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A real estate developer in Durham, N.C., has filed for bankruptcy protection for a second time, the Triangle Business Journal reported. Ramarama Inc. filed for chapter 11 protection this month, listing both assets and liabilities as ranging between $1 million and $10 million. Ramarama, led by Mark Bullock, has filed for bankruptcy in the past. But it’s a new day this time around, says Ramarama’s attorney, Joseph Frost. “Past performance is not indicative of the future results and successes of Ramarama through this chapter 11 bankruptcy filing,” he said in an email, adding that his client is “committed” to repaying its creditors in a way that maximizes the value of its two development projects in downtown Durham. Those projects, according to Frost, are on Ellis Road and Roxboro Street. Bullock has a history of investing in Durham properties. In 2018, he bought the former Harriet Tubman YWCA on Umstead Street. However, he failed to pay property taxes for the site, and nonprofit firm Reinvestment Partners purchased it with plans to build affordable housing. Multiple Durham properties are tied to hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of liabilities included in the latest bankruptcy case, including addresses on Ellis Road, Roxboro Street and Ramseur Street.

The lending unit of crypto firm Genesis filed on Thursday for U.S. bankruptcy protection from creditors, toppled by a market rout along with the likes of exchange FTX and lender BlockFi, Reuters reported. Genesis Global Capital, one of the largest crypto lenders, froze customer redemptions on Nov. 16 after FTX stunned the financial world with its bankruptcy, fueling concern that other companies could implode. The company is owned by venture capital firm Digital Currency Group (DCG). Genesis' lending unit said it had both assets and liabilities in the range of $1 billion to $10 billion, and estimated it had over 100,000 creditors in its filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Genesis Global Holdco, the parent group of Genesis Global Capital, also filed for bankruptcy protection, along with another lending unit Genesis Asia Pacific. Genesis Global Holdco said in a statement that it would contemplate a potential sale or a equitization transaction to pay creditors, and that it had $150 million in cash to support the restructuring. It added that Genesis' derivatives and spot trading, broker dealer and custody businesses were not part of the bankruptcy process, and would continue their client trading operations.

FTX’s new chief executive, John J. Ray III, said he is looking into the possibility of reviving the bankrupt crypto exchange as he works to return money to the failed company’s customers and creditors, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. In his first interview since taking over FTX in November, Ray said that he has set up a task force to explore restarting FTX.com, the company’s main international exchange. Although top FTX executives have been accused of criminal misconduct, some customers have praised its technology and suggested that there would be value in rebooting the platform, he said. “Everything is on the table,” Ray said. “If there is a path forward on that, then we will not only explore that, we’ll do it.” FTX’s bankruptcy filing marked the largest of several failures of cryptocurrency platforms last year that froze millions of users’ access to their accounts. FTX, Celsius Network LLC, Voyager Digital Ltd. and BlockFi Inc. have used the chapter 11 process to explore restarting their businesses and selling their platforms to stronger rivals. Another option is to simply close up shop and return crypto holdings to customers as quickly as possible. Ray said that he would look into whether reviving FTX’s international exchange would recover more value for the company’s customers than his team could get from simply liquidating assets or selling the platform.

Crypto lender Nexo Capital Inc. agreed to pay $45 million to settle claims that its product violated investor-protection laws, becoming the second digital-asset lender in a week to face a major enforcement action, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Securities and Exchange Commission said Nexo’s Earn Interest Product was the type of investment that should have been registered with regulators before being sold to the public. Crypto middlemen such as Nexo recruited huge numbers of customers over the past several years by offering interest rates in excess of 10% to people who would loan out their crypto. Nexo settled the SEC’s investigation without admitting or denying wrongdoing, and agreed to pay half of the $45 million fine to the federal agency and half to a group of states that had already sued it. The SEC last week sued crypto lender Genesis Global Capital LLC, alleging its crypto-lending program is a security that should have followed federal rules. Nexo agreed with the SEC to stop offering the program to American investors, and had already decided in December to start phasing it out in the U.S., the SEC said. A group of states including California and New York sued Nexo in September over the same claims the SEC alleged on Thursday. The company settled with 17 states on Thursday, according to the North American Securities Administrators Association.

