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Caesars Entertainment Inc. sued a group of insurance carriers, accusing them of declining to cover an estimated loss of more than $2 billion because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reported. The casino and hotel company alleges in the lawsuit that it had purchased property insurance coverage to protect against “all risk of physical loss or damage” and resulting business interruption. Most of the policies don’t exclude loss or damage caused by a virus or pandemic, Caesars said in the lawsuit filed Friday in the Eighth Judicial District Court of Clark County, Nev. The company said that it has paid more than $25 million in premiums to secure the all-risk policy portfolio providing more than $3.4 billion in coverage limits. Caesars, which was formed as a result of Eldorado Resort Inc.’s combination with Caesars Entertainment Corp. last year, swung to a loss of $1.76 billion in 2020. The suit is the latest case of a company trying to recover lost business during the pandemic through insurance. The insurers have had the upper hand so far. Of the more than 200 rulings in suits pitting businesses against insurers, more than 80% have been in favor of insurers, according to a COVID-19 litigation-tracking effort at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.

Congressional Democrats are seeking to prevent members of the Sackler family who own OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP from using the drug company’s bankruptcy to get legal releases freeing them from government lawsuits over the opioid painkiller, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, and senior committee member Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.) introduced a bill on Friday specifying that bankruptcy judges cannot release legal claims brought by states, tribes, municipalities or the U.S. government against a bankrupt company’s owners, like the Sacklers, or its directors, officers or other third parties with ties to a chapter 11 case. The legislative proposal comes after the Sacklers offered to pay $4.28 billion over the next decade in exchange for legal releases that would resolve lawsuits accusing Purdue of helping fuel the opioid epidemic. The settlement offer is part of a larger multibillion-dollar reorganization plan designed to get Purdue out of chapter 11. Attorneys general from 24 states plus Washington, D.C., have come out against Purdue’s plan and have demanded greater transparency and more upfront money from the Sacklers.

The Blackjewel coal mining company can walk away from cleaning up and reclaiming coal mines covered by more than 30 permits in Kentucky under a liquidation agreement reached Friday in federal bankruptcy court in Charleston, West Virginia, the Louisville Courier Journal reported. About 170 other Blackjewel permits in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia will be placed into legal limbo for six months while Blackjewel attempts to sell them to other coal mining companies, attorneys said. Any permits that are unable to be transferred can then also be abandoned by the company, once the nation’s sixth-largest coal producer. The Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet was preparing a written statement on the decision late Friday but a spokesman said it was not immediately available and declined to comment. Thousands of acres of mountainous land in Kentucky alone have been disturbed by strip mining allowed by the permits that were before the judge. Both the state and the companies that issued bonds guaranteeing clean-up and reclamation of the dynamite-blasted landscapes had warned in court proceedings that there might not be enough money to do all the required work.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. auctioned off around $53 million of claims it held against a bankrupt Texas power cooperative as distressed debt traders bet the government will foot the bill for the state’s energy crisis, Bloomberg News reported. Goldman sold its claim on Brazos Electric Power Cooperative Inc. this week at 80 to 85 cents on the dollar, said the people, who asked not to be identified because details of the auction are private. The bank is one of Brazos’s largest unsecured creditors. It’s owed the money for interest rate swaps and other power derivatives contracts that its commodities trading unit J. Aron & Co. signed with Brazos before a winter storm in February upended the Texas power market, saddling the electricity provider with billions in liabilities it couldn’t repay.

