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While most of the courtroom wrangling is over and PG&E has stepped out of chapter 11, numerous people affected by wildfires the company caused are trying to get paid, according to a San Francisco Chronicle report. The bankruptcy process earmarked an estimated $13.5 billion that will compensate those victims through an independent trust, but the system is far from simple — or fast. PG&E is funding the trust partly through cash and partly through shares the entity can cash out over time. That has led to some inherent uncertainty, as seen when the fund’s trustee told victims in a letter last week that the trust was “more than $1 billion short” of its intended value because of how the stock had fared. But victims could still get everything they’re owed. The trustee, retired appeals court Justice John Trotter, also noted that the trust had “developed a careful ‘sell-down plan’” — in other words, it could wait until the price rises before selling shares. Many fire victims are elderly and an unknown number of them are in ailing health. The longer the process drags on, the greater the odds are that more people may pass away before they can resolve their claim.

Alternative-asset-management firm Benefit Street Partners LLC has sued Il Mulino’s co-owner over access to the luxury Italian restaurant chain’s website and use of liquor licenses, more than a month after the fund manager’s affiliate acquired some of the eatery’s assets out of bankruptcy, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. BSP filed an adversary proceeding Wednesday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan against Gerald Katzoff and his company GFB Restaurant Corp., which operates the legendary Il Mulino restaurant in Greenwich Village. The asset manager sought a temporary restraining order against Mr. Katzoff, preventing him from interfering with liquor licenses and permits for some Il Mulino locations that BSP’s affiliate had acquired. It also sought to stop him from removing those entities from the ilmulino.com website, related email server and social media accounts, according to court papers. During a status conference on Thursday, Judge Martin Glenn ordered a standstill on the intellectual-property-rights dispute, pending another court hearing or a stipulation and order, as litigation between the parties continues. K.G. LM LLC, a manager of Il Mulino, sought chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July for seven of 16 Il Mulino’s locations outside New York City, blaming the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic and a dispute with BSP over a loan default.

USA Gymnastics in the two years since it filed for chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court’s Southern District of Indiana has rang up at least $13.6 million in legal fees, the Orange County (Calif.) Register reported. USA Gymnastics has used the services of at least eight law firms, paying three of them at least $1.6 million, in the 25 months since the sport’s Indianapolis-based national governing body declared bankruptcy. The organization’s legal bills have continued to mount against the backdrop of stalled negotiations between USA Gymnastics and attorneys for the more than 500 survivors of former Olympic and national team physician Larry Nassar and other high profile coaches’ alleged sexual abuse, a roundly rejected and controversial proposed settlement agreement, relentless criticism from former Olympians, national team members, and the public, increased Congressional scrutiny and largely unsuccessful attempts by USA Gymnastics to distance itself from the Nassar controversy which continues to loom over the sport and Olympic movement.

McKinsey & Co. is close to reaching a settlement with state attorneys general over advice it gave to Purdue Pharma LP and other opioid manufacturers that have been targeted by states over their alleged role in fueling the nation’s opioid crisis, the Wall Street Journal reported. The talks come amid the release of court filings in recent months detailing recommendations McKinsey made to Purdue on how to aggressively boost sales of its OxyContin painkiller at a time the country was reeling from opioid addiction and deaths. The potential deal could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, though the exact terms are still being worked out and discussions may not result in an agreement. McKinsey has told the states it is open to a deal that would avert any civil lawsuits attorneys general could file against the consulting firm. States and local governments have been investigating opioid-industry players for several years, filing thousands of lawsuits that pushed Purdue into bankruptcy in 2019 and have resulted in multibillion-dollar settlement talks with other manufacturers and drug distributors.

Genesis Healthcare Inc.’s decision to hand top executives millions of dollars in bonuses has put the country’s largest publicly traded nursing home operator in the crosshairs of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Citing bankruptcy warnings at the care-home chain, at which COVID-19 claimed more than 2,800 lives, Sen. Warren (D., Mass.) said Genesis Healthcare needs to answer for the decision to provide the bonuses, especially after accepting more than $300 million in state and federal pandemic aid. Former Chief Executive George V. Hager Jr. was paid a $5.2 million retention bonus in October 2020, then announced his retirement in January with a $650,000 retirement bonus and $300,000 consulting contract, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. “I would like an explanation for this unfathomable greed amidst a public health tragedy and economic crisis,” Sen. Warren said in a letter sent Wednesday to the company’s headquarters in Kennett Square, Pa.

