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A federal appeals court on Friday revived a lawsuit where investors accused Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, of violating U.S. securities laws by selling unregistered tokens that lost much of their value, Reuters reported. In a 3-0 decision, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said investors in the proposed class action plausibly alleged that domestic securities laws applied because their purchases of tokens had become irrevocable in the United States once they paid for them. Circuit Judge Alison Nathan said Binance's use of domestic Amazon computer servers to host its platform supported this outcome, given how Binance "notoriously denies the applicability of any other country's securities regulation regime." The appeals court also said investors could pursue claims arising from purchases made within the year before they sued. Friday's decision reversed a March 2022 ruling by U.S. District Judge Andrew Carter in Manhattan, and returned the case to him.

Rite Aid, the drugstore chain that filed for bankruptcy late last year to seek relief from mass opioid-related lawsuits, is delaying severance payments to employees who were laid off, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The email sent on Thursday said that Rite Aid has made “difficult decisions” over the course of its restructuring, including store closures and reductions in force, and that the company “must now take another difficult action to further preserve cash in the short-term.” The Philadelphia-based company said in a statement Friday that “we have resolved the matter and are resuming severance payments.” “Those who were impacted are being notified and can expect to receive their payments by the middle of next week,” the company said.

The Body Shop announced this month that it has closed all its stores in the United States as it filed for bankruptcy, The Hill reported. The Body Shop Canada Limited, the Canadian subsidiary of the UK-based cosmetics company, said it was working on ways to restructure and that its 105 store locations were currently open for business, according to the company announcement. But 33 store locations were starting liquidation sales, as part of the bankruptcy proceedings. Online sales in Canada also stopped. The Body Shop describes itself as “a once pioneering beauty brand known for its cruelty free heritage and ethical beauty products,” according to the announcement. It was founded by human rights activist Anita Roddick and was one of the first cosmetic companies to prohibit animal testing on products.

New York Community Bancorp's turnaround will likely take a long time as analysts expect profits to remain under pressure from the lender's efforts to boost reserves for potential bad loans in its commercial real estate portfolio, Reuters reported. This week's $1.05 billion capital raise has helped stem the rout in its stock and assuage near-term worries, but exposure to New York's rent-controlled multi-family properties — apartment buildings with more than four units — remains an overhang. Loans tied to multi-family properties, NYCB's primary focus for five decades, made up 44% of its $84.6 billion portfolio as of Dec. 31. Nearly 8.3% of such loans were "criticized", meaning at higher risk of default, the bank disclosed in January. "We are somewhat encouraged that overall credit quality trends could remain manageable in the near-term, though we would expect the company to seriously examine reserve levels for adequacy," analysts at RBC Capital Markets said in a note. The multi-family portfolio includes properties subject to rent control regulations, which limit landlords' freedom to increase rents at a time when borrowing rates remain high. Office loans accounted for 4% of the total portfolio, NYCB said. More than half of the office portfolio is in Manhattan, where the vacancy rate is 15%, according to Moody's.

Luxury fitness company Equinox Holdings Ltd. has received around $1.8 billion in fresh capital to refinance maturing loans and support its growth strategy, according to a statement seen by Bloomberg News. he transaction was led by Sixth Street, a new investor in the firm, and Silver Lake, the statement said. In addition to refinancing maturing loans, Equinox said it secured a new revolving credit facility from Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase & Co. Equinox, which operates high-end fitness clubs and owns the SoulCycle chain, has been holding discussions for months to secure a loan in the private credit market and raise preferred equity, Bloomberg previously reported. S&P Global Ratings earlier this week put Equinox’s CCC- rating on watch on for possible downgrade, citing $1.2 billion of loans due Friday and weak liquidity despite “good trends in membership recovery and positive Ebitda generation” in the first nine months of 2023.

Short on time and running out of options after its scuttled merger with JetBlue Airways Corp., Spirit Airlines Inc. is left looking to debtholders for a lifeline. They will want a lot in return. Lenders whose bonds hemorrhaged value as the deal failed are getting creative to plot a rescue of the airline — and their investment in it, Bloomberg News reported. The mission involves navigating two novel features of Spirit’s debt in order to protect themselves along the road to recovery. First, a proposal under consideration by the lender group involves asserting a “triple-dip” legal claim that market observers say has never been seen before in corporate debt negotiations, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. Meanwhile, resulting debt talks could also present the first-ever restructuring of debt backed by loyalty programs, a pandemic-era practice among cash-strapped airlines. The nascent plans come as the struggling airline needs to shore up its coffers. In the 20 months since JetBlue’s now-dead $3.8 billion offer, Spirit has continuously burned cash and lost profit margin. Wall Street analysts have speculated that it could be forced into bankruptcy reorganization or even liquidation. Spirit says it has sufficient liquidity to stand on its own.

