay
area.


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style='color:black'>Motorola Still Hoping to Sell Iridium

Motorola
Inc., Schaumburg,

Ill.,
style='color:black'> said

yesterday it still hoped to
find a

buyer for Iridium LLC, the
financially

troubled satellite
telephone company

it bankrolled, and said
that the satellites

have not yet been
destroyed, according

to Reuters. "It is in
a phase

right now where it is still
accepting...offers,"

said Robert Growney,
Motorola's president

and chief operating
officer. "Hopefully

very soon we will see a new
operator

of Iridium
emerge."


style='color:black'>Despite

plans announced in March
that had

called for them to be taken
out of

orbit, Growney said that
Iridium's

66 satellites, which allow
users to

make phone calls from
anywhere in

the world, were still in
orbit and

functional. Iridium filed
for bankruptcy

in August after it failed
to sign

up enough subscribers and
had defaulted

on more than $1.5 billion
in loans.

Critics of the $5 billion
project

have said it was too pricey
and that

Iridium misjudged the rapid
expansion

of cheaper, land-based
wireless phones

which made a satellite
service unnecessary

for many potential
customers. Iridium

had announced in March that
its efforts

to attract a qualified
buyer were

unsuccessful, and it would
begin pulling

its satellites out of
orbit. Motorola

was the primary financial
backer of

Iridium and also owns
roughly an 18

percent stake in the
company. A $600

million plan by cellular
phone pioneer

Craig McCaw to rescue the
company

fell through in March when
McCaw withdrew

his proposal. Later in
March, a small

software and e-commerce
company said

it had offered a plan to
rescue Iridium

from bankruptcy;
discussions about

a financial rescue proposal
package

are reported to be
continuing.


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style='color:black'>Tower Air Discontinues Passenger Service


style='color:black'>Tower

Air, which filed for
bankruptcy protection

earlier this year,
announced today

it has discontinued its
scheduled

passenger service out of
John F. Kennedy

International Airport in
New York,

the Associated Press
reported. A spokesman

at the airline's operations
office

said the airline stopped
outgoing

flights at 6:30 p.m.
Monday, although

the airline planned to
continue with

military and charter flight
service.

"My understanding is
that they

announced they're ceasing
all passenger

flights," said The
Port Authority

of New York and New Jersey
spokesman

Alan Morrison. Tower Air
Inc. had

filed for chapter 11 in
February in

the U.S. Bankruptcy Court
in Wilmington,

Del.

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style='color:black'>Daewoo Motor Workers End Strike


style='color:black'>Union

officials announced today
that unionized

workers at South Korea's
Daewoo Motor

Co. have returned to work
at the automaker's

main plant as talks with
management

have begun over wages,
according to

Reuters. "The union
held talks

with management for the
first day

today," said Kim
Joon-seok, a

union spokesman for Daewoo
Motor's

main plant in Pupyong, west
of Seoul.

"Management said on
Saturday

they will negotiate wage
increases

with the union."
Daewoo had gone

through months of disputes
with its

unions and walkouts at its
main plant

in April as workers
demanded that

creditors halt plans to
auction the

company off to a foreign
automaker.

Daewoo is one of 12 Daewoo
Group companies

put on debt restructuring
programs

last August by creditors
who bailed

out the companies as they
veered toward

bankruptcy with liabilities
about

$30 billion larger than
their assets.

Creditors plan to sell the
automaker

to a foreign car company by
September.


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style='color:black'>Former Maryland Attorney Sentenced in Mail and
Bankruptcy

Fraud Scheme


style='color:black'>Lynne

A. Bataglia, U.S. Attorney
for the

District of Maryland; W.
Clarkson

McDow Jr., U.S. Trustee for
Region

4; and Richard M. Mosquera,
Special

Agent in charge of the
Federal Bureau

of Investigation (FBI)
announced last

week that former Maryland
attorney

Pamela Lyles and her
common-law husband,

John Edmond, both of
Laurel, Md.,

were sentenced on April 24
for their

involvement in a mail and
bankruptcy

fraud scheme that netted
more than

$27,000 in fees from
numerous bankruptcy

debtors who paid the fees
in anticipation

of legal services not
rendered by

Lyles, the U.S. Department
of Justice

reported. Chief U.S.
District Court

Judge J. Frederick Motz
sentenced

Lyles to 13 months in
prison and Edmond

to eight months; both Lyles
and Edmond

pleaded guilty to one count
of mail

fraud in connection with
the scheme

on Jan. 12. The
investigation began

when the U.S. Trustee's
Office was

asked to look into the
bankruptcy

practices of Lyles and
Edmond, who

said he was a paralegal
working for

Lyles. An FBI-led
investigation revealed

that Lyles solicited
clients via the

U.S. mail by advertising
her bankruptcy

legal services, then filed
false,

misleading and inaccurate
bankruptcy

petitions on behalf of
clients who

responded to the ad and
paid their

fees to Lyles. Lyles had
been precluded

from practicing bankruptcy
law in

the District of Maryland
since 1995,

but never disclosed that
information

to clients. "It was an
affront

to the bankruptcy court and
to the

entire bankruptcy
system," said

U.S. Attorney Lynne A.
Battaglia,

who added that the U.S.
Trustee's

Office considered the case
one of

the most egregious in the
recent history

of the bankruptcy court.
"But

most of all, it was an
affront to

bankruptcy debtors, all of
whom put

their faith and trust in
lawyers like

Pamela Lyles to help them
through

the financial distress
caused by bankruptcy."

Lyles and Edmond were
ordered to make

$27,000 in restitution to
nearly 25

debtors known to have been
defrauded

by them.



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color='#000000'>Integrated

Health Seeks Nod to Settle
Landlord's

Claims

Integrated Health Services
Inc. is seeking

court approval of a
settlement with

Senior Housing Properties
Trust that

will eliminate the landlord's
pre-petition

claims, which aggregate over
$37 million,

and save the health care
provider about

$16.97 million per year as a
result

of the conveyance of its
interest in

certain health care
facilities. Under

the agreement, Integrated
will convey

its interest in 37 health
care facilities

to Senior Housing (SNH) while
retaining

its interest in two other SNH
facilities.

In exchange, SNH will release
any prepetition

claims it may have pursuant
to various

leases and mortgages
associated with

the facilities. These claims
include

mortgage debt aggregating in
excess

of $35 million and
prepetition rent

arrearages in excess of $2
million.



style='color:black'>Courtesy

of

href='http://www.fedfil.com/bankruptcy/developments.htm'>The
Daily Bankruptcy

Review Copyright ©
May 2, 2000
.


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