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A Washington, D.C., townhouse that FTX’s new management has linked to Sam Bankman-Fried ‘s political spending has been pulled off the market after the company alleged that the $3.3 million property was purchased with FTX customer funds, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Property records show the four-bedroom, 4,100-square-foot property in Capitol Hill is owned by Guarding Against Pandemics, a nonprofit organization founded by Mr. Bankman-Fried’s brother Gabriel. FTX’s newly appointed management team said in a court filing last month that Guarding Against Pandemics was also funded by FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and that the organization purchased a multimillion-dollar property using what the company believes are misappropriated customer funds. The listing was taken off the market after WSJ Pro Bankruptcy contacted the real-estate agent representing the property on Thursday. Devon Fox, who handled the Capitol Hill listing, said the seller pulled it as a show of good faith. On Friday morning, a for-sale sign remained in front of the townhouse in Northeast Washington. A representative for Guarding Against Pandemics said Thursday that Gabriel Bankman-Fried is no longer part of the organization. Representatives for Gabriel Bankman-Fried and Sam Bankman-Fried didn’t respond to requests for comment. U.S. prosecutors have said that former FTX Chief Executive Sam Bankman-Fried misused customer deposits at FTX to fund his trading firm Alameda Research and make political donations. He has pleaded not guilty to prosecutors’ charges.

New York Digital Investment Group, one of the largest crypto lenders, is repossessing 27,403 machines from bankrupt miner Core Scientific Inc. as the company seeks to extinguish a loan, Bloomberg News reported. The mining company received a court approval to ship those machines to NYDIG in the coming months, eliminating a $38.6 million machine-backed loan. The collateral is worth about $25 million at the current market price, according to a Feb. 2 filing. NYDIG is one of the largest underwriters for loans backed by mining machines. It originated about $378 million in such loans to miners between October 2020 and May 2022, according to data compiled by TheMinerMag. The lender has received tens of thousands of machines as miners struggle to repay the loans. The lender received 26,200 machines from Stronghold Digital Mining Inc. to eliminate the miner’s $67 million debt and it is likely to take over another batch of machines from Iris Energy as the miner defaulted on $103 million machine-backed loans. The lender is on track to be a major miner as it repossesses Bitcoin mining facilities along with machines. NYDIG agreed to pay Greenidge Generation Holdings not only for its mining machines, but to operate them in exchange for debt reduction. The deal effectively made Greenidge, once the largest miner in the US, a hosting firm to run the lender’s machines.

Aruze Gaming, the slot machine developer behind Shoot to Win Craps, Go Go Claw and other slot and electronic table games, filed for chapter 11 protection, one day after announcing the departure of its U.S. branch president, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. Aruze filed a voluntary petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Nevada on Wednesday. The company said in a news release that the filing was part of its efforts to restructure financially because of “a recent garnishment judgment against Aruze resulting from a separate judgment against Aruze’s shareholder.” The company said that it intends to continue operating normally. “This filing was a critical business strategy we were forced to make due to external factors outside our control. We fully understand the implications associated with this action, but we believe this is the best way for Aruze to maintain the overall health of our business,” Global CEO Yugo Kinoshita said in a statement. “This restructuring has no reflection on the health of Aruze. We’re proud of the advances we have made to establish Aruze as a casino mainstay. We are highly confident this action will protect our brand, our legacy and our suite of games. As we progress through this process, we are assured that Aruze will emerge as an even stronger company.” On Tuesday, the company announced the departure of Robert Ziems, president of Aruze Gaming America. It said Kinoshita would take on the day-to-day operations, beginning March 1, while the company’s board searches for a replacement.

Bankruptcy new filings were up year-over-year across chapter 7, 11, 13, and 15 in January 2023, according to data provided by Epiq Bankruptcy, the leading provider of U.S. bankruptcy filing data. Epiq Bankruptcy is a division of Epiq, a global technology-enabled services leader to the legal services industry and corporations. Total commercial filings increased twelve percent to 1,694 in January 2023 over the 1,508 total filings reported in January 2022. Commercial chapter 11 filings increased 70 percent to 257 filings up from 151 filings recorded one year ago. All subchapter V small business filings increased 49 percent to 137 in January 2023 from the 92 filings registered the previous year. Total U.S. bankruptcy filings in January 2023 were 31,087, up 19 percent from the 26,215 total filings registered in January 2022. The 29,545 overall individual filings were 20 percent higher in January 2023 than the 24,703 individual filings recorded last year. While still below pre-pandemic levels, individual chapter 13 filings continued to increase in January, as the 13,702 reported filings were a 32 percent increase over the January 2022 total of 10,346.

