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Crowdfunding in Bankruptcy: What Happens to Backers When the Project Fails? Part I: Why Crowdfunding Is Different

For the uninitiated, “crowdfunding” is a form of fundraising in which many relatively small contributions are sourced from a “crowd” of “backers” to support a prospective goal, product or company. Crowdfunding transactions can be structured as donations, pre-orders, loans or even equity investments. With the rise of internet platforms such as Kickstarter, crowdfunding has become an easy way for early-stage companies to obtain financing, test the market and bring attention to their products.

Article Discussion: Energy Sector Restructurings

This May edition of the ABI Bankruptcy Litigation Committee Newsletter focused on bankruptcy litigation issues in energy sector restructurings. The newsletter featured an article exploring assumption and rejection of oil and gas conveyances, and an article discussing CERCLA liabilities in energy-related cases . Following publication of this newsletter, both authors hosted a call to discuss the issues explored in their articles.Click here to review the articles. 

 

Committee Call: Uniform Voidable Transactions ACT

The topic of the most recent Commercial Fraud Committee call, discussed the Uniform Voidable Transactions Act (UVTA), formerly named the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act (UFTA), which was amended (and retitled) in 2014 for the first time since its creation in 1984. According to the Uniform Law Commission, the amended Act, which strengthens creditor protections by providing remedies for certain transactions by a debtor that are unfair to the debtor’s creditors, addresses a small number of narrowly-defined issues and is not a comprehensive revision of the Act.

The Truth Ain’t Going Away: Civil Rule 60(d)(3) and Fraud on the Court in Bankruptcy

Elvis Presley once said, “Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time but it ain’t going away.” As we all know, the legal system in the U.S. is predicated upon truth — the decisions of the fact-finder are based on the veracity of the evidence presented. In Ehrenberg v. Roussos (In re Roussos),[1] the bankruptcy court examined allegations of fraud on the court in connection with a chapter 7 trustee’s efforts to vacate a two-decade-old