Top ranking creditors of Sears Holdings Corp., including vendors who supplied the retailer during its bankruptcy, are still waiting for more than $80 million to cover bills that need to be cleared before the chapter 11 case can wind down, WSJ Pro reported. Lawyers and other advisers to the former Sears reported Tuesday that the bankruptcy estate still needs money to pay the essential bills, including ones from suppliers, that must be paid before any company in chapter 11 can close out its bankruptcy case. Sears didn’t have the resources to do that after selling its best assets to longtime chairman Edward Lampert’s ESL Investments Inc. in 2019. For that reason, a bankruptcy judge made the unusual move of keeping the Sears case open indefinitely, after approving its bankruptcy plan, until advisers could come up with enough funds to pay those essential bills. The bankruptcy estate now has over $34 million in its coffers, including cash and real estate, while it owes more than $115 million in essential bills, mostly for merchandise purchased during the bankruptcy, according to the status report filed on Tuesday. Advisers plan to close the gap mostly through litigation, including lawsuits against Lampert, his firm and other former shareholders and directors over the alleged improper stripping of valuable assets out of Sears before it filed for bankruptcy.
