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Limetree Bay Refining LLC filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in Houston on Monday after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency closed its Caribbean oil refinery, Bloomberg News reported. The St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands-based company said in a statement that it plans to use the court protection process to negotiate with creditors and equity holders and weigh options including asset sales. The refinery sought bankruptcy “due to severe regulatory and financial constraints” that forced it to suspend its refinery operations indefinitely, and has lined up to $25 million of so-called debtor-in-possession financing that will help it maintain the refinery through the chapter 11 process, according to the statement. Limetree’s parent company will continue to operate the firm’s related oil storage terminal business. That unit is working with financial and legal advisers to navigate financial strains associated with the shuttered refinery, Bloomberg reported earlier Monday. The 200,000-barrel-a-day refinery in May was forced to halt operations following emissions incidents that included contamination of drinking water. On June 21, the company said it was suspending plans to restart the refinery and cutting more than 270 workers after efforts to raise capital foundered.

More than 150 trucking, logistics and towing companies are collectively owed hundreds of thousands of dollars after a New Jersey freight forwarder specializing in shipping automobiles, boats and motorcycles worldwide abruptly ceased operations and filed chapter 7, Freight Waves reported. Advectus Transportation Services of Linden, New Jersey, filed its petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey on June 30. In its filing, Advectus lists its assets as up to $50,000 and its liabilities as between $500,000 and $1 million. The company states it has 158 creditors and maintains that no funds will be available for unsecured creditors once it pays administrative fees. Advectus owes Bank of America of Fort Worth, Texas, more than $322,000, including $83,535 in funds it received from the lender through the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program in May 2020. It also owes Chase Credit of Wilmington, Delaware, $47,000 and TD Bank in Lewiston, Maine, over $27,685. Advectus’ remaining 150 unsecured creditors consist of mostly small trucking companies, logistics firms and towing and wrecker services that are owed nearly $279,000.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Sunday called on the Justice Department to investigate the National Rifle Association for bankruptcy fraud, saying the financially stable gun-rights group abused the system when it sought bankruptcy protection in the wake of a New York lawsuit seeking to put it out of business, the Associated Press reported. A judge rejected the NRA’s bankruptcy case in May, ruling the nonprofit organization had not acted in good faith. NRA leaders made clear that the organization was “in its strongest financial condition in years” and was seeking bankruptcy protection so it could changes its state of incorporation from New York to gun-friendly Texas. Schumer said that the NRA’s continued heavy spending on advertising criticizing proposed gun control measures and the nomination of gun control lobbyist David Chipman to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives are further evidence that its bankruptcy filing was inspired by legal, not financial, concerns. “They recently told the judicial branch of government that they are bankrupt after the lawsuit by Tish James, and at the same time they’re saying they’re bankrupt, they’re spending millions of dollars on ads to stop universal background checks,” Schumer said, referencing New York Attorney General Letitia James. “That demands an investigation by the Justice Department.” The Justice Department declined comment.

Sharity Ministries Inc., a medical-cost-sharing nonprofit for Christians, has filed for bankruptcy protection in an effort to keep operating amid accusations by state authorities that it deceived consumers by running a sham health-insurance business, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The nonprofit said that it would use bankruptcy to break many of its contracts with Aliera Cos., which provides administrative, marketing, sales and other services to Sharity, according to papers filed Thursday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. Aliera is also under investigation by state authorities for allegedly evading insurance regulations. Sharity operates a healthcare sharing ministry that covers certain medical expenses submitted by its roughly 10,000 members from voluntary contributions made by other members, according to court papers. In October, New York state accused Aliera and Sharity of running a sham insurance business in a manner designed to evade regulation. Although Aliera and Sharity say they aren’t health insurers and don’t guarantee the payment of claims, they advertise in New York as healthcare alternatives, state officials said. A hearing on the New York matter is scheduled for this fall. Sharity has said that it pays a medical expense if it deems the request eligible and if there are enough member contributions to cover that expense. Regulators in California, New Jersey, Texas and Georgia are also investigating Sharity, according to court papers.

