The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. won a temporary reprieve from an investigation into its collection practices leading up to China Fishery Group Ltd.’s bankruptcy, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. During a hearing in New York on Thursday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James Garrity Jr. agreed to place the investigation, which he had authorized, on hold while lawyers for HSBC pursue an appeal. William Brandt Jr., a bankruptcy court-appointed trustee currently marketing China Fishery’s Peruvian fishing enterprise, won a court order from Judge Garrity in July allowing him to investigate the bank for aggressive collection efforts that Brandt says may have damaged China Fishery’s business. HSBC says it is being unlawfully burdened by having to litigate in a foreign jurisdiction. The bank says it has no connection to China Fishery in the U.S. and shouldn’t be subjected to a bankruptcy probe by a U.S. court.