Charge Enterprises Inc., a public company building charging stations for electric vehicles and broadband infrastructure, filed bankruptcy to implement a restructuring plan that will hand control of the business to senior lender Arena Investors, Bloomberg News reported. Charge Enterprises’s assets have a book value of more than $114 million compared to liabilities of roughly $48.7 million, according to papers it filed Thursday in Delaware bankruptcy court. The company said it started polling creditors on its restructuring plan earlier this week and will seek to win bankruptcy court approval on the Arena deal by April 24. Thursday’s chapter 11 filing marks at least the fourth bankruptcy involving companies in the electric vehicle business over the past few years. Electric vehicle maker Lordstown Motors Corp. and EV parts maker Proterra Inc. filed chapter 11 last year and startup Electric Last Miles Solutions Inc. went bankrupt in 2022. Charge Enterprises blamed its bankruptcy largely on its dealings with investment adviser Korr Acquisitions Group Inc. and its former chairman, Kenneth Orr. The company said that it was supposed to have access to roughly $10 million held by Korr Acquisitions Group which it had planned to use to pay debt maturing in November. But when the business sought the funds, “they were unexpectedly and unjustifiably unavailable” and subsequently learned the money had been shifted to other companies affiliated with Orr, Charge Enterprises Interim Chief Executive Officer Craig Harper-Denson said in a sworn statement.

While rivals Walmart Inc., CVS Health Corp. and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. agreed to pay more than $13 billion combined to settle opioid lawsuits, Rite Aid never reached a similar accord before its bankruptcy filing put litigation on hold, Bloomberg News reported. The company told opioid plaintiff lawyers it didn't have the funds. And unlike drugmakers that have gone bankrupt, the retailer doesn’t expect it will wind up with any money to pay opioid victims. “Bankruptcy is perceived as a strategic tool that provides enormous leverage in negotiations with injured people,” said Melissa Jacoby, a law professor at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. "It’s a real problem that bankruptcy is being used this way, even when a company has other financial problems.” Rite Aid’s restructuring talks have focused on how much it can afford to repay its secured creditors before either selling itself or reorganizing into a new company, immune from future opioid lawsuits. Last year, Rite Aid filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, listing debts of $8.6 billion, close to $1 billion more than the value of its assets at the time. The company got a new $200 million loan in Chapter 11 and continued access to an existing credit line from a group of its secured lenders after it agreed to bump up more than $3 billion of their old debt in the repayment line. Rite Aid is still trying to sell its retail business. But its back-up plan involves shedding a lot of debt, shutting down more than 600 stores and giving the remaining pharmacy business a fresh start. Mediated talks with the committee of mass tort claimants are ongoing, so their outcome could change if a deal is struck. But Rite Aid said in court papers as recently as Feb. 20 it doesn’t expect for there to be any money left for opioid plaintiffs after paying higher-ranking debts.

Wine enthusiasts shopped at the Underground Cellar online marketplace not only to build their collections but because it would store their purchases in a climate-controlled warehouse in California’s Napa Valley. When the San Francisco-based merchant abruptly shut down and filed for bankruptcy last year, half a million bottles of wine valued at roughly $11 million were trapped in the warehouse known as CloudCellar, touching off a monthslong battle to free the red, white and bubbly that about 25,000 customers had already paid for, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Launched in 2014, Underground Cellar cultivated followers across the U.S. through its gamelike online platform that provided shoppers with frequent upgrades to higher-priced wine, “blowout” deals and coupons. To boost sales, the startup stored the purchased wine free of charge. Clients could receive shipments from their collections at no cost if they put together a 12-bottle package. After a battle with one of the company’s top lenders, which laid claim to the inventory, customers are finally getting their hands on some of the bottles, but it has been a winding journey and, for some, there were thousands of dollars in unexpected fees and shipping costs. “I did not think I was going to get any wine back. I pretty much assumed it’s all gone,” said Bradley Coppella, who lives in Philadelphia and had about 180 bottles of wine in storage, including a couple of bottles of Barolo that had been aging in the cellar since 2015. Underground Cellar shut down in April 2023 and filed for chapter 7 liquidation on May 1. The company had taken out an $8 million loan in 2022 from TriplePoint Capital, a lender to venture capital-backed companies. TriplePoint said in a filing with the Wilmington, Del., bankruptcy court that Underground had defaulted on the loan.