A bankruptcy judge has set a July 29 hearing on the proposed $850 million settlement agreement the Irving, Texas-based Boy Scouts of America has with attorneys representing some 60,000 victims of child sex abuse, giving insurance companies and others who oppose it more time to weigh in, the Associated Press reported. The agreement was reached last week by attorneys for the Boy Scouts, abuse victims, local Boy Scouts councils and lawyers appointed to represent victims who might file future claims. The Boy Scouts had wanted the hearing to take place on July 20 in front of Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein, but at a status hearing she pushed the settlement hearing back to later in the month. Attorneys who represent insurance companies, thousands of other abuse victims and local scout sponsoring organizations such as churches said that they needed more time to gather information about the agreement and file objections. The Boy Scouts of America sought bankruptcy protection in February 2020, moving to halt hundreds of lawsuits by men who were molested as youngsters decades ago by scoutmasters or other leaders. The filing was intended to try to reach a global resolution of abuse claims and create a compensation fund for victims. But attorneys for the organization have been unable to reach agreement with all the parties involved in the case to allow the 111-year-old organization to continue operating.

More than a dozen states have dropped their longstanding objections to OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma’s reorganization plan, edging the company closer to resolving its bankruptcy case and transforming itself into a new entity that helps combat the U.S. opioid epidemic through its own profits, the Associated Press reported. The agreement from multiple state attorneys general, including those who had most aggressively opposed Purdue’s original settlement proposal, was disclosed late Wednesday night in a filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, N.Y. It followed weeks of intense mediations that resulted in changes to Purdue’s original exit plan. The new settlement terms call for Purdue to make tens of millions of internal documents public, a step several attorneys general, including those for Massachusetts and New York, had demanded as a way to hold the company accountable. Attorneys general for both states were among the 15 who agreed to the new plan, joining about half the states that had previously approved it. Nine states and the District of Columbia did not sign on. Purdue sought bankruptcy protection in 2019 as a way to settle about 3,000 lawsuits it faced from state and local governments and other entities. They claimed the company’s continued marketing of its powerful prescription painkiller contributed to a crisis that has been linked to nearly 500,000 deaths in the U.S. over the last two decades.

The Boy Scouts of America's insurers will have more time to build their opposition to the youth organization’s proposed settlement with tens of thousands of men who say they were sexually abused as children by group leaders, Reuters reported. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein in Wilmington, Del. said during a virtual hearing yesterday that she will push back a preliminary July 20 court hearing on the deal to July 29, giving insurers that could be on the hook for claims coverage more time to prepare their case against the deal. The delay, though only a little more than a week, could cause the Boy Scouts to push back their eventual exit from bankruptcy, which the organization had previously hoped to do by the end of the summer. The organization filed for chapter 11 protection in February 2020 in an attempt to resolve nearly 300 sex abuse lawsuits. Last week, the Boy Scouts reached a deal with representatives of approximately 60,000 sex abuse claimants. Insurers say that the settlement validates, and requires insurance coverage for tens of thousands of claims without proper vetting. They have repeatedly accused the Boy Scouts’ lawyers of leaving them out of critical mediation sessions that led to the deal with survivor groups. The Boy Scouts’ attorneys have denied that allegation.

