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Fisker Inc. is pausing production for the next six weeks as the electric-vehicle maker looks to rein in inventory and avoid possibly having to file for bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. The company didn’t make a required interest payment of about $8.4 million last week on its unsecured convertible notes due in 2026, according to a regulatory filing Monday. Fisker warned it may not be able to meet obligations to service its debt and “could need to seek protection under applicable bankruptcy laws.” Fisker shares fell as much as 14% shortly after the start of regular trading. The stock had plummeted 90% this year through last week’s close. Fisker also said Monday that it plans to raise as much as $150 million through a financing deal with the holder of its 2025-dated convertible notes. The Los Angeles-based EV maker didn’t identify the existing investor and said the funding will be organized in four tranches and subject to certain conditions. The disclosures expound on the dire state of Fisker, which warned late last month that there was substantial doubt about its ability to stay in business. The company has said it will cut 15% of its workforce after struggling with production issues, software glitches and short-seller criticism.

Almost three-and-one-half years after the Catholic Diocese of Camden, New Jersey filed for bankruptcy citing financial effects from the pandemic and sexual abuse settlements, its chapter 11 reorganization plan has been approved, according to the Insurance Journal. The final plan, the ninth amended proposal, establishes an $87.5 million trust to compensate about 324 survivors of sexual abuse within the diocese. The trust will be funded with $87.5 million from the diocese and related Catholic entities. Insurance policies turned over to the diocese will contribute $30 million. Bankruptcy Judge Jerrold N. Poslusny, Jr., in Camden, approved the plan that allows the diocese to pay into the trust over five years and keep operating so it can pay creditors. The settlement also requires the church to maintain and enhance protocols for the protection of children that were first implemented in 2002.

The profits were multiplying at a dizzying clip: 50%, 100%, then suddenly almost 200%. Even for long-time veterans at Attestor Ltd., a boutique London firm that specializes in trading distressed assets, this had the makings of a score to remember, Bloomberg News reported. The trade — targeting the remains of Sam Bankman-Fried’s once-vast cryptocurrency empire — became a popular one in distressed investing circles last year. Many of Attestor’s rivals jumped in, too, and as the value of crypto coins skyrocketed once again, so did the value of the assets they had purchased at rock-bottom prices from clients of Bankman-Fried’s, desperate to recoup whatever they could. Lawyers running the bankruptcy now estimate the clean-up will deliver investors 100% of the money frozen in FTX when it failed. But this is where the story gets messy for Attestor — and its grip on a chunk of that windfall becomes a bit fragile. The seller of one of the biggest FTX accounts it purchased — an obscure Panamanian firm called Lemma Technologies that’s controlled by an embattled South Korean trader — has opted, so far at least, to keep the claim for itself. Attestor’s lawyers have argued in a New York court that this is a clear case of “seller’s remorse.” Over the years, other bankruptcies have brought handsome returns, but rarely, if ever, so rapidly. Back in June, Lemma agreed to a sell price of $58 million, according to evidence submitted to the court. Today, the claim is expected to pay out $165 million.

Dayton Senior Care LLC, which does business under the name Friendship Village, is part of a chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in Tennessee along with six other entities owned by the same company, but the Ombudsman Office does not anticipate the facility will close, the Dayton Daily News reported. Friendship Village filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Tennessee in Nashville. Among the top creditors listed is the Montgomery County Treasurer’s Office with $444,411.31 owed in property taxes, according to court records. The Ombudsman Office recently visited Friendship Village to conduct staff and resident interviews at the request of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to ensure resident care does not decline during the bankruptcy proceedings. While the Ombudsman Office does not anticipate Friendship Village to close — expecting it will be sold — the facility would be required to give residents a 90-day notification before closing. Friendship Village’s assets are listed as being between $10 million and $50 million, according to court filings. The liabilities for the debtors are between $100 million and $500 million with between 200 and 1,000 creditors.