Tens of thousands of borrowers who attended for-profit schools like Corinthian Colleges and ITT Technical Institute that defrauded students will have their student loan debts eliminated after the Education Department rescinded some changes made during the Trump administration that gutted a relief program, the New York Times reported. “Borrowers deserve a simplified and fair path to relief when they have been harmed by their institution’s misconduct,” said Miguel Cardona, the education secretary. “We will grant them a fresh start from their debt.” The change will eliminate around $1 billion in student loan debt owed by around 72,000 borrowers, the department said. Most of them attended ITT and Corinthian, institutions that abruptly shut down years ago. The relief program, known as borrower defense, allows those who can demonstrate that they were substantially misled by their school to have their federal student loans forgiven. Once little-used, the system was flooded with claims during the Obama administration after a series of large for-profit chains collapsed following a government crackdown on schools that saddled their students with high debts for a low-quality education. For a time, the department granted any borrower with an approved claim a full discharge of their debts. But that changed under Betsy DeVos, the previous education secretary, who described the program as a “free money” giveaway. In 2019, DeVos imposed a complicated new methodology that led to only partial relief for many successful applicants. Some whose claims were approved were told they would get $0 in relief. Cardona said the department will abandon DeVos’s methodology and retroactively give those with approved claims a full discharge.

California-Nevada Methodist Homes filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Tuesday in a bid to avert disastrous consequences at its two retirement communities if the Oakland-based operator's unruly debt isn't reined in by the court, the San Francisco Business Times reported. Otherwise, Methodist Homes, which offers four levels of care up to skilled nursing and rehabilitation, says it will be "unable to operate its business during the chapter 11 case" and could result in "potentially leaving residents without food, medical supplies, proper medical care, and other services they require," according to documents filed in bankruptcy court. Years of financial troubles exacerbated by COVID-19 has strained the nonprofit senior living operator's finances to the point it where it can no longer make good on payments for a roughly $33 million tax-free bond it borrowed in 2015to refinance and to make more than $6 million in renovations to its two retirement homes. Methodist Homes stopped making payments on the bond, managed by Wilmington Trust, in February 2020. Methodist Homes, which was founded nearly 70 years ago and operates retirement communities in Oakland and Pacific Grove, is hoping the court will allow it to continue using its remaining assets to pay 223 employees and expenses related to operating the homes and their 220 residents until it is able to come up with a plan, likely finding a buyer. According to its bankruptcy documents, Methodist Homes owes between $50 million and $100 million.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on Tuesday that over $29 million in unpaid electric bills charged during February's devastating winter storm will be forgiven, CBSNews.com reported. The relief is part of a bankruptcy plan by Griddy Energy, the Texas electricity provider accused of overcharging customers by thousands of dollars. Griddy filed for bankruptcy on Monday, making it the third Texas energy provider to file do so since the February storm that left millions of the state's residents without power amid subfreezing temperatures. At least 57 people died as a result of the storm, according to preliminary data released by the Texas Department of State Health Services on Monday. "My office sued Griddy Energy, under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, to hold them accountable for their escalation of last month's winter storm disaster by debiting enormous amounts from customer accounts as Texans struggled to survive the storm," Paxton said in response to Griddy's bankruptcy filing. Griddy's plan offers "releases to approximately 24,000 former customers who owe $29.1 million in unpaid electric bills," according to Paxton. He said his office is in ongoing negotiations with the provider "to attempt to address additional relief for those Griddy customers who have already paid their storm-related energy bills."

Student loan servicing company Navient Corp. is suing the government to challenge a finding that it overcharged the Department of Education by $22.3 million, Bloomberg News reported. The department on Jan. 15 ordered Navient Jan. 15 to return the money, based on a 2009 inspector general’s probe that found that the Student Loan Marketing Association, or Sallie Mae, improperly charged the government “special allowance payments” on federal loans for which it provided collection and other services. Navient, which was spun off from Sallie Mae in 2014, sued the Education Department in federal court in Alexandria, Va., on Tuesday, calling its order “arbitrary and capricious” in violation of the law covering federal agency actions. The company claims it followed government guidance that was later reversed. It is seeking a ruling blocking the order that it turn over the $22.3 million plus attorneys fees. The suits comes as Navient’s debt-collection unit has been under fire by advocates for borrowers who have filed lawsuits across the country arguing that some types of student debt can be canceled in bankruptcy proceedings like most other debts. Navient last month beat back an attempt by three borrowers to force its debt-collection unit into bankruptcy court. The case is Navient Solutions LLC v. Department of Education, 21-cv-00324, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia (Alexandria).