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The Trump International Hotel & Tower in Toronto is likely to hit the market as the owner of debt on the property seeks a sale, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. JCF Capital ULC recently bought the construction loan on the 65-story hotel and condominium building, and claims developer Talon International Inc. and related companies have defaulted on making payments since last year. JCF Capital is seeking a court-supervised sales process for the property to recoup the outstanding C$301 million ($225 million) on the debt, according to court filings made on Tuesday under Canada’s Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. The court filing is the latest in the decade-long saga of the building, which was Trump’s first branded hotel in Canada. Since construction began in 2007, the tower has been subject to lawsuits against Donald Trump’s firm and Talon from investors who say they were duped; a court battle to end Trump’s management agreement; and protests after the U.S. presidential candidate made comments about Mexicans, Muslims, and women during his campaign. Earlier this year, Talon attempted to sell the property after defaulting on the loan, originally given by Raiffeisen Bank International AG in 2007, the court documents show. JCF Capital acquired the loan on Oct. 3 and sent a notice to Talon twice this month asking for repayment.

There is no explicit federal requirement that sellers of used cars fix problems related to safety recalls, or even disclose the recalls, the way that new -car dealers must, according to a New York Times report today. Efforts to introduce tougher laws for used cars have languished in Congress, under lobbying pressure from the used-car industry. The regulations for used-car safety affect a large swath of the population; last year, more than 38 million used cars were sold across the U.S. — more than twice as many as were sold new, according to Edmunds.com. Auctions, whether by governments or dealers, represent the least-regulated rung of the industry, often dealing in higher-risk cars that are sold to the most vulnerable consumers, said Bernard Brown, a consumer protection lawyer in Kansas City, Mo., who has closely followed auto auction companies. Despite the lack of explicit federal laws on recalled used cars, a patchwork of state consumer protections and laws already effectively prohibit the sale of dangerous vehicles, some safety advocates and lawyers say.

A U.S. judge on Tuesday ordered the bankrupt U.S. subsidiaries of renewable energy company Abengoa SA to disclose their dealings with their Spanish parent, which is accused of draining cash from the U.S. units, Reuters reported yesterday. Creditors of Abengoa Bioenergy US Holding LLC and Abeinsa Holding Inc., which both filed for bankruptcy this year, have said in court filings that the U.S. businesses were transferring cash and assets to the parent in Spain. The Seville-based parent obtained provisional support of more than 75 percent of creditors for a $10 billion debt-restructuring plan, averting what could have become Spain's largest-ever bankruptcy filing. However, creditor challenges to the U.S. chapter 11 proceedings could pose a threat to Abengoa's attempt to retain control of strategic U.S. engineering and renewable energy businesses. In the case of Abengoa's U.S. units, unsecured creditors (including some who helped finance construction of one of the world's largest solar facilities in the Mojave Desert) stand to recover only pennies on the dollar. In a ruling on Tuesday, Bankruptcy Judge Kevin J. Carey granted the unsecured creditors’ committee's request that the U.S. units hand over documents and communications on matters such as asset transfers and liabilities across Abengoa's businesses, which span more than 80 countries. Read more.

Learn about the key issues in cross-border energy company restructurings from a financial and legal perspective at ABI’s Cross-Border Insolvency Program on Nov. 14 in New York. Click here to register. 

The ongoing saga of the former Revel casino in Atlantic City, N.J., continued this week as a bankruptcy judge made a ruling that could be a "blow" for owner and Florida developer Glenn Straub but a boon for one of its tenants, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported yesterday. Straub and his legal entity, Polo North Country Club Inc., have been in an ongoing legal battle with IDEA Boardwalk Inc., the club operator tenant at the former Revel, which is now known as Ten after a rebranding last month. IDEA been in litigation against Polo North since at least 2015 when a federal judge approved the casino's sale, and since at least 2013 with former parent company, Revel Entertainment Group, when it emerged from chapter 11 protection. Bankruptcy Judge Michael B. Kaplan recently told Straub and IDEA to take their ongoing battle to state court. On Oct. 21, Judge Kaplan ruled that IDEA could remain in possession of its leased space as long as it lived up to terms of the prior lease agreement with the casino, specifically its obligation to pay rent, according to Michael J. Viscount Jr. of Fox Rothschild LLP.

A court filing showed yesterday that hedge fund Trilogy Capital Management, the last holdout bondholder of Caesars Entertainment Corp.’s bankrupt operating unit, has agreed to support the casino group's restructuring and halt litigation, Reuters reported. The agreement removes the threat of a judgment against Caesars, which was facing lawsuits by hedge funds (including Trilogy) over guarantees on its operating unit's bonds. While Trilogy's claim was small at $9.4 million, a judgment could have blown up a crucial $5 billion restructuring deal that Caesars reached last month with creditors to resolve billions of dollars of potential lawsuits. In a filing with the U.S. district court in Chicago, Trilogy and the Caesars parties said that they had reached a consensual resolution of their dispute and asked the court to strike a hearing on the matter that had been scheduled for December. Trilogy and Caesars declined to provide details of the agreement.

James Merrill, who founded and then captained the meteoric rise of TelexFree LLC before it was shut down by federal authorities, has pleaded guilty to criminal fraud charges for his role in running a multibillion-dollar pyramid scheme, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Merrill pled guilty to one count of wire fraud conspiracy and eight counts of wire fraud in a deal that will limit his sentencing to no more than 10 years in prison, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston. Court papers show that if he had been convicted at trial, he could have faced up to 20 years in prison. The plea agreement further calls for the former chief executive of TelexFree, a multi-level marketing company that sold telephone-service plans, to forfeit tens of millions of dollars in assets. The list of assets, which prosecutors say Merrill and his business partner collected as part of the scheme, includes cash, real estate, luxury cars and a yacht. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

For a further analysis of commercial fraud, make sure to pick up a copy of ABI’s Fraud and Forensics: Piercing Through the Deception in a Commercial Fraud Case.