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Clothing retailer Soft Surroundings has filed for bankruptcy with plans to close its 44 leased stores and to sell its online and catalog business to Coldwater Creek, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The St. Louis-based company, which caters to upper-middle-class women around the age of 60, sought protection from creditors Sunday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston. Soft was founded in 1999 as a catalog company and opened its first retail store in 2005. Private-equity firm Brentwood Associates, backer of consumer businesses such as OrangeTheory Fitness and Blaze Pizza, became the majority owner in 2012. Soft recorded roughly $220 million in sales last year, of which two-thirds were made online. In the latter part of last year, it closed more than 20 stores. “Shifts in the competitive landscape, a move towards online channels, the Covid-19 pandemic, and increased costs of goods and services due to inflation all impacted the company’s financial position,” Chief Restructuring Officer Curt Kroll said in a sworn declaration. The company plans to close the remaining stores by late February 2024, according to a court filing.

Hog Father's Old Fashioned BBQ, a Washington County, Pa.-based restaurant that includes a total of three locations, has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, the Pittsburgh Business Times reported. Filed on Sept. 1, the legal action encompasses four separate filings for the local Washington County chain, which has locations in Washington, Canonsburg and Monongahela. The restaurants remain open and operating amid a chapter 11 filing that reveals estimated liabilities of between $500,000 and $1 million, the largest claim of which is for more than $683,000 by Reinhart Food Service LLC, a major food distributor. It's a restaurant that first opened in Washington County in the early days of the Marcellus Shale gas play in 2007, and the barbecue joint often thrived and expanded by serving the often Texas-based clientele who migrated to the region to work on the new natural gas rigs that expanded in western Pennsylvania at the time. So much so that the restaurant acknowledged that 40% of its business came from the oil and gas sector in the Pittsburgh Business Times in 2015, a period in which Hog Father's five locations included one in the lobby of the Washington County regional headquarters of Range Resources Corp., but for which two other restaurant openings were put on hold amid a decline in natural gas prices. It remains a very different world for natural gas production in western Pennsylvania, as the Marcellus play has evolved to more midstream activity and to the operation of the Shell cracker plant in nearby Beaver County. Other barbecue restaurants are expanding and opening in the region, including long-time North Side favorite Wilson's B-B-Q, which reopened recently on Perrysville Avenue after its previous location was lost in a fire in 2019.

The co-founders of Israeli artificial intelligence startup Vesttoo ran a forgery scheme that included a fake bank employee persona named “Alex Garcia” to obtain billions of dollars in bogus letters of credit for insurance deals, the now-bankrupt company said, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Vesttoo’s investigation into the fraud allegations that drove it to bankruptcy last month alleged that co-founders Yaniv Bertele and Alon Lifshitz and other senior executives had engaged in a scheme to generate fraudulent letters of credit from China Construction Bank and other financial institutions. The company also said it is considering litigation against China Construction Bank and U.K.-based Standard Chartered based on evidence turned up in the internal investigation that employees at both banks may have been involved in the fraudulent scheme, according to Thursday’s report, filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. It marks Vesttoo’s initial findings into what went wrong at the company. Bertele said in a statement Thursday that he rejects the report’s allegations and that Vesttoo’s investigation “was flawed from the outset and targeted the company’s founders as its objective.” His statement said the investigation was part of a “takeover within the company amidst a dispute between shareholders.” Lifshitz also said the report’s accusations are unfounded and that the investigation was biased and served the interests of other shareholders. Both Bertele and Lifshitz are contesting their dismissals from the company under Israeli law, according to the report.

FTX Group advisers have scrutinized whether they can claw back millions of dollars paid to Shaquille O’Neal, tennis star Naomi Osaka and other professional athletes and teams that promoted Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto platform before its collapse, Bloomberg News reported. Financial advisers hired by FTX disclosed in court papers that they’ve analyzed if certain payments dished out to athletes before the company unraveled last November can be recovered in chapter 11. Advisers have reviewed payments to O’Neal, Osaka and others to determine if the transfers are subject to rules that permit companies to reverse transactions that occurred just before a chapter 11 filing, according to court documents. While not a complete accounting of FTX’s spending on endorsements, the new disclosures likely offer the fullest glimpse to date into how Bankman-Fried’s empire elevated its profile using the fame of celebrity athletes, Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association teams and Formula 1. Whether FTX advisers believe all of the payments can be recovered, or if any athletes or teams have already offered to return payments, couldn’t be learned. FTX’s disclosures describe many of the transfers to athletes, teams and leagues as prepayments related to advertising or sponsorship deals. FTX cautioned the financial disclosures may not be complete because the company lacked “detailed historical amortization information” and could be further amended in the future. New FTX Chief Executive Officer John J. Ray III said when the company filed chapter 11, the company lacked trustworthy financial information and didn’t keep complete books and records.