Talks aimed at getting Purdue Pharma’s owners to increase their contribution to the opioid maker’s bankruptcy settlement have stalled, with members of the billionaire Sackler family resisting demands from states to boost their offer by more than $2 billion, Bloomberg News reported. The Sacklers are willing to add more than $1 billion to their cash contribution, bringing their total to more than $4 billion. But attorneys general for states involved in the court-ordered mediation are seeking more than $5 billion to beef up addiction treatment and police budgets. Another sticking point is the Sacklers’ demand that they face no state criminal charges over Purdue’s illegal marketing of the painkillers. Members of the Sackler family have consistently denied any personal wrongdoing. Negotiators are still trying to resolve objections to Purdue’s reorganization plan, which would help state and local governments pay for damage caused by OxyContin and other opioid-based drugs blamed for more than 400,000 deaths. All told, the plan may provide as much as $10 billion, but the value could plummet if there’s no agreement with the Sacklers. This would mean far less cash for government and possibly leave some family members open to personal liability.

The Boy Scouts of America’s liability insurers threw doubt on the huge increase in sex-abuse claims filed against the youth organization after it filed for bankruptcy, claiming that plaintiffs’ attorneys and for-profit claims generators helped gin up tens of thousands of claims with little or no vetting, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. In Friday court filings, insurers affiliated with Chubb Ltd. and Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. point to messaging such as an email sent in November by the law firm Junell & Associates PLLC, telling clients that “time is quickly running out” to meet a court-designated deadline and that lawyers “can complete a claim form on your behalf,” based on information from an initial phone consultation. Some attorneys, including a managing partner from Junell, signed hundreds of claims in a single day, the insurers said, and others appear to have signed forms attesting to their truthfulness before they were even filled out. The Boy Scouts sought chapter 11 last year over their past failures to safeguard children from sexual predators, starting a court-supervised process in which the organization is trying to compensate survivors while protecting the bulk of its wealth. Negotiations are continuing between victims’ lawyers and the Boy Scouts, which has said it needs a settlement approved by early summer to survive.

Women who have accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct will be compensated from a $17 million fund after a Delaware bankruptcy judge approved a plan to liquidate his former film studio, the Wall Street Journal reported. The women are expected on average to receive hundreds of thousands of dollars or more under the deal to liquidate Weinstein Co., which filed for bankruptcy in 2018 after numerous allegations of sexual abuse and harassment against Weinstein became public. Judge Mary Walrath of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., yesterday approved the settlement during a court hearing held via videoconference, saying that the deal provides Weinstein’s victims with a fair and private process for obtaining compensation without having to endure years of public and uncertain legal proceedings. Evidence presented during the chapter 11 case showed Weinstein abused women over several years, Judge Walrath said, adding that though the deal may provide closure for victims, compensation alone can’t provide complete recompense for harm they have suffered. The settlement, funded by insurance, is the culmination of years of negotiations and was revised last year after a New York federal judge rejected a related agreement. The deal approved by Judge Walrath gives women the option — but doesn’t require them — to release Weinstein of potential civil litigation, and they would receive greater compensation if they choose to do so.

Imerys Talc America Inc. is poised for a final push for bankruptcy-court approval to poll creditors on a chapter 11 restructuring proposal covering allegations that materials mined by the company caused cancer and serious lung problems, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The Imerys SA unit has an appearance scheduled Monday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., with Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein, where the subsidiary hopes to get signoff on the materials to be sent out ahead of a creditor vote. The start of the voting process sets the stage for another round of clashes later this year with Johnson & Johnson, the health-care giant that was once Imerys Talc America’s biggest customer. Absent a settlement, Johnson & Johnson is expected to challenge Imerys Talc America’s chapter 11 plan, saying it amounts to an improper use of bankruptcy to shield its parent company, the French conglomerate Imerys. Imerys Talc America and Johnson & Johnson were both named in thousands of lawsuits alleging baby powder caused ovarian cancer. Both companies insist the product is safe, but a $4.7 billion jury verdict was rendered against Johnson & Johnson in 2018, touching off a feeding frenzy among attorneys that meant more lawsuits were on the way. The jury award was later cut in half.