%1

The Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre, N.Y., has proposed a revised $200 million settlement of sex abuse claims, but faced immediate pushback on Tuesday from a U.S. bankruptcy judge who demanded more detailed financial information from the bankrupt Long Island diocese, Reuters reported. The diocese said in a Tuesday statement that its revised bankruptcy plan filed Monday was its "best and final" offer. It would pay claimants $200 million in cash, plus the potential for additional recoveries from the diocese's insurers. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn in Manhattan, who is overseeing the diocese's chapter 11, and attorneys for abuse survivors called the proposal a nonstarter at a court hearing later Tuesday morning. The diocese's attempt to resolve about 600 sex-abuse claims has been stalled for months, and Judge Glenn had warned in July that he could dismiss the bankruptcy case if no progress was made. Judge Glenn on Tuesday said he would not approve a bankruptcy plan without detailed financial information from each of the approximately 130 parishes within the diocese. Abuse claimants who vote on the plan must be able to weigh the value of their claim against the resources available to the parish where their abuse occurred, Judge Glenn said.

Digital Currency Group struck a new repayment deal with its bankrupt subsidiary, Genesis Global Holdco LLC, as part of an agreement to end a lawsuit that sought roughly $620 million from DCG, Bloomberg News reported. Genesis lawyer Sean O’Neal said during a hearing yesterday that the deal will provide the bankrupt crypto lender with roughly $200 million in value over the next few weeks and requires DCG to complete outstanding payments in April 2024. If DCG defaults, Genesis can try to collect any unpaid amount, according to court papers. The proposed agreement is meant to resolve a lawsuit Genesis brought in September to recover outstanding loans from its parent conpany. DCG, which has been making payments to Genesis since the lawsuit was filed, still owes its subsidiary $324.5 million as of Nov. 28, according to court documents. Genesis said that the agreement will avoid months of costly litigation with its parent company and guarantees that the bankrupt crypto lender will be partially repaid what it’s owed. O’Neal said that the deal doesn’t resolve other disputes with DCG related to Genesis’s plan for resolving its bankruptcy. Genesis is also facing off in court against its former business partner Gemini Trust Co., and the two also face a suit brought against them by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Meanwhile, New York State has brought legal action against them and DCG.

FTX investors suing the cryptocurrency exchange’s celebrity promoters for allegedly helping to facilitate an $11 billion fraud have some new targets, including Major League Baseball, Formula One racing and Mercedes-Benz Group’s racing team, Bloomberg News reported. Investors’ lawyers sued MLB — the first major sports league to sign a promotional deal with FTX in 2021 — and the other entities in U.S. federal court in Miami on Monday, accusing them of "aiding and abetting and/or actively participating in the FTX Group’s massive, multi-billion-dollar global fraud.” At one point, MLB umpires wore FTX patches on their sleeves. FTX investors who say they lost at least $11 billion in the exchange's meltdown allege that MLB, F1 and the Mercedes F1 racing team helped push the sale of unregulated securities through promotional deals with the cryptocurrency site. Company founder Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted of fraud and conspiracy earlier this month. The additions broaden a class-action suit that already includes more than two dozen celebrities who shilled for FTX in TV commercials and other events. They include big names such as ex-NFL star Tom Brady, current American League Most Valuable Player Shohei Ohtani and NBA sharpshooter Steph Curry.

A group of Endo International lenders have proposed paying up to $465 million to settle U.S. government claims that have held up the drug company's bankruptcy restructuring, according to court documents filed this week, Reuters reported. The lender group, which includes investment firms Oaktree Capital Management, Silver Point Capital, and Bain Capital, has offered to buy Endo in exchange for wiping out $6 billion in company debt, but objections from the U.S. Department of Justice have blocked the sale from moving forward. The lenders said they have not yet reached final agreement with the Justice Department, and they are seeking financial contributions from other Endo stakeholders for the proposed settlement, according to a Monday court filing in federal bankruptcy court in New York. The lender group had previously agreed to fund nearly $600 million in settlements that Endo had reached with states and people afflicted by the U.S. opioid crisis resolving claims it helped fuel the epidemic with its painkillers.

Bankrupt crypto lender Genesis Global Holdco LLC is suing Gemini Trust Co. to recover nearly $690 million that Genesis says the crypto platform withdrew from Genesis in the months before the company’s chapter 11 filing in January, Bloomberg News reported. Genesis said in a Tuesday complaint in New York bankruptcy court that the withdrawals made by Gemini were unprecedented and amounted to a run-on-the-bank that came at the expense of the crypto lender’s other creditors. The lawsuit escalates disputes in the bankruptcy between Genesis and Gemini, which collaborated on its Gemini Earn program that let clients collect about 8% interest on their digital-asset holdings. Last month, Gemini sued Genesis in an attempt to determine who rightfully owns a slug of shares in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust now worth nearly $1.6 billion.

Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims’ families proposed that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones wind up his bankruptcy by paying creditors at least $85 million over 10 years or undergo an orderly liquidation, Bloomberg Law reported. The Sandy Hook families, along with an official committee of Jones’ creditors, argued in court papers Wednesday that the 11-month-long bankruptcy case for the right-wing radio host should be brought to a close by February. The creditors laid out a dual-option proposal in light of what they say is Jones’ failure to advance a viable way out of chapter 11 while continuing to enjoy an extravagant lifestyle costing up to $90,000 a month. The plan, as described to the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, would allow Jones to undergo an orderly liquidation of his assets or adhere to a 10-year fixed-payment plan with distributions of at least $8.5 million a year. Under the fixed-payment plan, the creditors would agree to release their roughly $1.5 billion in state court judgment awards stemming from Jones’ repeated lies that the 2012 massacre of elementary school students and teachers was a hoax. Both options contemplate preserving causes of actions against third parties affiliated with Jones and his Infowars program.

Bankrupt pharmacy chain Rite Aid Corp. has until March 1 to complete its turnaround under a timeline approved by a federal judge yesterday, Bloomberg News reported. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan scheduled a final hearing that day to decide the fate of the company’s reorganization proposal. The ruling comes after complaints that the case was moving so fast it threatened to harm lower-ranking creditors, including people who claim Rite Aid wrongly sold addictive pain killers. The company, backed by senior lenders, had urged Judge Kaplan to hold the hearing in February, arguing that the longer Rite Aid stays in bankruptcy, the more likely it is to liquidate instead of finding a buyer willing to rescue the retailer. Rite Aid faced pressure from its two official creditor committees to slow the pace of the reorganization. A panel of lower-ranking, unsecured creditors and a group representing opioid victims argued that they need more time to review the $3.45 billion loan package Rite Aid says it needs to help fund its reorganization. The company has filed a proposal built on the assumption Rite Aid will have a successful pair of auctions set for December. The heart of the proposal can’t be finished until after the sale is locked down.