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Federal bankruptcy watchdogs have asked that an independent examiner be appointed to oversee spending in the bankruptcy of GT Advanced Technologies Inc., the Wall Street Journal reported today. U.S. Trustee William Harrington this week asked Bankruptcy Judge Henry Boroff to appoint a third party to sort through the bills — from law firms and other advisers — that are expected to arrive as part of GT Advanced’s case. The company’s lead bankruptcy lawyer, Luc Despins, said the firm won't oppose the motion. GT Advanced filed for chapter 11 protection in October 2014 after plunging into debt in an unsuccessful bid to produce smartphone-screen material for Apple Inc. The company decoupled from Apple by way of a settlement approved by the court in December 2014 and attempted a recovery as a manufacturer of furnaces and other industrial equipment.

A federal judge has upheld a decision by a silicone and quartz producer backed by Apollo Global Management to forgo $200 million in so-called make-whole payments, or premiums, to its bondholders, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. U.S. District Judge Vincent Briccetti on Monday rejected an appeal from bondholders unhappy with a bankruptcy court's approval of Momentive Performance Materials Inc.'s chapter 11 plan, which did not include the make-whole premiums. In a 28-page decision, Judge Briccetti said that the terms of Momentive's bond indentures didn't "clearly and unambiguously" provide for make-whole payments when the company filed for chapter 11 protection. Read more. (Subscription required.)  

For further analysis of the issues surrounding the Momentive case, be sure to attend next week’s ABI New York City Bankruptcy Conference that will feature a session titled “Momentive Deconstructed.” For more information and to register, please click here.

A Super Bowl ticket seller has filed for bankruptcy to deal with upset customers who showed up to Super Bowl XVIX in Arizona only to find out that their ticket purchases had fallen through, in some cases, just hours before kick-off, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The Queens, N.Y.-based SBTickets.com issued refunds, but customers who had journeyed from as far as Brazil, Australia and Papua New Guinea are pushing for travel and lodging money for missing out on the New England Patriots’ win over the Seattle Seahawks via that jaw-dropping interception in the final seconds. Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, whose office has taken 35 complaints against the company, sued SBTickets.com in March, seeking $2,000 per violation of the state’s Consumer Protection Act.

Simply Fashion's unsecured creditors are pushing back against the retail chain's proposal to run going-out-business sales in a deal that would bring just $4.4 million into the bankruptcy estate, saying the only parties to benefit will be the owners of the closely held company, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. An auction scheduled for yesterday was canceled when no other bidders came forward to challenge an offer from liquidators at Hilco Merchant Resources LLC and Gordon Brothers Retail Partners LLC . The pair proposes paying Simply Fashion 27.5 percent of the retail value of the remaining merchandise in its roughly 250 stores. The money raised from the sale, estimated at around $4.4 million, won't come close to covering the $9 million in secured debt and $9.9 million in unsecured debt owed to insiders of the company, creditors said in a Monday filing in bankruptcy court.

A company that distributed films such as "Major League" and "Ace Ventura" was cleared to exit bankruptcy yesterday after a bankruptcy judge criticized a federal official for being too devoted to legal doctrine in trying to block the move, Reuters reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Shelley Chapman approved the settlement under which bankrupt Inverness Distribution Ltd. will repay $36 million to lender Societe Generale and about $1.1 million to unions, including the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild. Inverness, founded in 2003 to distribute the foreign rights of producer James G. Robinson's Morgan Creek Productions, filed for bankruptcy in 2011 after defaulting on a loan, sold its portfolio last year, and is using the proceeds to repay debts. The settlement drew an objection from the U.S. Trustee because bankruptcy cases do not typically end until all creditors have voted on a formal restructuring plan. The trustee argued the Inverness plan sought to avoid that approval by incorporating a case dismissal into the settlement itself. The trustee called the plan "sub rosa," a rarely invoked legal doctrine translated as "under the rose," denoting attempts at such evasion. Inverness argued there were no creditors eligible to vote who were not already subject to the settlement, so a formal plan was pointless. At the hearing, Judge Chapman said that she found the trustee's reliance on doctrine, even when efficiency seems to suggest another path, "very, very disturbing."

The former owner of the Revel Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, N.J., won a bankruptcy judge's approval yesterday to begin soliciting votes on a creditor-repayment plan that divvies up proceeds from the sale of the 47-story resort to a Florida developer, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Gloria Burns signed off on ballots and a plain-language summary of the plan that will be sent to creditors as well as a voting deadline, overruling an objection from Revel's utility supplier.

A bankruptcy judge ordered mediation to try to resolve how creditors of Texas' largest power company, Energy Future Holdings Corp., will divide payments that are a key part of ending its year-long bankruptcy, Reuters reported yesterday. The mediator will help parties determine if a $805 million proposed settlement contained in the company's bankruptcy exit plan is fair and how to divide the money. "I think it is appropriate and important to give mediation a chance to succeed," said Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Sontchi at a hearing yesterday. Energy Future filed for bankruptcy a year ago under the burden of $42 billion in debt and weak power prices. The company has proposed spinning off its unregulated Luminant power plants and TXU retail utility, a business known as TCEH, to investors holding $24 billion of secured debt. The parent company's creditors would be repaid through the sale of the parent's investment in Oncor, a regulated power distributor that is not bankrupt and is estimated to be worth at least $18 billion.

Corinthian Colleges Inc. filed for bankruptcy, a week after closing its remaining 28 for-profit career schools in the biggest collapse in U.S. higher education, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Corinthian’s meltdown began last year after the U.S. Education Department reduced its access to federal student aid. The company agreed to sell half its 107 campuses to Education Credit Management Corp. in November amid allegations that it falsified grades, attendance and job-placement rates. Corinthian received $1.4 billion in federal student aid in 2013 alone. The most recent closures ended instruction for about 16,000 students and spurred the loss of 2,700 jobs. Corinthian schools once counted more than 74,000 students and over 10,000 employees, according to court papers. The company was ordered April 17 to stop enrollments in California, where most of its remaining schools were located. It was also fined $30 million by the U.S. Education Department for misrepresenting job-placement rates to attract students at its Heald business schools.

Barclays Plc is entitled to $4 billion in assets stemming from the Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapse, as the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from the bankruptcy trustee for the firm’s brokerage business, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The justices left intact a federal appeals court ruling that said that Barclays acquired the assets as part of a hastily drafted purchase agreement in September 2008. Barclays bought most of Lehman’s North American brokerage assets in that deal. The trustee, James Giddens, sought to recoup the money, most of which is already in Barclays’ possession. “We are disappointed but remain focused on continued progress in winding down and closing out the LBI estate,” said Kent Jarrell, a spokesman for Giddens. “The trustee appropriately reserved for the Barclays litigation, so the decision does not impact distributions already completed or assets on hand for potential additional distributions to unsecured general creditors.”

Texas electricity giant Energy Future Holdings Corp. goes to court today to set a schedule for consideration of its chapter 11 exit plan and related proceedings, including for its 80 percent stake in its prized asset, Oncor, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. A cash-producing transmissions business that is not involved in the bankruptcy, Oncor is the focus of attention as Energy Future tries to work through its $42 billion debt load. The company wants to put the Oncor stake on the bankruptcy auction block while at the same time bargaining with creditors about an in-bankruptcy conversion to a real estate investment trust and takeover.