%1

The U.S. bankruptcy judge who is weighing whether to dismiss the bankruptcy of prison healthcare company Tehum Health said on Friday that he doesn't intend to make a sweeping ruling on so-called "Texas two-step" bankruptcy cases, Reuters reported. Opponents of Tehum's bankruptcy, including prisoners who have sued over substandard medical care and the U.S. Department of Justice, have argued that the company's predecessor Corizon Health abused U.S. bankruptcy law when it created a new shell company, Tehum, and placed it into bankruptcy to halt lawsuits filed against Corizon. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez said during a Friday court hearing in Houston that he intends to take a narrow view of Tehum's bankruptcy and its proposed $55 million settlement of creditor claims, without making a "sweeping ruling" on the Texas two-step or other companies' efforts to resolve lawsuits in bankruptcy. "For me, those issues are for policymakers and not for this court," Judge Lopez said. Tehum filed for bankruptcy in February 2023, shortly after its predecessor, Corizon Health, used a Texas statute to split itself into two companies, YesCare and Tehum. YesCare inherited Corizon's assets and its go-forward business, while Tehum was stuck with the liability from about 200 lawsuits accusing Corizon of providing prisoners with substandard medical care that led to injuries and deaths at 50 detention facilities in 27 states.

As a Boy Scout victim from Alabama, Gill Gayle is likely to get around $15,000 from a settlement fund compensating child sexual abuse victims, according to estimates. But if he had been abused in New York, he would be eligible for more than 10 times that amount. Gayle is one of more than 82,000 men who have submitted claims to a multibillion-dollar settlement fund set up after the Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy amid an onslaught of child sexual abuse cases, the Wall Street Journal reported. Victims are each entitled to up to $2.7 million from the fund, according to court documents, depending on the severity of the abuse they experienced and other factors. But the settlement is designed to pay out less to men like Gayle, who grew up in states where their claims would likely be barred because too much time has gone by. Some say the settlement as structured is generous — offering the men more than they likely would receive had they pursued their claims in state court. But others say it creates a patchwork where men abused in one state receive a fraction of what those in others receive. Men in more than 30 states will likely have their awards reduced based on local statutes of limitation. The Boy Scout settlement has drawn renewed attention to statute-of-limitation laws that determine how long victims or prosecutors have to sue perpetrators. In recent years, some states have adjusted those laws in the wake of high-profile scandals, like sexual abuse within the Catholic Church or USA Gymnastics. Some lawyers and lawmakers say the different statutes — and different payouts — reflect a core tenet of American governance, where states have different laws on any number of topics.

A small Florida hedge fund that allegedly helped Indian tech firm Think & Learn Pvt hide $533 million must reveal where the money is located or face possible sanctions from a federal judge on Monday, Bloomberg News reported. Bankruptcy Judge John Dorsey in a Friday hearing dismissed an effort by the investment firm, Camshaft Capital Fund, to avoid answering questions about the cash. The missing money is at the heart of a fight between lenders owed $1.2 billion and Think & Learn, the education-tech startup founded by entrepreneur Byju Raveendran. “The fact that they know the information and are refusing to produce it is just a huge red flag,” Judge Dorsey said during a court hearing in Wilmington, Delaware on Friday. The cash belongs to Byju’s Alpha Inc., a bankrupt shell company affiliated with Think & Learn that was taken over by the lenders after their loan defaulted. The $533 million was transferred to the hedge fund and then moved to an unnamed, off-shore trust by Raveendran’s brother, Riju Ravindran, Byju’s lawyer Benjamin Finestone said during the hearing. Camshaft fought efforts to disclose details about the money because a hedge fund has a duty to protect its clients, lawyer Pieter Van Tol told Dorsey. The hedge fund also argued that Byju’s and the lenders should instead get information about the cash from a Delaware company called Inspilearn, which got the money from Camshaft before it was transferred to the unnamed trust.

Texas law firm Jackson Walker was urged nearly two years ago to disclose that one of its partners was in a romantic relationship with a federal judge who oversaw many of the firm's cases, the U.S. Justice Department's bankruptcy watchdog said in a court filing, Reuters reported. Bankruptcy Judge David Jones resigned in October after his relationship with the lawyer, Elizabeth Freeman, became public. Since then, the U.S. Trustee has filed motions in several corporate bankruptcy cases seeking to force Jackson Walker to turn over millions of dollars in legal fees Jones awarded. A lawyer for Freeman, who was a bankruptcy partner at Jackson Walker until December 2022, had advised the firm earlier that year that it should disclose her relationship with Jones "in all past cases and in cases going forward," the U.S. Trustee said in its court filing on Thursday. A spokesperson for Jackson Walker on Friday said that the firm "emphatically" denies receiving the disclosure advice. Jones, once the busiest bankruptcy judge in the United States, publicly acknowledged he was in a years-long romantic relationship and shared a home with Freeman when he retired last year. The firm in November said it had been deceived by Freeman into thinking the relationship had ended in March 2020. The U.S. Trustee in November said Jones presided over at least 26 cases in which he awarded Jackson Walker about $13 million in fees while he was in a relationship with Freeman. Thursday's filing said Freeman's lawyer had gone so far as to draft papers for Jackson Walker to use to disclose her relationship with Jones. The U.S. Trustee in the filing asked a Houston bankruptcy judge to award sanctions against Jackson Walker in the bankruptcy of the Westmoreland Coal Company.

