The attorney representing a creditors committee of clergy abuse survivors told a judge this week that it may seek standing in the case to challenge the Archdiocese of Santa Fe’s (N.M.) movement of assets before it filed for bankruptcy, the Albuquerque Journal. “The committee is ready to move forward on standing motions to avoid fraudulent conveyances that we believe occurred when the archdiocese corporately reorganized,” James Stang, a Los Angeles-based attorney representing the committee, said on Monday. Parties in the chapter 11 case were in court on Monday updating a federal bankruptcy judge on the status of mediation. In court filings, the committee said that offers and counteroffers have been exchanged, but the archdiocese and creditors have not been able to reach an agreement on the terms of a reorganization plan. A third mediation session is scheduled for next week. One impediment they’ve discovered, the committee says, is a move by the archdiocese before filing for bankruptcy to incorporate all of its parishes and to transfer substantial property to a real estate trust of which the archdiocese and parishes are beneficiaries. A substantial amount of money was also moved into a trust.
