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Brazos Electric Power Cooperative Inc. lobbied Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to veto a pair of bills that would compel electricity cooperatives to put their customers on the hook for full payment to the state’s grid operator for power purchases during February’s extreme winter weather in the state, the Wall Street Journal reported. Louis Strubeck, a lawyer representing Brazos in its bankruptcy case, said in a court hearing on Friday that co-op executives met with the governor’s staff over the legislation, which would compel Brazos and other co-ops to issue debt to pay the full amount owed to the state’s grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. Brazos also sent a letter to the governor urging him to veto the debt-financing legislation, Mr. Strubeck said Friday. “We think if those bills are signed into law, they have serious consequences for Brazos,” he said at a hearing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston. Texas lawmakers passed legislation last month that authorizes several sources of financing to cover the huge bills that some electricity cooperatives and retailers, including Brazos, ran up during the freeze. It requires cooperatives that still owe money to the state grid operator Ercot to “use all means necessary” to sell 30-year securitization bonds, using the proceeds to pay their storm bills in full.

A federal judge halted payments for a loan forgiveness program that provides relief to agricultural producers of color, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. A temporary restraining order was handed down Thursday afternoon by Judge William Griesbach of Wisconsin's Eastern District, in response to a lawsuit filed by the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty in April. The group alleged that the Biden administration used an unconstitutional program in an effort to end systemic racism and should make the relief available to white farmers, too. Since the filing of the lawsuit, the U.S. Department of Agriculture officials have continued to implement the program and is currently reviewing what the restraining order means for the program. "We respectfully disagree with this temporary order and USDA will continue to forcefully defend our ability to carry out this act of Congress and deliver debt relief to socially disadvantaged borrowers," said a USDA spokesperson. "When the temporary order is lifted, USDA will be prepared to provide the debt relief authorized by Congress.” The Biden administration created the loan forgiveness program for socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers earlier this year under the American Rescue Plan Act. The program paid up to 120% of direct or guaranteed farm loan balances for producers who are Black, American Indian or Alaskan native, Hispanic or Latino, and Asian American or Pacific Islander.

Toronto-Dominion Bank defeated a lawsuit that sought nearly $4.3 billion in damages over allegations the institution ignored red flags about R. Allen Stanford’s financial empire before it was exposed as one of the largest-ever Ponzi schemes, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. A judge in Ontario on Tuesday dismissed legal claims brought by court-appointed liquidators of Stanford International Bank Ltd., a former TD Bank customer, following a trial that examined an 18-year business relationship that unraveled when U.S. authorities exposed Mr. Stanford’s fraud in 2009. Liquidators appointed in Antigua, where SIB was located, have been pursuing TD and other banks that did business with Mr. Stanford in an attempt to recover money for creditors. Justice Barbara Conway of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled TD Bank employees had no reason to believe at the time that Mr. Stanford was committing fraud or there was anything amiss at SIB. Liquidators argued there were warnings before 2009 that should have tipped off TD Bank, saying it should be liable for between $1.1 billion and $4.28 billion in damages, according to the ruling. But Justice Conway said Mr. Stanford and other SIB directors “went to great lengths to present SIB as a responsible, upstanding bank,” noting it hired experienced bankers and accountants, kept nice offices and presented professional annual reports. The SIB liquidators said they were disappointed with Justice Conway’s ruling, “which leaves many thousands of creditors around the world without justice, more than a dozen years after the collapse of Allen Stanford’s massive Ponzi scheme.” The liquidators are evaluating SIB’s position and considering an appeal, they said.

Individual stock traders looking to cash in winning bets on Hertz Global Holdings Inc. are in unfamiliar territory as the company exits chapter 11, finding themselves navigating a bankruptcy process that favors the interests of bigger, wealthier investors, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. All Hertz shareholders will get paid on the company’s way out of chapter 11, receiving a mix of cash, securities in the reorganized business and the right to buy stock in the future. By Friday, they must pick among several choices involving the rights to buy additional stock, with their options determined by eligibility standards tied to personal wealth. Shareholders weighing the various decisions include the day traders who bought Hertz stock when it was cheap last year, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. Some are mom-and-pop investors who don’t meet criteria to take part directly in one of the stock-buying programs, though they could sell their rights to participate to qualified investors. Other investors have trouble understanding their options and said they can’t get straight answers from the company or from their own advisers. Some said they felt left behind in a bankruptcy-exit process that wasn’t developed with amateur investors in mind. Hertz’s situation is unusual due to the dramatic revival in its prospects in recent months. Shareholders rarely matter when a company goes bankrupt, because there is typically not enough value to repay creditors, which must be satisfied in full ahead of equity. Hertz, though, has estimated shareholders will get a payout of $7 to $8 a share, according to court papers.

