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A South Korean judge said today that all Hanjin Shipping Co Ltd. chartered vessels that have completed unloading their cargo have been told to cancel their charter agreements and return the ships to the shipowners, Reuters reported. Hanjin, the world's seventh-largest container line, filed for receivership last month, leaving more than 100 ships and their cargo at sea and threatening to snarl U.S. freight traffic as the year-end shopping season approaches. Dozens of Hanjin's ships have been blocked from docking with ports and lashing firms fearing they won't be paid. Some vessels have also been seized and some sold. The company had a total of 141 vessels, including 97 container ships as of early September. Out of the 97 container ships, 60 were chartered and 37 owned by Hanjin. The company returned three bulk carriers earlier this month, a Hanjin Shipping spokeswoman said today.

Hercules Offshore Inc. sweetened shareholders’ payout in its bankruptcy after a battle led by distressed investor Centerbridge Partners, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The offshore oil-and-gas driller on Thursday submitted an amended debt-payment plan that offers a cash payout of $15 million to shareholders who rejected a previous plan. Depending on the success of the sales of Hercules’ rigs and other assets, however, shareholder recoveries could rise as high as $138 million, according to an analysis by Hercules investment bankers at PJT Partners. A prior analysis of potential asset sale outcomes by PJT had forecast a shareholder recovery of $0 to $27 million, court papers show. Led by Centerbridge, shareholders teamed up to oppose a plan they said would give Hercules senior lenders a “massive windfall” in the company’s second chapter 11 filing in as many years. Court papers show mediation led by U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Christopher Sontchi produced a settlement in which lenders agreed to reduce about $546 million in claims by $32.5 million. The deal also includes a pledge from the lenders to allow the shareholders to receive the $15 million in cash before the lenders are paid. General unsecured creditors are expected to be paid in full. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

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ITT Educational Services Inc. began liquidation proceedings in an Indianapolis bankruptcy court Friday after closing 136 technical schools, leaving over 35,000 students stranded in one of the largest college shutdowns in U.S. history, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. The 50-year-old for-profit college operator, which had campuses in 38 states, said that it was forced to close its doors after the U.S. Education Department demanded a steep increase in the security the company would have to post to guarantee federal student aid. More than 8,000 employees were affected by the shutdown, with the majority losing their jobs, Carmel, Indiana-based ITT said. The company announced this week that it would cease all operations on Friday. Since August 2014, ITT has been under financial and operational scrutiny by the Obama administration, which has been cracking down on the for-profit college business. The agency expanded its oversight in June, citing “significant concerns about ITT’s administrative capacity, organizational integrity, financial viability and ability to serve students.” The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission brought fraud claims against ITT and two executives in 2015 for allegedly concealing major losses in two student loan programs. That lawsuit is still pending in Indianapolis federal court. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sued the company in 2014, accusing it of overstating students’ job prospects and potential salaries and then pushing them into high-cost private loans that were likely to end in default. That case is also pending in Indianapolis. Read more. 

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. 

A New Jersey bankruptcy judge denied a bid from Hanjin Shipping Co.’s creditors to keep several of the South Korean carrier’s ships from leaving U.S. ports, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Bankruptcy Judge John Sherwood refused to reverse an order forbidding creditors from seizing Hanjin’s assets, thereby protecting its ships from being confiscated while docked in the U.S. The earlier decision, handed down on Sept. 9, has been key to prodding a number of Hanjin ships — loaded with thousands of containers filled with consumer electronics, clothing and other goods — to pull into port in the U.S. The bankruptcy of Hanjin, one of the world’s largest shipping companies, created a crisis that stranded as much as $14 billion of cargo at sea. As cargo owners, container companies, freight forwarders and others sort through the complex process of getting goods delivered to their final destinations, Judge Sherwood has consistently prioritized getting goods sitting idle on Hanjin ships back into the supply chain.

SunEdison Inc., the bankrupt renewable energy giant, won court approval of a $144 million sale of wind and solar assets to a unit of NRG Energy Inc., Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The company will sell equity interests in some North American utility project companies after an auction in which NRG Renew LLC’s opening offer prevailed. Bankruptcy Judge <b>Stuart Bernstein</b> said that the deal was “fair and reasonable” given the extensive marketing of the asset package, as he signed off on the sale yesterday. The court delayed consideration of a private sale of a stake in SUNE Troughton Farm Solar Ltd. in England and Wales, to Stark Solar Ltd. so SunEdison Chief Executive Officer John S. Dubel could answer questions. That’s scheduled for Friday morning. A request in August to sell the assets said Stark would pay a negligible amount but help get the project access to financing. Bidding procedures for the company’s solar materials business were also approved.

Bankruptcy Judge Benjamin Goldgar said at a hearing yesterday that billionaire investors Marc Rowan and David Bonderman are among Caesars Entertainment Corp. directors who must disclose details of their wealth to creditors of the casino holding company's bankrupt subsidiary, Reuters reported. Junior creditors of Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. Inc. (CEOC) convinced the court yesterday to force six of the parent's directors to prove they can contribute to CEOC's reorganization plan in exchange for releases from allegations of fraud. CEOC filed an $18 billion bankruptcy in January 2015. Junior creditors accuse directors of Caesars and its private equity sponsors Apollo Global Management LLC and TPG Capital of orchestrating a plan to strip CEOC of "crown jewels," such as the Linq Hotel & Casino complex in Las Vegas, prior to its bankruptcy.