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Bernard Madoff’s victims are set to receive a $342 million payout from the trustee unwinding his epic Ponzi scheme, financed in part by a settlement with the estate of one of the con man’s oldest friends, the late Beverly Hills billionaire Stanley Chais, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The distribution, if approved by a judge, would be the eighth since Madoff’s arrest on Dec. 11, 2008. Trustee Irving Picard’s lawsuits and settlements with banks and wealthy investors have recovered about $11.5 billion for thousands of victims who lost $17.5 billion in principal. The latest round of checks is being funded by settlements reached in recent months with investors who profited from the scam, including Chais’s estate, which agreed in October to pay $277 million to resolve claims against the money manager who funneled cash from his own customers into Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Chais, who died in 2010, wasn’t charged with wrongdoing. The proposed distribution will be considered for approval on Jan. 12 hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, according to the statement.

Burford Capital Limited, which finances litigation for corporations and law firms, is acquiring its Chicago-based rival, Gerchen Keller Capital LLC, in a $160 million deal, the New York Times reported today. The combined firms have $1.2 billion in investments and commitments in the growing field of outside financing for litigation. Law firms are turning more frequently to outside sources, according to a Burford survey of firms and in-house corporation counsel released in May. Partnership structures at law firms hinder investment in longer-term litigation, which can require costly improvements in technology or data security. Corporations trying to handle large-scale litigation are also hamstrung by tighter budgets, the general counsels said in the survey.

Gawker Media's bankrupt estate will begin paying its long list of creditors after a federal bankruptcy judge yesterday approved its settlement with Hulk Hogan as part of the company's final liquidation plan, Forbes reported today. The agreement, which includes a $31 million payout to the former professional wrestler, whose real name is Terry Bollea, had already been accepted by creditors who were granted voting rights in the deal. The settlement marks the end of a four-year battle between Hogan and Gawker, which published clips of a sex tape featuring the celebrity in 2012. Earlier this year, a Florida jury found awarded Hogan more than $140 million in damages after it found that Gawker had invaded his privacy by publishing the tape. Gawker initially vowed to appeal the judgement, but when doing so proved too costly, the company and its founder Nick Denton filed for bankruptcy protection. Denton eventually sold the company's assets, including a half dozen sister publications to Univision Communications.

General Motors Co. asked the U.S. Supreme Court to maintain a bankruptcy shield blocking some lawsuits over faulty ignition switches after a lower court ruled the Detroit auto giant’s failure to reveal the safety defect violated consumers’ legal rights, the Wall Street Journal reported today. GM appealed a lower court’s ruling earlier this year that undid a legal shield barring lawsuits stemming from alleged wrongdoing before the automaker’s 2009 government-brokered bankruptcy restructuring. The suits carry billions of dollars in potential claims. In a Supreme Court petition filed late yesterday, GM argued that a federal appeals court erred and upended settled bankruptcy law when ruling the cases could proceed. The Supreme Court isn’t expected to decide until next year whether to hear GM’s case. The lower-court ruling would stand without the Supreme Court’s intervention.

American Apparel LLC won court approval to use the rest of its $30 million bankruptcy loan after the retailer resolved issues with its unsecured creditors, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Brendan Shannon yesterday signed off on the loan and said that he “appreciated” the revised court papers and agreements made among the creditors, debtors and pre-bankruptcy lenders. The retailer secured a $30 million financing package from post-bankruptcy lender Encina Business Credit LLC to fund the costs of its chapter 11 case prior to its November bankruptcy filing. Judge Shannon earlier gave approval for the company to use up to $10 million of the loan.