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The lawyer handling the federal bankruptcy portion of the 38 Studios legal issues has reached another in a string of financial settlements in the lengthy case, the Providence (R.I.) Journal reported today. When 38 Studios filed for federal bankruptcy in June 2012, federal court filings showed that it owed $150 million and had just $21 million in assets — including $12.7 million then held in reserve by the state in public bond proceeds. A federal judge appointed Jeffrey L. Burtch, a Delaware lawyer, to wind down the company's operations. Burtch filed about 20 separate claims in 2014 against vendors to "claw back" money that would go to pay the company's creditors. He sought to get back nearly $1 million, in all, from firms including PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC, Dell Marketing LP, Oracle America Inc., the Hilton Providence hotel and others. According to a filing made earlier this month, software company Oracle America Inc. has agreed to pay $30,000 to settle the claim against it.

Doral Financial Corp. wants court permission to sell its insurance arm to Anglo-Puerto Rican Insurance Corp. for $10.75 million, subject to higher bids at an auction, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Doral said in a Tuesday bankruptcy court filing that without the sale, its Doral Insurance Agency unit would likely experience a “rapid and substantial decline” in value. A judge has set an April 9 hearing to consider the procedures of an auction, which would be held May 12 if competing bids are made. Doral Financial, whose primary asset was Puerto Rico’s Doral Bank, which failed in February, didn’t place the insurance unit into chapter 11 when it filed for bankruptcy in March. But because about 40 percent of Doral Insurance’s commissions come from business generated by Doral Bank customers, that flow would be gone if Doral Bank is placed in receivership in Puerto Rico.

The owners of Atlantic City's former Revel casino hope to sell it "soon," even as they seek an extension through the end of June to wrap up its bankruptcy case, the Associated Press reported yesterday. In a court filing made on Monday, Revel AC said that it is working toward finalizing the $82 million sale to Florida developer Glenn Straub's Polo North Country Club. A bankruptcy court judge is scheduled to consider the sale tomorrow.

A lawsuit accusing hedge fund manager Philip A. Falcone and his Harbinger Capital Partners of misleading investors about the firm’s stake in LightSquared Inc. was dismissed by a U.S. judge, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan today dismissed the remaining counts in the suit, after sharply narrowing it in a ruling in 2013. The investors claimed Harbinger acquired an interest in LightSquared, formerly known as SkyTerra Communications Inc., without adequately warning them of the risks. Harbinger ultimately owned 60 percent of LightSquared, which was developing a high-speed wireless broadband network before it filed for bankruptcy in 2012.

Exide Technologies faces more than $2.45 million in Texas penalties over violations at its now-closed plant in Frisco, the Dallas Morning News reported today. The penalties are part of a proposal that will be considered at the April 15 meeting of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The six violations issued in 2013 relate to Exide’s handling and storage of hazardous waste at its site along Fifth Street. The state’s proposed agreed order is the latest step in the cleanup process in Frisco, where extensive contamination exists from the plant’s decades of operations. The order also calls for keeping the hazardous waste in the Class 2 landfill on site for long-term monitoring. State regulators say the other option — digging up the waste and transporting it to another permitted facility — is impractical and carries a risk to people and the environment. The state’s action comes on the heels of Friday’s bankruptcy court ruling in Delaware that confirms the company’s plan of reorganization. The confirmation allows the company to emerge from chapter 11 bankruptcy once it meets all of the conditions set out in the plan. Exide has already agreed to the terms in TCEQ’s proposal, including the $2,451,984 penalty.

Plastic-surgery chain Lifestyle Lift filed for Chapter 11 protection Friday, three-and-a-half weeks after abruptly shutting down its business and laying off its staff of nearly 400, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. The bankruptcy court filing lists assets of less than $50,000 and liabilities of between $10 million and $50 million. Lifestyle Lift said that it is negotiating with a new management company to reopen most, if not all, of its roughly 50 surgery centers. The new company “is hoping to rehire the former employees at those centers, including doctors and medical staff.” The company, which filed for bankruptcy along with several related entities, owes money to vendors including Botox maker Allergan Inc.

Battery maker Exide Technologies Inc. won bankruptcy court approval on Friday to implement a restructuring that cuts $600 million from its $1 billion in debt and puts the company under the ownership of senior lenders that have financed its stay under chapter 11 protection, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey signed off on the plan during a hearing on Friday, and approved the closure of Exide’s battery recycling plant in Vernon, Calif. Exide agreed to invest at least $50 million into the cleanup and demolition of the decades-old plant, which melted down lead from used car batteries to be used in the production of new batteries, as well as cleanup of the surrounding neighborhood. Exide is also in the process of cleaning up contaminated land, ground water and creeks near a lead recycling plant in Frisco, Texas that shut down in 2012.

An insurer that was required to help fund the $3 billion bankruptcy of Pittsburgh Corning has filed court papers seeking the case to be reopened, saying that “pervasive fraudulent conduct” by asbestos plaintiff lawyers tainted the proceedings, Forbes reported today. The filing by Everest Re and its Mt. McKinley Insurance unit follows the opening of millions of pages of documents in the Garlock Sealing Technologies bankruptcy, which revealed how lawyers representing asbestos plaintiffs deliberately delayed filing claims against bankrupt companies until they had completed cases against solvent ones, in order to avoid cluttering the record with potential evidence of exposure to other firms’ products. Everest is among the insurers ordered to pay $1.7 billion into the bankruptcy trust formed to settle claims against Pittsburgh Corning, a joint venture of PPG Industries PPG and Corning that made asbestos insulation widely used in ships, refineries and other industrial settings. A judge approved the bankruptcy plan in 2013 and last year a federal district court judge rejected Everest’s challenge to the plan.

American Sniper Chris Kyle’s widow got court approval of a settlement with a group of Texas investors, enabling Mr. Kyle’s family to claim the rights to a skull-shaped logo used by her husband’s business and to remain in their Midlothian home, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The settlement, signed late last week by Bankruptcy Judge Barbara Houser, signals the end of a battle among Taya Kyle, hedge fund manager Kyle Bass and executives at Chris Kyle’s business after he was fatally shot on a gun range in early 2013 by a fellow Iraq War veteran. Under the deal, the SWAT team-training business called Craft International LLC will hand over the rights to its skull logo, which is imprinted on T-shirts, patches and coffee mugs and surrounded by these words: “Despite what your momma told you, violence does solve problems.” Half of the training company’s $900,000 in revenue in 2013 came from apparel sales, according to court papers. And when Hollywood filmmakers decided to make a movie about Kyle’s life — a surprise blockbuster at the box office earlier this year — that announcement fueled speculation about whether the logo could become even more valuable. Kyle founded Dallas-based Craft International in 2009 after leaving the military, but it struggled to make money and filed for bankruptcy last May. After his death, some investors who extended a $2.6 million loan to the business proposed to take over Kyle’s inherited ownership instead of loan repayment.