Regal Cinemas, the second-largest chain of movie theaters in the U.S., will close 39 locations after its parent company Cineworld filed for bankruptcy in September, according to legal filings obtained by Variety. Cineworld will reject the leases beginning Feb. 15. Amid a massive decline in the domestic box office during the COVID-19 pandemic, the monthly rent per theater increased by nearly 30% from 2019 to 2022, according to the latest bankruptcy filing. “In total, the Debtors estimate that rejecting the Leases will save their estates approximately $22 million annually,” the document states. Any personal property of little value remaining at the locations will be abandoned. Cineworld operates 747 locations with 9,139 screens in 10 countries, with roughly 500 of those theaters in the U.S. Theatrical moviegoing has taken a huge hit during the pandemic, with the 2022 domestic box office tapping out at $7.5 billion, an approximate 30% decrease from the $11.4 billion in 2019 pre-COVID. The company took a loss of $3 billion in 2020, as many theaters remained shuttered, and a $708.3 million loss before tax in 2021. The net debt, excluding lease liabilities, was $4.84 billion.

Top Home Care Agency LLC has filed for voluntary chapter 11 bankruptcy, the Pittsburgh Business Times reported. The Pittsburgh-based home health care agency made the filing Tuesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, with liabilities between $500,000 and $1 million and assets under $50,000. The biggest unclaimed creditor is the Internal Revenue Service, with tax liens of $500,000 reported in the filing. Other tax liens in the filing include $190,000 from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry and $66,000 from the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue. Other unsecured creditors in the filing include Biz 2 Credit for $70,000 and $24,050 in disputed back rent. A hearing on the bankruptcy case in front of Judge Carlota M. Bohm has been scheduled for Thursday.

United Furniture can shift into chapter 11 bankruptcy as it had requested, a federal bankruptcy judge ruled on Wednesday, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reported. Judge Selene Maddox with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Northern District of Mississippi heard testimony last week regarding United/Lane Furniture's motion to move from chapter 7 to a chapter 11 bankruptcy. In late December, Wells Fargo and two other creditors told the bankruptcy court United owed them nearly $100 million. They were pushing for United to file chapter 7, a total liquidation of the company's assets so that they could recoup what's owed. Judge Maddox ruled that United cannot oversee its own liquidation and has requested the appointment of a special independent chapter 11 bankruptcy trustee to oversee the process. United shut down its operations on Nov. 22. The move left some 2,700 workers in three states, including approximately 1,100 in Northeast Mississippi, without work or benefits. United's Mississippi facilities are in Amory, Belden, Hatley, Nettleton, Okolona, Vardaman, Verona and Wren. The company also had six plants in North Carolina and one in California.

Genesis Global Capital is laying the groundwork for a bankruptcy filing as soon as this week, Bloomberg News reported. The cryptocurrency lending unit of Digital Currency Group has been in confidential negotiations with various creditor groups amid a liquidity crunch. It has warned that it may need to file for bankruptcy if it fails to raise cash, Bloomberg previously reported. Financial pressure at Barry Silbert's DCG began to emerge after the collapse of hedge fund Three Arrows Capital. Genesis suspended withdrawals in November, soon after crypto exchange FTX — where Genesis held some of its funds — filed for bankruptcy. The failures have had ripple effects on crypto exchange Gemini Trust, run by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. Gemini Earn — a service that lets Gemini's users get yield for lending out their coins through Genesis — stopped redemptions as well. Creditors, Genesis and DCG exchanged several proposals, but have so far failed to come to an agreement. Kirkland & Ellis and Proskauer Rose have been advising groups of creditors. DCG told shareholders that it's suspending quarterly dividends in an effort to conserve cash, according to a Jan. 17 letter to shareholders seen by Bloomberg.