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Billionaire Ron Burkle gets to move forward in his lawsuit alleging being defrauded in the $289 million sale of The Weinstein Co. assets, according to the Hollywood Reporter. On Thursday, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge rejected a bid to nix fraud claims brought by Burkle's Yucaipa Companies. Back in July 2018, Yucaipa sued Lantern Entertainment (later becoming Spyglass Media) upon completion of the $289 million deal. Burkle once attempted to buy TWC's assets outside of bankruptcy, but certain events intervened. According to the complaint, Yucaipa had taken the lead in assembling a deal that would save TWC from bankruptcy and ensure compensation for Harvey Weinstein's victims and creditors. Instead, ongoing investigations and a suit from New York's attorney general made his buyout nearly impossible. Once TWC filed for chapter 11 in Delaware, a bankruptcy court supervised the sale of film and television assets. Lantern emerged the winner of bidding. But after Lantern was crowned the victor, Burkle's Yucaipa stepped forward to allege it was cheated. Specifically, Yucaipa asserts that behind the scenes, it provided confidential information to Lantern, which at that point had no experience in the entertainment industry.

Another buyer has entered a potential bankruptcy deal that could allow two idle Wyoming mines to reopen but would in effect pay the coal company to do so, the Associated Press reported. Bristol, Tennessee-based Contura Energy said on Wednesday that it reached a tentative deal to pay Jasper, Alabama-based FM Coal $90 million to take the Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr mines. Contura also would pay Campbell County $13.5 million for unpaid local taxes. In exchange, FM Coal subsidiary Eagle Specialty Materials would settle certain outstanding debts to creditors and assume $237 million in reclamation bonds associated with the mines. The proposal relieves Contura of future liabilities associated with the Powder River Basin mines while providing “long-term employment opportunities for hardworking miners” and government revenue, Contura Chairman and CEO David Stetson said in a statement.

The College of New Rochelle (N.Y.) has filed for bankruptcy and will sell its 15.6-acre former main campus in an auction within two months, the Rockland/Westchester (N.Y.) Journal News reported. The chapter 11 filing on Friday comes a month after the college ceased academics and held the final graduation in its 115-year history. A deadline for qualifying bids to take part in the auction will be due some time in early November, with specifics yet to be announced. The campus is being leased through 2020 by Mercy College, which reportedly accepted the transfer of more than 1,700 former College of New Rochelle students. The college decided to dissolve after a long-standing financial crisis that led to the conviction of a high-ranking finance official on federal charges. The college was already facing declining enrollment and difficulty keeping its head above water in October 2016, when it announced the resignation of then-President Judith Huntington alongside the launching of an internal financial probe. The probe uncovered $31 million in previously unknown debts, including millions in mounting payroll taxes, that had been hidden from the college's financial books and its board of trustees.

Blackstone Group Inc. boosted its offer to buy its own portfolio company Stearns Lending Inc. out of bankruptcy under a settlement with the mortgage lender’s top creditor, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The private-equity firm on Wednesday raised its bid to $65 million from $60 million to secure a deal with Pacific Investment Management Co., which agreed to support a reorganization plan that would keep Stearns under Blackstone’s control despite the bankruptcy. Under the proposal, Blackstone would increase its stake in Stearns to 100 percent from 70 percent in return for the capital contribution. The money is earmarked to cash out $183 million in bonds, roughly two-thirds of which are held by Pimco. At various points, Pimco has questioned Blackstone’s attempted takeover of Stearns, saying the mortgage lender wasn’t making a fulsome effort to put the private-equity firm’s offer to the test. The nation’s 20th-largest mortgage lender, Stearns filed for bankruptcy in July after hitting an impasse with Pimco during debt-restructuring negotiations. Blackstone made a $60 million offer for full ownership of the company, an unusual outcome in chapter 11 proceedings in which owners are typically wiped out when creditors aren’t paid in full.

Charlie Chanaratsopon wants to purchase Charming Charlie's intellectual property out of bankruptcy, according to court documents, the Houston Chronicle reported. The founder and former chief executive of Charming Charlie offered to purchase the Houston fashion retailer's trademarks, website domains, customer database and social media assets for $1.125 million at a bankruptcy auction held in New York on Wednesday. The sale is pending approval from Judge Christopher Sontchi of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware at a hearing scheduled for Sept. 16. It's unclear what Chanaratsopon plans to do with Charming Charlie's trademarks, should he close the deal. The purchase agreement prohibits Chanaratsopon from making a public comment without the written consent of Charming Charlie, according to court documents. Charming Charlie's intellectual property includes information from nearly 7 million Charm Club loyalty members, primarily women ages 35 to 55, as well as customer databases containing 6.8 million opt-in email addresses and 3 million physical mailing addresses.

A coalition of Philadelphia-area health systems led by Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Inc. won bankruptcy court approval yesterday to buy the residency program of Hahnemann University Hospital, effectively killing hopes of reviving the historic institution, which served the city’s poor, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Jefferson and its allies are purchasing the residency program for $55 million over the protests of companies that offered to save the hospital and an objection from the government. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross rebuffed last-ditch attempts to save Hahnemann at a hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. The judge turned aside challenges from bidders that offered to pay more — and to keep Hahnemann in operation — after Hahnemann’s lawyers said that the offers from outsiders were risky. More than 150 years old, Hahnemann filed for bankruptcy less than two years after being acquired by investors led by Joel Freedman, a former California investment banker. Blaming insufficient federal reimbursement rates, the teaching hospital began closing down abruptly, unsettling the education plans of hundreds of new doctors who were beginning their residencies there.

Insys Therapeutics Inc. is selling the fentanyl painkiller Subsys out of bankruptcy, unloading the opioid drug at the center of racketeering convictions against the drugmaker’s former top brass, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Subsys, a mouth-spray version of fentanyl, fueled the company’s success and helped turn co-founder John Kapoor into a billionaire. But management’s tactics in promoting sales of the drug sparked lawsuits and criminal investigations against Insys, pushing it into bankruptcy in June and wiping out investors. Insys said in a securities filing yesterday that Wyoming-based BtCP Pharma LLC, which makes the Lazanda fentanyl nasal spray, agreed to buy Subsys in exchange for royalty payments on future sales and the assumption of some liabilities. Insys didn’t put a total value on the deal. The royalty rate is 45 percent, with adjustments for the cost of goods sold, legal and settlement payments, and overhead. Insys would also receive post-closing payments for accounts receivable and certain inventory. If the deal is approved in bankruptcy court, the proceeds would generate cash for the company to divvy up among thousands of companies, people and state and local governments that have alleged they were harmed by the misuse of Subsys.