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General Motors Co. rejected a request by two U.S. senators to extend their ignition switch compensation fund claim deadline for a second time, the Wall Street Journal reported today. “Our goal is to be just and timely in compensating the families who lost loved ones and those who suffered physical injury,” GM said in a statement Wednesday. “We have conducted extensive outreach about the program. We previously extended the deadline until January 31, and we do not plan another extension.” The automaker extended the deadline last month to Saturday from Dec. 31 after it was reported that a potential victim eligible for a payout didn’t have enough time to submit a claim. All claims must be postmarked or submitted electronically through the fund’s website by Jan. 31. U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) sent the letter to GM Chief Executive Mary Barra asking that the deadline be extended until the Justice Department completes its investigation into the recall delay.

Caesars Entertainment Corp. scored a victory yesterday in its bid to dig out from under $18.4 billion in debt through the bankruptcy of its main operating unit, when a judge in Delaware said its financial restructuring could proceed in Chicago, Dow Jones Newswires reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross steered the action toward a court where Caesars could have an easier time shaking off accusations it looted the big casino operation before putting it into chapter 11 protection. Judge Gross handed a setback to unhappy creditors, junior bondholders and bank lenders who had allied to keep the chapter 11 proceeding active in Delaware, instead of Chicago, the company's choice for an attempted soft landing for its debt-laden largest unit. In directing the chapter 11 case to proceed in Chicago, Judge Gross said that his overriding consideration was that Caesars was entitled to "just enough deference" for its choice, despite "suspect" conduct by the company in the period before its bankruptcy filing.

Former billionaire Samuel Wyly was sued by his ex-wife over claims he hid stock in companies he controlled during their 1991 divorce, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Wyly, who helped build companies including arts-and-crafts retailer Michaels Stores Inc., filed for chapter 11 protection last year after losing a fraud suit to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. During the SEC trial, the U.S. alleged that Sam Wyly and his brother Charles hid a bulk of their holdings offshore. Torie Steele, formerly known as Victoria Lee Wyly, sued Sam Wyly Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Dallas seeking 50 percent of any stock that wasn’t disclosed during the divorce. She claims the undeclared stock was hidden offshore or placed with other people to deceive the court. Steele asked for a new trial to determine what the stock’s worth.

A judge approved a settlement between the trustee in charge of Jeffrey Soffer's failed Fontainebleau Las Vegas casino project and the company's former directors and officers that will put millions in creditors' pockets, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. In an order signed last week, Bankruptcy Judge A. Jay Cristol approved the deal, which calls for $27.5 million to go into the coffers of chapter 7 trustee Soneet R. Kapila, the man in charge of Fontainebleau's estate. The judge had rejected a prior settlement, which was opposed by a group of term lenders who were suing Fontainebleau's officers and directors for fraud, charges those parties denied. Those lenders support the new settlement, which calls for a payment of $25 million of directors' and officers' insurance money to creditors.

The movie “American Sniper,” based on the life of ex-Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, has brought in more than $130 million in domestic ticket sales in its first week, but the SWAT team training business that Kyle founded after leaving the military is preparing to shut down, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Before “American Sniper” hit the big screen, there was a messy trail of accusations and bankruptcy litigation involving the business he founded, Craft International LLC, and his widow, Taya Kyle, who was called the company’s “litigation nemesis” in court filings by Craft’s lawyers in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Dallas. Now, Kyle and Craft’s creditors have reached a settlement under which the company will shut down, the Kyle family can live rent-free until Oct. 30 in their Midlothian, Texas, home, and Kyle will get the rights to Craft’s skull-shaped logo.

A bankruptcy judge last week signed off on the $27.5 million settlement agreement with Fontainebleau Las Vegas resort’s officers, directors and managers of the debtors involved in the $2.9 billion development, the Miami Herald reported today. Bankruptcy trustee Soneet Kapila reached the agreement after more than two years of negotiations and three years of litigation. Insurers of the directors and officers will pay $25 million and developer Jeffrey Soffer, an owner of Turnberry Associates, will be responsible for paying $2.5 million. Separate litigation filed by the term lenders in Nevada was also settled, resulting in a payout of $98 million. Of that, $93 million will be paid by the directors and officers insurers and $5 million will come from Soffer. A $178 million settlement agreement with creditors for the development was approved in December of 2013. The Las Vegas project was never completed; it filed for bankruptcy protection in 2009. During the bankruptcy process, investor Carl Icahn bought the building.

A former Lehman Brothers trader is still fighting for bonus money he says is owed him from 2008, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Jonathan Hoffman, a global rates trader, denied in a bankruptcy court filing an assertion by the trustee unwinding Lehman’s brokerage that he was “fully paid” $84.8 million in bonus money he was owed. Hoffman, who at the time of Lehman’s collapse was the bank’s third-highest paid rank-and-file employee, also denies Lehman’s assertion that he is asking to be paid twice for the bonus. Hoffman says that his bonus package with Lehman was separate from the one he negotiated with Barclays PLC after Barclays bought the brokerage. Barclays paid Hoffman a bonus as part of his compensation.

The Diocese of Spokane, Wash., has reached an out-of-court settlement with the law firm that represented the diocese in bankruptcy proceedings, Catholic World News reported today. The diocese had brought a malpractice suit against the firm of Paine Hamblen, charging that the firm failed to secure the interests of the diocese by setting up a $1 million fund to pay settlements to sex-abuse victims. That fund was soon exhausted, prompting victims to file claims against the parishes of the diocese. In December, a bankruptcy court judge ruled that the lawsuit should go to trial. In reaching an agreement, the diocese and the law firm issued a joint statement, noting that the accord “does not constitute an admission of wrongdoing by either side.” The terms of the agreement were not made public.

As part of its bankruptcy filing, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis sought wide discretion to withhold details on settlements with victims of sexually abusive priests, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune yesterday. The Star Tribune challenged that motion in court last week, agreeing that names and identifying information of victims should be kept private but arguing that the archdiocese's request was "overly broad." U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Kressel said from the bench that the Archdiocese's request was "too vague." On Wednesday, Judge Kressel issued an order that allows the redaction of names and other identifying information about abuse victims, but otherwise limits what the Archdiocese can withhold from public scrutiny.

An attorney for Ocwen Financial Corp., the embattled mortgage-servicing company, today issued a letter rejecting efforts by a group of large investors seeking to remove the firm as servicer of $82 billion of residential mortgage-backed securities, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Richard Jacobsen, an attorney with Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, said that the investors had made “baseless allegations,” and that their letter late last week had “an inflammatory tone, with misleading content.” Jacobsen’s letter didn’t address the specific claims in the investors’ letter, which was released late Friday. The investors, who hold 25 percent of the private-label mortgage securities, include asset managers Pacific Investment Management Co., Kore Capital LP, MetLife Inc. and BlackRock Inc. The investors said in their letter that they had conducted a lengthy investigation and alleged that Ocwen had improperly enriched itself, made imprudent loan modifications, and failed to maintain adequate records or account for all the funds it was handling for the investors.