Off Lease Only, a used-car retailer that ran six dealerships in Florida and Texas, filed for bankruptcy after shutting down, succumbing to the pandemic-fueled rise in used-car prices and fresh competition from traditional dealers that had jumped into the secondhand market, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The private company, owned by alternative investment firm Cerberus Capital Management and its founders, closed its operations when its liquidity dried up following deteriorating performance and after online bank Ally Bank tightened the terms and conditions on a credit line that financed the bulk of the company’s inventory, according to court papers filed by Leland Wilson, Off Lease Only’s former chief executive who now serves as an independent contractor for the company. The company started in 2004 and grew to be the biggest used car-dealership in Florida, according to Wilson’s filing. During the COVID-19 pandemic, supply-chain disruptions pushed up vehicle prices and reduced the pool of relatively new used cars available for Off Lease Only. The company’s business model is centered on selling cars that are less than four years old and have been driven less than 40,000 miles, according to the court filing. By the middle of this year, used-car prices remained 40% above the prepandemic level, Wilson also said. Additionally, inflation and high interest rates have reduced customers’ ability to purchase cars, according to the court filing.

A small independent critical-access hospital in western Clinton County, Pa., with financial issues has created a GoFundMe page with a goal of $1.5 million, PennLive.com reported. The “Your Community, Your Hospital, Your Choice. Help!” fundraiser was the idea of a board member, Timothy J. Reeves, president and CEO of the Bucktail Medical Center, said Wednesday. “Not a bad idea to try,” he said was his reaction to the idea. As of Wednesday evening there had been 33 donations totaling $8,515. Reeves, as the organizer, wrote on the page the residents of western Clinton County are the owners of this facility. “If you, as owners of the facility, want the hospital to survive, we need your donation today,” he continued. “Using the facility for your healthcare needs is just as important. “If you live in any other rural area and you have healthcare available in your community, please pay attention. Your facility will be facing these same challenges soon.” There was concern last week the 16-bed hospital and 43-bed nursing home in South Renovo might have to close because there was insufficient money to meet this Friday’s payroll. That obstacle has been overcome and Reeves said he is cautiously optimistic about meeting the next payroll in two weeks. Vendors, some of whom are not being paid on time, have been cooperative, he said. Physical and occupational therapy ceased Friday when the company that provided the personnel pulled out, Reeves said.

Former FTX executive Ryan Salame pleaded guilty Thursday in New York federal court to campaign finance and money-transmitting crimes, and agreed to forfeit more than $1.5 billion, CNBC.com reported. Salame, who was released on a $1 million bond, faces a maximum possible sentence of 10 years in prison. His sentencing was scheduled for March 6. In addition to the monetary forfeiture, which will be paid to the U.S. government, the 30-year-old Salame will pay $5 million to debtors of FTX. A source told CNBC that Salame is not cooperating with federal prosecutors, who are preparing for the criminal fraud trial of former FTX chief Sam Bankman-Fried.

A bitter feud between crypto tycoons has piqued the interest of U.S. investigators who were already looking into the finances of one of the industry’s best-known empires, Bloomberg News reported. For months, Digital Currency Group Inc. and its chief executive officer Barry Silbert have been facing fraud accusations from Cameron Winklevoss, the co-founder of crypto trading platform Gemini Trust Co. Despite them denying the claims, federal officials are digging in as part of an ongoing review of the internal financial dealings of DCG and its Genesis Global Capital subsidiary. Prosecutors in Brooklyn, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission staff sat in on an interview in recent months with Winklevoss to discuss his allegations, according to people familiar with the matter. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York inquired specifically about Silbert’s conduct, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing the confidential probe. Silbert, who hasn’t been accused of any wrongdoing, referred an inquiry to a DCG spokeswoman. The representative for the company, which authorities also haven’t accused of misconduct, declined to comment. In the past, the company has said it operates in a lawful and ethical manner. Investigations by U.S. attorneys, the FBI or the SEC don’t always lead to charges or enforcement actions.

A bankruptcy filing may just be the tip of the iceberg for what's unfolding at Tempe-based Phat Rides Inc. The electric scooter company on Sept. 1 filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. But Jeremy Hill, whose company is a key inside stakeholder in the business, is alleging that Tim Moran, the CEO who authorized the bankruptcy filing, had already been fired from Phat Rides after the company fell into default, the Phoenix Business Journal reported. Hill is the founder and managing partner at JB Capital, which helped Phat Rides refinance its debt after Moran took over as CEO in 2021. But that relationship has now turned sour, as JB Capital, based in Bellevue, Washington, has taken over controlling interest of the business, fired Moran and replaced the board, Hill told the Phoenix Business Journal. An injunction against workplace harassment was filed by Phat Rides against Moran on Aug. 25, according to Maricopa County records. The filing, submitted about a week before the bankruptcy, describes Moran as a "former employee" of Phat Rides. An accompanying certificate of service filed Aug. 28 states that Moran was "personally served true copies" of the injunction on Aug. 26 by a court certified process server. The injunction alleges that Moran was fired Aug. 4. Despite that, on Aug. 14 he allegedly "came to the business and was proclaiming that he was still the CEO and that he had only been on vacation."