The National Rifle Association is dropping its federal lawsuit accusing New York Attorney General Letitia James of wrongfully trying to dissolve it, saying that it would focus instead on making the same claims in state court, Bloomberg News reported. The gun rights group, which argues that James’s investigation of it is politically motivated, filed a notice of voluntary dismissal on Friday in federal court in Albany, N.Y. In a statement, it said that it would continue to make the claims in state court in Manhattan, where the attorney general last year sued the NRA over allegations of fraud. The move is important “because it will ensure that the NRA’s claims against NYAG James will be tried in the same court and by the same jury that will hear her lawsuit seeking to dissolve the NRA,” the organization said. New York’s suit in state court survived the NRA’s motion to dismiss it in January, when a judge rejected the group’s argument that its federal suit was filed first and therefore trumped the state case. The judge also denied the NRA’s request to transfer the attorney general’s case to federal court. The NRA recently saw its bankruptcy filing rejected by a Texas judge, leaving the group vulnerable to James’s efforts.

After more than a year of high-stakes negotiations with billions of dollars on the line, a bankruptcy plan for Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, cleared a major hurdle late Wednesday, NPR reported. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain in White Plains, N.Y., moved the controversial deal forward despite objections from dozens of state attorneys general, setting the stage for a final vote by the company's creditors expected this summer. The drugmaker filed for chapter 11 protection in 2019 facing an avalanche of lawsuits tied to its aggressive opioid sales practices. Public health experts and many government officials say the introduction of OxyContin fueled the nation's deadly opioid epidemic. This development brings members of the Sackler family, some of whom own Purdue Pharma and served on the company's board of directors, a step closer to winning immunity from future opioid lawsuits. According to legal documents filed as part of the case, that immunity would extend to dozens of family members, more than 160 financial trusts, and at least 170 companies, consultants and other entities associated with the Sacklers.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood reduced the professional fees approved for the Archdiocese of Agana's accounting firm and special immigration counsel in the church's bankruptcy case, for not complying with court orders and laws that require all bankruptcy-related billings and payments to be submitted to the court for approval, the Guam Daily Post reported. Davis & Davis PC and Deloitte & Touche LLP requested and received direct payment from the archdiocese, despite the court's issuance of "several orders dealing with the proper procedure to seek compensation," the judge said. Assistant U.S. Trustee Curtis Ching noticed the direct payments and asked the court to reduce the compensation to these firms because of violations of court orders, the Bankruptcy Code and the Bankruptcy Rules of Procedure. "These requirements are intended to protect against the 'unfairness of allowing the debtor to deplete the estate by pursuing its interests to the detriment of the creditors'," the judge wrote in her order. The creditors in the archdiocese's chapter 11 bankruptcy case include mostly clergy sex abuse claimants, who have yet to receive any compensation from the archdiocese. 

Boy Scouts of America, which filed for bankruptcy protection a year ago to guard against a flood of sexual-abuse lawsuits, now faces a new problem in Michigan: potential criminal charges, the Detroit Free Press reported. The state police and attorney general announced Tuesday the two law enforcement groups have launched a joint investigation targeting accusations of sex abuse in the Boy Scouts and are asking for tips that may lead to prosecutions. In the announcement, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said that the investigation was prompted by "allegations that came to light during recent civil litigation." But Nessel did not say whether they were looking for just past incidents or those that might be ongoing. She was unspecific about how large the team was, other than to say it "will include prosecutors, special agents and victim advocates," and she did not say why she was pursing the investigation now. In the past few years, the public has heightened sensitivity to sex abuse, especially after the sex abuse scandal surrounding former USA Gymnastics team doctor and MSU professor Larry Nassar.

Mesabi Metallics has sued the state of Minnesota for terminating its iron ore leases, a move intended to keep its troubled and long-delayed mining project from collapsing, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) terminated Mesabi Metallics' mineral leases last week, saying the company failed to meet provisions of its state agreement, notably having $200 million in hand by May 1. Mesabi Metallics late Friday sued the DNR in Ramsey County District Court for breach of contract and breach of good faith, essentially asking the court to disallow the lease cancellation. Mesabi Metallics called the DNR's termination "unjustified and unlawful." The DNR declined to comment on the suit. The state leases are critical for Mesabi Metallics' plans to finish a half-built taconite project in Nashwauk that first proposed in 2007, with construction beginning a decade ago. Cleveland-Cliffs, the largest player in Minnesota's taconite business, has long sought the leases. Recently, U.S. Steel, the Iron Range's other heavyweight, has shown interest in them, too. Both companies want the leases to supply ore to their existing taconite plants, though each is also apparently interested in building a nearby facility that would create a purer form of iron. The state has not yet indicated its next move on the Mesabi leases. Essar Steel Minnesota started building the project in earnest in 2011 with a planned 2013 completion date. But in July 2016, after myriad missed deadlines, then-Gov. Mark Dayton moved to terminate Essar's lease. The financially strapped firm filed chapter 11 bankruptcy. By the end of 2017, the project — rechristened Mesabi Metallics — had financially reorganized with new owners, a new plan and a new lease agreement with the state of Minnesota. Essar re-entered the picture in January 2019 by buying up $260 million of Mesabi's outstanding debt and eventually what was left of its equity. In December 2020, the state extended Mesabi's lease agreement over strong objections from Cleveland-Cliffs.