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A bankruptcy judge is allowing Speedcast International Ltd. to move forward with a proposed financial restructuring backed by Centerbridge Partners LP but warned of problems that could prevent the satellite communications company from ultimately exiting chapter 11, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Bankruptcy Judge Marvin Isgur of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston said on Wednesday that he would grant conditional approval to Speedcast’s disclosure statement, a document outlining the restructuring plan that will be sent to creditors to vote on. The decision allows the Australian company to move forward with a planned transfer of control to Centerbridge, one of its largest lenders, in exchange for a $500 million equity investment. But Speedcast’s largest lender, Black Diamond Capital Management LLC, is challenging the proposed restructuring and argued that creditors shouldn’t vote on it because it violates provisions of the Bankruptcy Code. Judge Isgur said that he was denying Black Diamond’s challenge for the moment since creditors haven’t yet cast their votes, which he said was a necessary step before considering the lender’s challenge to the restructuring plan. However, the judge said he found arguments made against the proposal made by Black Diamond “very persuasive.” Among the issues Black Diamond raised with the plan is that some debt it owns would take a back seat to more junior company claims, violating bankruptcy rules requiring Black Diamond’s debt gets repaid first.

The Justice Department announced yesterday that Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, has agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges related to its marketing of the addictive painkiller, and faces penalties of roughly $8.3 billion, the New York Times reported. The settlement could pave the way for a resolution of thousands of lawsuits brought against the company for its role in a public health crisis that has killed more than 450,000 Americans since 1999. The company’s owners, members of the wealthy Sackler family, have agreed to pay $225 million in civil penalties. Prosecutors said the agreement did not preclude the filing of criminal charges against Purdue executives or individual Sacklers. The federal settlement does not end all of the extensive litigation against Purdue, but it does represent a significant advance in the long legal march by states, tribes, cities and counties to hold the most prominent opioid maker accountable.

The Justice Department is urging a bankruptcy judge to limit a creditor probe of OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP into the billions of dollars in profits collected by the Sackler family members who own the company, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Justice Department lawyers said in a court document filed Monday that Purdue and the Sackler family members shouldn’t have to turn over information supplied to the government during its own investigation into the drugmaker because that could deter targets of other criminal and civil probes from engaging in “full and frank discussions” with prosecutors. Purdue turned to chapter 11 last year in hopes of resolving thousands of lawsuits filed by states and municipalities accusing the company of fueling widespread opioid addiction. Other drugmakers, distributors and retail pharmacies have also been targeted in litigation seeking to recoup communities costs’ from opioid misuse. Government investigations into Purdue are close to being resolved under a settlement that could be announced as soon as today. But as part of Purdue’s bankruptcy, an official creditors committee is also conducting a probe into the drugmaker, its owners and its alleged role in creating and escalating the opioid crisis. The company’s creditors include state and local governments, Native American tribal authorities, hospitals and others looking to recoup the costs of drug addiction. The creditors' committee has accused Sackler family members of holding back documents, including disclosures made to the Justice Department during negotiations to resolve the years-long criminal and civil investigations into the company.

Distressed-debt investor Lynn Tilton waited too long to bid on mapmaker Rand McNally, a judge ruled yesterday in rejecting the financier’s effort to buy the company she once managed., Bloomberg News reported. Tilton argued that her last-minute offer of $46 million is higher than the bid Rand’s current managers have already accepted from Teleo Capital Management. The decision is just the latest in a years-long court battle Tilton has been waging with noteholders and the court-appointed overseer of her bankrupt collateralized loan funds -- Zohar I, II & III. Those funds borrowed about $2.5 billion in order to buy distressed companies and distressed loans. About $1.8 billion of that debt matured without being repaid, according to court documents. Under a deal between the noteholders and Tilton, Rand and other companies tied to the Zohar bankruptcy may be sold in order to raise money to pay off creditors. But Zohar’s independent manager is pushing back on Tilton’s offer, saying she waited too long to bid. Teleo’s offer is also worth more in part because Zohar would retain the right to file claims against Tilton, including for “millions of dollars of payments to these former insiders,” according to court papers. 

Exide Holdings Inc. got court approval of its bankruptcy plan, allowing the battery manufacturer to sell its overseas assets and avoid paying for a full cleanup of a former recycling facility in California over the state’s objections, Bloomberg Law reported. The plan, which was amended four times before it was approved on Friday, incorporates a global settlement Exide reached with its creditors, purchasers of the overseas assets, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and ten state environmental agencies. California’s was the only environmental agency that rejected the settlement agreement. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) called the plan approval “dangerous” and said that the state would appeal it. The chapter 11 plan allows Exide to sell its European and overseas assets to a group of existing lenders in a $559 million credit bid, preserving 5,000 jobs. The company also will wind down its involvement at former sites in the U.S. that still need environmental remediation. After filing for bankruptcy in May, it sold its North American business operations to an affiliate of Atlas Holdings LLC for $178.6 million. The settlement incorporated into the plan creates a $10 million multi-state environmental trust that would manage future environmental cleanup at former Exide sites. California would receive $2.6 million for a former battery recycling facility in Vernon, Calif., if the state signs onto the agreement.

The Weinstein Company Holdings LLC’s bankruptcy plan is an attempt by the company’s insurers to hijack the bankruptcy process to limit their litigation exposure, according to a group of women with sexual abuse claims against the studio and former directors, Bloomberg Law reported. Producer Alexandra Canosa and actresses Wedil David and Dominique Huett on Thursday urged the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware to convert the production company’s chapter 11 case to a trustee-controlled chapter 7. The pending restructuring proposal “permits the insurance companies to re-write existing policies and offer a fraction of policy coverage that is available,” they said in a court filing. Instead, the bankruptcy judge should reject the insurers’ settlement arrangement and allow Harvey Weinstein’s accusers to pursue potentially greater recoveries in their own, separate court cases, the women said. The chapter 11 plan “is the best opportunity for a meaningful recovery for holders of sexual misconduct claims, as well as the rest of the debtors’ creditors,” the company said in a Thursday court filing. The defunct studio is seeking to establish a $17 million fund for sexual abuse victims as part of its plan, but said it will only seek confirmation if a class of sexual misconduct claimants votes to approve it. 

Exide Technologies LLC is plowing ahead with efforts to walk away from contaminated sites in 10 states through bankruptcy, over a challenge from authorities in California, home to some of the battery maker’s most toxic facilities, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Lead and arsenic contamination at a former battery-recycling plant in Vernon, near Los Angeles, poses a continuing threat to schools, parks and homes in working-class, primarily Latino neighborhoods, according to state officials. Exide is being broken up in its third bankruptcy proceeding and has said it doesn’t have the money to clean up the site. Once a central element of Exide’s business plan, providing access to cheap lead, the Vernon facility was shut down in 2015 as part of a deal for the company to avoid federal criminal prosecution. The company’s U.S. operating businesses have been sold, and bondholders, including AllianceBernstein LP and D.E. Shaw Galvanic Portfolios LLC, are positioned to take over Exide’s battery-making operations outside the U.S. That leaves the Vernon facility and other shut-down sites in states including Florida, Pennsylvania and Texas—facilities that Exide wants to park in a trust supplied with funding for cleanup.