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Major U.S. business lobbying groups are asking Congress to pass measures that would protect companies large and small from coronavirus-related lawsuits when states start to lift pandemic restrictions and businesses begin to reopen, Reuters reported. Their concerns have the ears of congressional Republicans, though it is far from clear if the idea has the Democratic support it would need to pass in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) are seeking temporary, legal and regulatory safe harbor legislation to curb liabilities for employers who follow official health and safety guidelines. Businesses want to make sure that they are not held liable for policy decisions by government officials, should employees or customers contract COVID-19 once operations resume. They also want protection from litigation that could result from coronavirus-related disruptions to issues like wages and hours, leave and travel. The debate over when to ease restrictions intended to slow the spread of the COVID-19 disease, which has killed more than 40,000 Americans, has recently entered a more politically charged phase with President Donald Trump voicing support for scattered street protests aimed at ending the restrictions. Public health officials warn that doing so prematurely risks sending infection rates soaring and further taxing an overwhelmed healthcare system.

A California regulator has asked PG&E Corp. for governance and oversight changes in its reorganization plan, while also proposing penalties of about $2 billion on the San-Francisco based utility for its role in causing the devastating 2017 and 2018 wildfires in California, Reuters reported. The proposal from the regulator “will require PG&E to modify its governance structure, submit to an enhanced oversight and enforcement process if it fails to improve safety, and create local operating regions”, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) said yesterday. Separately, CPUC Commissioner Clifford Rechtschaffen proposed imposing $1.94 billion in penalties on PG&E for the utility’s role in the 2017 and 2018 wildfires. In the proposal, an earlier imposed $200 million fine on PG&E was “permanently suspended” to ensure that the fine’s payment did not reduce the funds to meet the claims of wildfire victims. Both the proposals will be put to vote next month, CPUC said. A U.S. bankruptcy judge in December approved PG&E’s $13.5 billion settlement with victims of the deadly California wildfires. Last month, the company had announced some new commitments in its reorganization plan to emerge from bankruptcy to meet concerns raised earlier by California Governor Gavin Newsom.

Lenders to Envision Healthcare Corp. are protesting a debt swap designed to put the private-equity-backed company on firmer financial footing, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. A group of lenders represented by law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP has told the company it believes its credit agreement prohibits a debt-exchange offer covering $1.225 billion in unsecured bonds. The debt swap, which is open until April 30, has allowed some bondholders to share in a collateral package previously reserved for the higher-ranking lenders. The warning from lenders doesn’t necessarily mean they will try to undo the debt exchange by Envision, but it could be an obstacle to raising additional financing. Struggling due to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, Envision has seen its revenue fall as the pandemic eats into patient volumes for other types of illnesses and injuries. The company, backed by KKR & Co., said this month it would cut salaries among senior leadership and furlough staff to mitigate the financial damage. Such revenue losses are adding pressure for many indebted health-care companies, which are losing out on revenue on the everyday services that make up much of their business. Envision has hired law firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP to help renegotiate a debt load of more than $7 billion.

Thousands of victims of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme are due to get checks totaling $378 million from a U.S. Justice Department fund created years ago through settlements with some of the con man’s oldest customers and his bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bloomberg News reported. The distribution from the Madoff Victim Fund will bring total government payouts in the case to more than $2.7 billion for almost 38,000 investors across the globe, the Justice Department said yesterday. That’s almost 74 percent of their claimed losses, the U.S. said. The fund — which will eventually return more than $4 billion to victims — is separate from the repayment process being overseen by a trustee in federal bankruptcy court in Manhattan, according to the statement. Madoff’s investors lost about $20 billion in principal and more than $40 billion in fake profit when his securities firm collapsed in 2008. He's serving a 150-year sentence in North Carolina after pleading guilty to fraud.

Victims counting on PG&E Corp.’s bankruptcy to compensate them for their losses in California wildfires are making a last-ditch effort for court protection against gyrations in the utility’s share price in the virus-infected stock market, Bloomberg News reported. Lawyers for a committee representing the victims want a guarantee that half of their $13.5 billion settlement with the bankrupt utility to be paid in stock is really worth $6.75 billion when they get the shares. Having failed to persuade the judge overseeing PG&E’s bankruptcy to sanction their effort, the lawyers yesterday sought a different federal judge in San Francisco to “carefully word” his valuation of the settlement deal to prevent the victims from being outmaneuvered by PG&E’s attorneys. The judge’s intervention is required “to avoid subjecting the fire victims to a situation in which they obtain devalued stock during the coronavirus market downturn,” the lawyers said in a filing. The epidemic “is causing a devaluation of the PG&E shares intended for the fire victim trust, to a value that is lower than the required $6.75 billion value.” U.S. District Judge James Donato is tasked with confirming that PG&E’s damages to victims amount to $13.5 billion. The company argues in a filing that the committee’s request has no place in Donato’s court, calling it an attempt to “recut the deal that it agreed to” in the bankruptcy case. Besides which, the utility says, it “never agreed that the stock to be deposited into the trust would have a cash value or a market value of $6.75 billion” on the day the bankruptcy plan is effective. PG&E has warned that investors who have pledged to backstop $9 billion in equity may back out of their agreements if the power company changes the terms of its settlement with fire victims.

Murray Energy Corp., the nation’s largest private coal producer, said yesterday that it is negotiating to resolve lenders’ allegations that it breached its $450 million chapter 11 financing package, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Murray has been cut off from its bankruptcy financing after lenders alleged a series of breaches to their credit agreement, company advisers testified during a telephone hearing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Columbus, Ohio. Lenders could agree to a 30-day forbearance period, but no such agreement is guaranteed, Murray’s advisers said. Murray, founded by prominent Trump supporter Robert Murray, filed for chapter 11 protection in October. It is now looking to secure around $100 million in exit financing to fund its emergence from bankruptcy. Bankers are exploring whether Murray’s lenders would agree to roll over their existing bankruptcy loans to an exit facility. Robert Campagna, a managing director at Murray consultant Alvarez & Marsal, said that while the company is facing an “extreme cash crunch,” he is optimistic lenders will accept a forbearance agreement. Though he didn’t describe the alleged breaches in detail, Campagna said lenders claim Murray has violated a covenant related to its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. The lenders include Bain Capital Credit LP, Fidelity Investments Inc. and Invesco Advisors Inc., according to court papers filed in February. St. Clairsville, Ohio-based Murray described its precarious financial position in an effort to suspend monthly payments it is making to cover retirees’ medical costs. Judge John E. Hoffman Jr., the bankruptcy judge hearing the case, granted Murray’s request, transferring these costs to government-backstopped funds that cover benefits for retired coal miners and their dependents.