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Billionaire Wins Bid for Sands Casino
Billionaire financier Carl Icahn has beaten out Park Place Entertainment
Corp. for control of the bankrupt Atlantic City, N.J., Sands Hotel &
Casino, according to a newswire report. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge
Judith Wizmur favored Icahn's plan to invest $65 million in cash in the
struggling casino, which filed chapter 11 in January 1998. The decision
is subject to approval by the state Casino Control Commission. Icahn,
who owns three Las Vegas casinos, will get 46.3 percent of Sands' new
stock and will issue $110 million in new bonds in exchange for the
$182.5 million in existing Sands bonds. Despite the casino's past
troubles, Icahn said he feels confident he can turn it around, saying
that his first change will include trying to make this casino more
competitive, like his Las Vegas casinos, by loosening the odds to make
it easier for players to win.
Iridium LLC Abandoned by Castle Harlan
Another potential buyer abandoned Iridium LLC in bankruptcy court, once
again raising the possibility that a $5 billion satellite system for
mobile phones will be reduced to ashes in the Earth's atmosphere,
according to a newswire report. Castle Harlan Inc., the New York
investment bank that planned to buy Iridium's assets for $50 million,
said Friday it has decided that the business is too weak to save.
Motorola, Iridium's lead investor, said it now plans to seek clearance
at a court hearing scheduled today in New York to proceed with plans to
pull the satellites from orbit so they burn up in the atmosphere. 'For
the past several months, we've held discussions with numerous parties
that have expressed interest in operating the system, and none has
panned out,' said Scott Wyman, a Motorola spokesman. 'Unless there's an
acceptable proposal to operate the satellite constellation, we intend to
finalize plans to decommission the system.'
Motorola has quietly kept Iridium's satellites runningproviding
limited phone service at a cost of millions of dollars per monthin
hopes of ducking the apparent death sentence that was handed down in
March, when a U.S. bankruptcy judge granted permission for the network
to be destroyed. Washington-based Iridium, which drew only 55,000
subscribers after launching its 'anywhere' wireless service in the fall
of 1998, filed for bankruptcy protection a year ago with debts of about
$4.4 billion.
Tri Valley Growers Receives Final Court Approval of DIP Financing
Agreement
Tri Valley Growers announced yesterday that it has received final
approval from the bankruptcy court for its debtor-in-possession (DIP)
financing, according to a newswire report. The DIP agreement calls for a
group of financial institutions led by Bank of America Business Credit
to provide $101 million in new credit, which will be used incrementally
with the existing $169 million financing. This will provide the San
Ramon, Calif., company with access to approximately $270 million in
post-petition financing to purchase goods and services and fund the
company's ongoing operating needs during its voluntary restructuring
under chapter 11. Tri Valley Growers produces or markets approximately
half of the nation's canned peaches and apricots as well as a sizable
amount of the canned tomatoes. The company filed chapter 11 in the U.S.
Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California in Oakland.
Bankruptcy Fraud Defendant Gets 15-Month Sentence
U.S. District Judge James C. Paine sentenced Edward Scarlett, 57,
formerly of Ft. Pierce, Fla., to a 15-month prison term Friday in
connection with a bankruptcy fraud scheme committed with his wife,
Patricia Scarlett. Edward Scarlett pled guilty earlier to a single count
of conspiring with his wife to commit bankruptcy fraud by hiding assets
from his creditors while he sought protection from his debts. Scarlett
hid at least $86,000 in mortgage payments received by him on two parcels
of real property in New York that were not disclosed to the bankruptcy
court. He was sentenced to serve 15 months in the Bureau of Prisons and
three years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay $165,000 in
restitution to the main victim of this fraud, James Longstreet.
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