A giant tobacco cooperative based in Raleigh, N.C., has filed a multimillion dollar bankruptcy petition, the Triangle Business Journal reported. The U.S. Tobacco Cooperative filed papers to reorganize through a chapter 11 petition, listing both assets and liabilities as ranging between $100 million and $500 million. In a statement, USTC said the filing was to meet "short-term contractual obligations to member-growers during crop season 2021." USTC, according to its website, produces flue-cured tobacco grown by its more than 500 members in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. Member-grown tobacco is processed and sold as raw materials to cigarette makers throughout the globe. Over the past few years, the firm has been involved in contentious litigation. In 2018, it sued the federal government, alleging that informants from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had “engineered a scheme to steal approximately $24 million from USTC’s farmers.” In the initial lawsuit, USTC claimed the informants had pushed USTC to purchase the assets of two tobacco distribution businesses (Big South Wholesale and Big South Wholesale of Virginia) which were, in actuality, “an ATF front.” The ATF, in the U.S. government’s filings in the case, had explained that its investigations required it to purchase cigarettes, “therefore, ATF could operate in the small world of the tobacco trade only through established tobacco traders,” and denied USTC’s claims of negligence. That lawsuit was ultimately dismissed with prejudice last October. In 2019, USTC again filed suit, this time against certain underwriters at Lloyd’s, claiming the insurers failed to reimburse it “for the millions of dollars of losses it has incurred as a result of physical loss of and damage to its tobacco product arising from mold, humidity, water damage, moisture, flooding and/or other similar perils.” That case is ongoing in federal court. USTC also found itself on the receiving end of what ended up being a $24 million class action complaint, referenced in its bankruptcy statement. The complaint accused it of improperly retaining and using reserve funds held over from the tobacco pricing era, where members were paid for tobacco that failed to sell at auction for more than the minimum support price set by the federal government. USTC denied wrong doing.

As the two-year mark in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester’s (N.Y.) bankruptcy draws nigh, a $35 million settlement proposed between the diocese and a handful of its insurers is not sitting well with the bankruptcy’s official creditors’ committee, the Rochester Beacon reported. How the court comes down on the proposed Rochester diocese settlement could set the tone, not just for the Rochester case, but also for chapter 11 bankruptcies of three other New York Catholic dioceses that asked for court protection months after the Rochester diocese’s September 2019 filing. “I believe that the settlement of $35 million is within the range of reasonableness and should be approved by the Court,” wrote diocese special insurance counsel James Murray in a June 24 brief supporting the proposal. “We hope for the Court’s approval and we pray this settlement will be a catalyst for fruitful dialogue and progress in negotiations among the remaining concerned parties in the case,” the diocese said in a June 11 statement announcing the deal. The settlement between diocese and a dozen insurance companies that had balked at paying any claims came after nearly two years of stalled talks in a court-arranged mediation between the diocese and the companies. Not so fast, says creditors’ committee counsel Ilan Scharf, however. If the settlement is approved as proposed, it will either give abuse survivors short shrift or push the diocese into dire financial straits. Four hundred and eighty-five such survivors have filed claims in the case. Not yet clear is what sort of financial compensation each might win. What kind of claims the diocese proposes to pay will be largely determined by how much dozens of insurance companies that wrote liability coverage for the diocese decades ago contribute.

A Sacramento, Calif.-based medical equipment manufacturer has filed for bankruptcy as it faces an $8.1 million legal judgment in a dispute over a device to treat diabetes, the Sacramento Business Journal reported. Bionica Inc. markets an insulin infusion pump that can be carried by patients in their pockets to regularly deliver insulin and can “rescue people who previously have had no chance for a normal life,” the company states on its website. Bionica operates out of a space in McClellan Park, and was incorporated in 2010, according to its filings with the California Secretary of State’s office. Bionica’s founder Gregory Gilbert and its sister company, Trina Health LLC, have been accused of false advertising of Bionica's diabetes products, in a lawsuit that the inventor of the company’s products, Dr. Thomas Aoki, filed in 2011. Amid the long legal battle, Bionica filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in May. In its filing, the company stated that its assets were between $50,001 and $100,000 and that it faced between $1 million and $10 million in liabilities. Most of those liabilities are connected to an $8.1 million judgment that was handed down by a federal judge late last year, Gilbert told the Business Journal. In the judgment handed down in November 2020, U.S. District Judge Troy Nunley found Gilbert liable for patent infringement and falsely advertising diabetes treatments that were invented by Aoki.