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A bankruptcy judge Thursday issued a temporary restraining order barring Vistra Energy Corp. from filing a tax return that runs afoul of an agreement reached as it exited from bankruptcy last year, Dow Jones reported yesterday. The temporary restraining order (TRO) stands until today at 5 p.m. Eastern, maintaining the status quo in a feud between Vistra and its former parent, Energy Future Holdings Corp. At the time of the split, Energy Future and its former business agreed on a plan to divide the tax attributes. According to Energy Future, Vistra is preparing to file tax returns Monday that will strip value from Energy Future, allegedly in violation of the agreement. Energy Future wants a TRO to prevent that. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Sontchi is slated to hear arguments in the dispute over the tax agreement on Friday. The TRO could be dissolved or extended before 5 p.m. Friday, if the judge issues a ruling.

Breitburn Energy Partners LP detailed plans at a court hearing yesterday to exit bankruptcy by transferring the oil-and-gas producer’s assets to creditors, but opponents pressed for an auction of main reserves to generate more money, Reuters reported. Breitburn filed for chapter 11 protection in May 2016, one of more than 100 energy companies that sought court protection from creditors after oil prices crashed from more than $100 a barrel in 2014. Yesterday it proposed splitting into two companies, with one owning its prized assets in the Permian Basin in Texas and the other owning its reserves in California, the Rocky Mountains, U.S. Midwest and U.S. Southeast. Holders of Breitburn’s unsecured bonds would be given the opportunity to buy their share of the Permian company’s stock, valued at $775 million, in what is known as a rights offering. The stock sale would be guaranteed or backstopped by a group of creditors led by the investment firms Elliott Management Corp and W.L. Ross & Co, founded by U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. The bondholders guaranteeing the stock sale would receive the opportunity to buy at least 40 percent of the stock and would receive additional stock as a fee. Read more. 

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Joel Sanders, the former chief financial officer at now-defunct Dewey & LeBoeuf, avoided a prison term yesterday when a New York State Supreme Court justice instead ordered him to pay a $1 million fine and perform 750 hours of community service, the New York Law Journal reported yesterday. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office had urged for the maximum sentence under his May 2017 conviction: One-and-a-third to four years in prison. Sanders was convicted in May of two Class E felonies and one misdemeanor, first-degree scheme to defraud and securities fraud under the Martin Act, as well as fifth-degree conspiracy. The no-prison sentence imposed by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Robert Stolz is a remarkable outcome for a criminal case that began in 2014, when prosecutors filed more than 100 charges against four former Dewey & LeBoeuf figures, including the firm’s top three executives. Prosecutors alleged the executives hid the firm's precarious finances from investors and lenders before Dewey & LeBoeuf's May 2012 bankruptcy, in what remains the largest law firm failure in U.S. history.

Seadrill Ltd’s unsecured creditors’ committee said that it has hired an investment banker and is looking into transactions made by the global offshore drilling contractor before it filed for chapter 11 protection in Texas last month, Reuters reported yesterday. “We are looking at numerous pre-petition transactions that were described at least in part” in Chapter 11 filings by Seadrill on Sept. 12, the committee’s lawyer, Douglas Mannal, of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP said at a hearing yesterday in Houston. While it was unclear which transactions the committee was studying, Seadrill made some amendments to secured credit facilities before filing for creditor protection. In one instance, Seadrill said on Aug. 17 that it had amended three secured credit facilities related to rigs purchased by New York-listed Seadrill Partners LLC to insulate the U.S. affiliate from events of default related to the chapter 11 proceedings by removing it as a borrower or guarantor. In a Sept. 13 court filing, Seadrill said it had successfully ring-fenced its non-consolidated affiliates, including Seadrill Partners LLC, SeaMex Ltd and Archer Ltd.