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The slot machine operator formerly known as Lucky Bucks is suing members of its former management and their affiliates, seeking the return of approximately $200 million and accusing them of defrauding the company, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Now known as Arc Gaming and Technologies, Georgia-based Lucky Bucks emerged from bankruptcy in October. The company’s new management filed a lawsuit in state court on Tuesday under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act that named nine former high-ranking employees and one contractor as well as a dozen associated entities. The lawsuit alleged Lucky Bucks founder and former owner Anil Damani led a scheme to loot the company. Damani was barred from the company’s operations by a state regulator in June 2020, the lawsuit said. Damani and his lieutenants had Lucky Bucks and its affiliated entities borrow hundreds of millions of dollars from lenders and distributed the proceeds among themselves, the lawsuit said. The mounting debt ultimately pushed the company to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last June, the lawsuit said. Lucky Bucks covered about 345 locations throughout Georgia with about 2,300 slot machines when it filed for bankruptcy. It blamed a sharp decline in revenue in 2022 caused by challenges such as increased local competition and regulatory enforcement. Lucky Bucks handed itself to its lenders in exchange for reducing its debt by more than $500 million under the company’s chapter 11 plan, which was approved in July.

Guanella Pass Brewing, which has locations in Georgetown and Empire, Colo., filed for chapter 11 on Dec. 30, the Denver Post reported. The 7-year-old brewery has $2.3 million in debt, far more than the $860,000 in gross revenue that it earned in 2023. Guanella Pass became Georgetown’s first brewery since Prohibition when it opened in May 2017 at 501 Rose St. in the tiny Clear Creek County town. It has 16 owners, led by Steven and Stacey Skalski of Evergreen, who together are its majority shareholders. Steven Skalski bought 501 Rose St. for $180,000 in 2016, county records show. In 2020, Guanella Pass opened a brewpub at the foot of Berthoud Pass along U.S. 40 in Empire. It also operates the SilverBrick Saloon, a restaurant in Georgetown. On Dec. 7, the brewery, along with both Skalskis, were sued in Jefferson County by On Tap Credit Union, a beer-themed banking institution that said the defendants owe it $36,000 and counting on a credit card. The Skalskis and their company have not responded to the lawsuit in court but the brewery’s bankruptcy paperwork shows a $36,000 debt to On Tap. Guanella Pass has just $72,340 in assets: brewing and restaurant equipment mostly, along with a few thousand dollars in a bank account. It brought in $792,000 in gross revenue in 2021, $1.1 million in 2022 and $860,000 last year, according to its bankruptcy paperwork.

Shortly before the media start-up The Messenger launched last year, its president said that the company planned to generate more than $100 million of revenue in 2024. It will need a major turn in fortune to get there, the New York Times reported. The site generated about $3 million in revenue last year, according to two people with knowledge of the company’s financial results. And it has told potential investors that it had only $1.8 million in cash on hand at the end of December, after losing about $38 million last year, putting it under severe financial strain. The operating results of The Messenger — which until now had not been fully disclosed — underscore the difficulties facing the company. The founders, who raised $50 million to start the website, initially said their aim was to transform coverage of U.S. politics, culture and sports. But it has run into editorial and financial troubles. This week the company is laying off roughly two dozen employees, including those who covered national politics, science and technology. It is raising money from investors to maintain its operations through this year. On Tuesday, Richard Beckman, a founder who was a long-serving executive at the magazine company Condé Nast, announced he was leaving the company.

Commercial chapter 11 filings increased 72 percent to 6,569 in calendar year 2023 from the previous year’s total of 3,819, according to data provided by Epiq AACER, the leading provider of U.S. bankruptcy filing data. Overall commercial filings increased 19 percent to 25,627 from the 21,479 registered the previous year. Subchapter V elections within chapter 11 also experienced a substantial increase in calendar year 2023, as the 1,939 filings represented a 45 percent increase from the 1,334 recorded in 2022. Total bankruptcy filings in calendar year 2023 were 445,186, an 18 percent increase from the 378,390 registered during calendar year 2022. While representing a substantial year-over-year increase, total bankruptcy filings remain lower than the pre-pandemic total of 757,816 recorded in CY2019.

FTX is on the hunt for billions of dollars that the cryptocurrency exchange says it is owed. Since filing for bankruptcy in November 2022, the company — through a dozen or so lawsuits — has been trying to claw back the money. FTX is expected to file more such lawsuits in 2024, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. “There are many more actions coming as a result of our comprehensive investigation,” an FTX spokesperson said. In a September presentation to creditors, FTX said it had identified $16.6 billion in such potential actions. “We are highly confident there will be significant recoveries for creditors from these new actions,” as well as from pending cases and other investigative efforts, the FTX spokesperson said. The company faces 36,075 customer claims for a total of $16 billion. FTX has said customers would get as much as 90% of whatever is recovered during the bankruptcy. Roughly $9 billion of customer deposits remain unaccounted for.