Toshiba Corp. didn’t know its U.S. nuclear subsidiary was preparing for a bankruptcy filing even after the unit had hired lawyers for the task, according to court records and Toshiba’s official timeline, the Wall Street Journal reported today. In a Nov. 30, 2016, letter, a lawyer at New York firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP wrote that Toshiba unit Westinghouse Electric Co. had engaged the firm to work on “the potential filing and administration of a chapter 11 proceeding under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.” A Toshiba spokesman, reiterating earlier statements by company executives, said this week that no one at Tokyo headquarters was aware of the potential for major losses or bankruptcy at Westinghouse until early December 2016. Toshiba Chief Executive Satoshi Tsunakawa learned of the problem in mid-December, the spokesman said. At a news conference on Dec. 27, Tsunakawa said Toshiba was facing a multibillion-dollar loss in connection with cost overruns at Westinghouse nuclear projects in the U.S. but didn’t discuss a possible bankruptcy.
