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Almost three-and-one-half years after the Catholic Diocese of Camden, New Jersey filed for bankruptcy citing financial effects from the pandemic and sexual abuse settlements, its chapter 11 reorganization plan has been approved, according to the Insurance Journal. The final plan, the ninth amended proposal, establishes an $87.5 million trust to compensate about 324 survivors of sexual abuse within the diocese. The trust will be funded with $87.5 million from the diocese and related Catholic entities. Insurance policies turned over to the diocese will contribute $30 million. Bankruptcy Judge Jerrold N. Poslusny, Jr., in Camden, approved the plan that allows the diocese to pay into the trust over five years and keep operating so it can pay creditors. The settlement also requires the church to maintain and enhance protocols for the protection of children that were first implemented in 2002.

The profits were multiplying at a dizzying clip: 50%, 100%, then suddenly almost 200%. Even for long-time veterans at Attestor Ltd., a boutique London firm that specializes in trading distressed assets, this had the makings of a score to remember, Bloomberg News reported. The trade — targeting the remains of Sam Bankman-Fried’s once-vast cryptocurrency empire — became a popular one in distressed investing circles last year. Many of Attestor’s rivals jumped in, too, and as the value of crypto coins skyrocketed once again, so did the value of the assets they had purchased at rock-bottom prices from clients of Bankman-Fried’s, desperate to recoup whatever they could. Lawyers running the bankruptcy now estimate the clean-up will deliver investors 100% of the money frozen in FTX when it failed. But this is where the story gets messy for Attestor — and its grip on a chunk of that windfall becomes a bit fragile. The seller of one of the biggest FTX accounts it purchased — an obscure Panamanian firm called Lemma Technologies that’s controlled by an embattled South Korean trader — has opted, so far at least, to keep the claim for itself. Attestor’s lawyers have argued in a New York court that this is a clear case of “seller’s remorse.” Over the years, other bankruptcies have brought handsome returns, but rarely, if ever, so rapidly. Back in June, Lemma agreed to a sell price of $58 million, according to evidence submitted to the court. Today, the claim is expected to pay out $165 million.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, which announced in December that it planned to file for bankruptcy protection because of a crush of sexual abuse lawsuits, will file with the bankruptcy court on April 1, The Sacramento Bee reported. “The faithful of the diocese are being notified of the filing date at this weekend’s Masses,” diocese spokesman Frank Lienert wrote Saturday in an email to The Bee. Bishop Jaime Soto announced in December that the diocese would follow the same path as some other ecclesiastical districts in California, including the Diocese of San Francisco, Diocese of Oakland, Diocese of Stockton and Diocese of Santa Rosa. Soto said in a statement in December that “it is now clear to me that this is the only way available to me to resolve these claims as fairly as possible.” “There are many victim-survivors awaiting compensation for the reprehensible sins committed against them,” the bishop wrote in the statement. “The diocese faces more than 250 lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by clergy or other church staff. The reorganization process will allow me to equitably respond to the large number of those who are victim-survivors of abuse.” The diocese originally said it expected to file in March, but has now pinpointed April 1 as the date court papers will be filed. The crush of lawsuits stems from a measure signed into law in California in 2019 that extended the statute of limitations for such cases. Other states have passed similar laws. The Sacramento diocese has published a list of 46 “credibly accused clergy” who served in the Diocese of Sacramento from 1933 through 2018. Many of them are now deceased, and some are listed as being fugitives from justice.

Genesis Global is facing off against its parent company in bankruptcy court on Monday, aiming to resolve more than a year of disputes over who reaps the benefits of the surging bitcoin price, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Judge Sean Lane of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, N.Y., is scheduled to hear closing arguments of Genesis’s chapter 11 plan that would offer a path, if approved, for it to wind down the business. After lengthy litigation that played out in court, Genesis’s lenders, customers and regulators support a proposal that would repay as much as 77% of its customers’ holdings in the type of digital assets that they are owed. However, Digital Currency Group, Genesis’s parent company and the biggest borrower, opposes the chapter 11 plan. Much of DCG’s dispute centers around who gets the benefit of bitcoin’s current high price, which has gone up more than 200% since January 2023, when Genesis filed for bankruptcy. DCG has argued that Genesis should repay its lenders and customers at the old rock-bottom price in U.S. dollars, allowing the remaining stakeholders, including DCG, to benefit from the upside of the price increases in digital assets. DCG has cited bankruptcy code stipulating that chapter 11 claims be valued in dollars as of the filing date. New York-based Genesis filed for bankruptcy in the aftermath of the collapses of crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and crypto exchange FTX in 2022. The bankruptcy exposed the interconnected nature of the crypto industry, where companies lend to each other and when one fails it creates a domino effect.