Fabric and crafts retailer Joann Inc. filed for bankruptcy, unable to sustain its debt load after a sales boom during pandemic lockdowns faded, Bloomberg News reported. The Hudson, Ohio-based chain will be delisted after the bankruptcy proceedings and be privately owned by “certain of its lenders and industry parties,” according to a company statement released as it filed a chapter 11 petition in Delaware today. The filing listed liabilities of $1 billion to $10 billion. Joann’s lenders struck a restructuring deal to provide about $132 million in new financing that would help the company reduce debt by about $505 million, the firm said. The parties in the deal also agreed to a six-month extension of certain loans and credit facilities.

Companies around the world are defaulting on their debt at the fastest pace since the global financial crisis as high interest rates and stubborn inflation continue to take their toll, according to a report from S&P Global Ratings, MarketWatch.com reported. According to S&P, the number of corporate defaults has climbed to 29 since the start of the year, the most highest tally at this point in a year since 2009. While the majority of defaults occurred in the U.S., an uptick in European bankruptcies is alarming analysts. Since January, eight European companies have defaulted, more than double the three defaults that had been seen by this point in 2023. By comparison, 17 defaults occurred in the U.S., slightly less than the 18 seen at this juncture from last year. While the U.S. has seen a plurality of defaults, Europe has seen companies fail to make payments on their debt obligations at twice the rate of any year since 2008. By sector, 40% of defaults in February have involved companies in the health care or media and entertainment spaces. Given their weak outlook, S&P Global expects more media and health-care companies, along with makers of consumer products, to see more defaults going forward.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, which announced in December that it planned to file for bankruptcy protection because of a crush of sexual abuse lawsuits, will file with the bankruptcy court on April 1, The Sacramento Bee reported. “The faithful of the diocese are being notified of the filing date at this weekend’s Masses,” diocese spokesman Frank Lienert wrote Saturday in an email to The Bee. Bishop Jaime Soto announced in December that the diocese would follow the same path as some other ecclesiastical districts in California, including the Diocese of San Francisco, Diocese of Oakland, Diocese of Stockton and Diocese of Santa Rosa. Soto said in a statement in December that “it is now clear to me that this is the only way available to me to resolve these claims as fairly as possible.” “There are many victim-survivors awaiting compensation for the reprehensible sins committed against them,” the bishop wrote in the statement. “The diocese faces more than 250 lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by clergy or other church staff. The reorganization process will allow me to equitably respond to the large number of those who are victim-survivors of abuse.” The diocese originally said it expected to file in March, but has now pinpointed April 1 as the date court papers will be filed. The crush of lawsuits stems from a measure signed into law in California in 2019 that extended the statute of limitations for such cases. Other states have passed similar laws. The Sacramento diocese has published a list of 46 “credibly accused clergy” who served in the Diocese of Sacramento from 1933 through 2018. Many of them are now deceased, and some are listed as being fugitives from justice.

Genesis Global is facing off against its parent company in bankruptcy court on Monday, aiming to resolve more than a year of disputes over who reaps the benefits of the surging bitcoin price, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Judge Sean Lane of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, N.Y., is scheduled to hear closing arguments of Genesis’s chapter 11 plan that would offer a path, if approved, for it to wind down the business. After lengthy litigation that played out in court, Genesis’s lenders, customers and regulators support a proposal that would repay as much as 77% of its customers’ holdings in the type of digital assets that they are owed. However, Digital Currency Group, Genesis’s parent company and the biggest borrower, opposes the chapter 11 plan. Much of DCG’s dispute centers around who gets the benefit of bitcoin’s current high price, which has gone up more than 200% since January 2023, when Genesis filed for bankruptcy. DCG has argued that Genesis should repay its lenders and customers at the old rock-bottom price in U.S. dollars, allowing the remaining stakeholders, including DCG, to benefit from the upside of the price increases in digital assets. DCG has cited bankruptcy code stipulating that chapter 11 claims be valued in dollars as of the filing date. New York-based Genesis filed for bankruptcy in the aftermath of the collapses of crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and crypto exchange FTX in 2022. The bankruptcy exposed the interconnected nature of the crypto industry, where companies lend to each other and when one fails it creates a domino effect.