Embattled FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has staved off a case alleging he broke Texas securities laws, after a judge ruled that the state regulator lacks jurisdiction to act against him, Bloomberg News reported. The ruling came in a case brought by the Texas State Securities Board claiming Bankman-Fried offered unregistered securities through FTX’s yield-bearing cryptocurrency accounts and that he now owes refunds to Texas investors. Administrative Law Judge Sarah Starnes has canceled a Thursday hearing at which Bankman-Fried had been ordered to testify and has given the securities agency until March 1 to file an amended complaint. Joe Rotunda, the agency’s director of enforcement, didn’t return messages seeking comment on the ruling, and it isn’t clear whether he will refile. But the case reflects the early efforts some states are making to recover money from FTX and Bankman-Fried in the wake of the crypto exchange’s implosion in November. The obstacles: a criminal fraud prosecution of Bankman-Fried and a sprawling FTX bankruptcy case.

Phoenix Services, a Radnor company that keeps the largest U.S. steel mills running by recycling their molten slag, is in its sixth month of bankruptcy reorganization, as tons of waste pile up at its clients’ plants, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Since Phoenix filed for chapter 11 reorganization in September, those are the rival stories lawyers have told in the fight over the future of the slag disposal company. Phoenix’s fleet of 1,700 custom-built machines clears off hot waste at mills owned by Nucor, U.S. Steel, ArcelorMittal, Cleveland-Cliffs and other big steelmakers and sells it for construction and road material. Past buyers include PennDOT. Phoenix is using the bankruptcy to force new terms on the steelmakers. Nucor, the largest U.S.-based steelmaker, is fighting back, refusing Phoenix’s pricing proposals and demanding the court set up a detailed plan for removing Phoenix’s bulky, specialized vehicles and on-site recycling facilities — or leave them so someone else can take over the work. If there’s not a plan soon, Nucor says a growing slag backlog at its large Southern mills may force it to cut production, threatening potential shortages or price hikes on the carmakers and other manufacturers who rely on American steel. Phoenix has balked at Nucor’s proposal and its claims, arguing there will be adequate steel available even if it pulls out, and that it needs flexibility to move its equipment to new clients at its own pace.

Former Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. employees say they haven’t been paid promised severance, the latest sign of the worsening financial squeeze at the home-goods retailer, Bloomberg News reported. Some former employees received an email on Jan. 26 from the human resources department that read, in part: “We are reaching out to you to inform you that there has been a delay with your payment,” according to copies viewed by Bloomberg News. “We recognize the challenges this may cause and appreciate your patience as we work to provide an update.” Former staffers who raised concerns about their severance pay in recent days received an additional email. They asked not to be identified out of concern it would jeopardize their payments. “We are working to provide you with an update, and we are aiming to be back in touch by Wednesday, February 8,” the message said. The email didn’t explain the significance of that date. The delayed payments underscore the mounting financial distress for one of the largest home-goods retailers in the US. On Wednesday, the company confirmed it missed interest payments on its bonds. Last week, Bed Bath & Beyond received a default notice from its loan agent, JPMorgan Chase & Co., warning that it didn’t have enough funds to make payments.

Johnson & Johnson faces an uphill battle to salvage its strategy for settling roughly 40,000 cancer lawsuits concerning its talc-based products through a subsidiary’s bankruptcy after a court rejected the company’s tactic, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit dismissed the chapter 11 case of J&J’s talc subsidiary, LTL Management LLC, and could force the consumer health giant to resume defending the mass personal injury lawsuits against it on a case-by-case basis, rather than through a single bankruptcy proceeding. J&J has long maintained its talc products are safe and won a majority of trials over the talc allegations. J&J has said that it would challenge the appeal’s court’s ruling. J&J has some avenues to challenge the decision dismissing LTL’s case, authored unanimously by a three-judge panel on the Third Circuit. The company has the right to ask all of the judges sitting on the appeals court to weigh in, a request that litigants often make in high-stakes cases. More than 20 appellate judges sit on the Third Circuit, according to the court’s website. It’s up to the Third Circuit to decide whether all of the judges on the appeals court will reconsider LTL’s case. The company can also request a stay of Monday’s ruling while appealing further.