Endo International settled federal civil and criminal charges over the company’s marketing and sale of opioids, agreeing to pay up to $465 million over several years, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The settlement with the U.S. government would clear the last major hurdle the Malvern, Pa.-based company needs to overcome to clinch a restructuring plan that would hand ownership of the company to its lenders. The agreement is subject to approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. Endo filed for bankruptcy in 2022 under the weight of thousands of lawsuits from state and local governments and others over its sale and marketing of painkiller Opana ER. Under the settlement, Endo can pay $200 million when it wraps up its bankruptcy case or make installment payments totaling $365 million over 10 years, according to an announcement by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New York. Additionally, the company must make payments tied to its financial performance totaling up to $100 million between 2024 and 2028. As part of the settlement, Endo also agreed to plead guilty in federal court in Michigan to a misdemeanor count tied to misbranding Opana ER, according to the announcement. The settlement payments of up to $465 million resolve $1.5 billion in a criminal fine and a civil claim stemming from the marketing and sale of opioids as well as a payment obligation to the Internal Revenue Service.

WeWork’s official junior creditors committee is seeking court approval to sue SoftBank, the co-working space provider’s biggest equity holder, alleging the Japanese conglomerate used WeWork’s prebankruptcy debt restructuring deal to improve its position in the company’s capital structure, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The committee said in a bankruptcy court filing Wednesday that SoftBank and another group of creditors representing 62% of WeWork’s unsecured notes orchestrated the May 2023 debt restructuring to “mitigate their losses and elevate their position in” WeWork’s capital structure, knowing that the company’s bankruptcy filing was imminent. Because of these “uptier transactions,” WeWork’s general unsecured creditors—including landlords and holders of about $180 million in unsecured notes—were left subordinated to $2.4 billion in newly created secured debt, the committee said. A WeWork spokesman didn’t directly comment on the committee’s assertion but said the company has made transparency and full cooperation with its key stakeholders a priority since its bankruptcy filing in November. The company remains focused on its lease renegotiations with landlords, aiming to emerge from bankruptcy “financially strong and profitable,” he said. The committee wants the bankruptcy court’s approval to pursue its claims against SoftBank and the participating creditors and, if appropriate, wants to seek a settlement to recover money for its constituents, according to the filing.

Terraform Labs Pte. transferred nearly $122 million to its lawyers just before it filed for bankruptcy and used some of the money to cover legal expenses for criminally charged co-founder Do Kwon, according to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Bloomberg Law reported. The SEC is challenging cash transfers to Terraform’s top law firm, Dentons US, that occurred in the three months before the company filed for bankruptcy in January, court papers show. The firm behind the now-collapsed TerraUSD stablecoin said it filed chapter 11 because it can’t afford penalties sought by federal regulators. Although the SEC said that it doesn’t oppose the company paying legitimate legal expenses, the “amount of funds at issue is extraordinary,” according to the regulator. Terraform transferred $166 million to Dentons in the full year before its chapter 11 filing, more than $5 million of which helped Do Kwon cover legal bills. The SEC alleges that the size and timing of the transfers are suspicious and that Terraform Labs must provide more documentation on them, saying that the company transferred $122 million into “an opaque slush fund for its lawyers.” The SEC argued that Judge Brendan Linehan Shannon, who is overseeing Terraform Labs’ bankruptcy, should deny the company’s request to retain Dentons unless the law firm returns $81 million, which roughly represents the amount of money that hadn’t been spent as of Feb. 13. Judge Shannon is expected to hear arguments on the dispute at a March 5 court hearing in Wilmington, Del.

Binance Holdings Ltd., the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, said it has recovered $4.4 billion worth of digital assets for its users who mishandled their deposits in the past two years, Bloomberg News reported. Users can mishandle their funds for a variety of reasons including entering wrong wallet addresses, depositing incompatible tokens and problems from blockchain upgrades, according to Thursday’s report. Binance said it resolved 381,616 cases of cryptocurrency that was deposited by users but not credited in 2022 and 2023. The report, which also mentions efforts to deal with hackers and other crimes, comes as the exchange is reshaping itself after pleading guilty last year to US charges of anti-money laundering and sanctions violations. The district judge approving the company’s plea deal, which includes a $4.3 billion fine, noted last week Binance had left participants in the financial system vulnerable to exploitation by bad actors. “To nurture the ecosystem’s growth in its still-early period, industry leaders like Binance should use their reach and resources to lend support to other participants of the emerging marketplace, protecting users and upholding the integrity of the space,” Binance said in the report.

Gemini Trust Co., the crypto exchange founded by twin entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, will return at least $1.1 billion to customers though the Genesis Global Capital bankruptcy as part of settlement with the New York Department of Financial Services, Bloomberg News reported. The New York-based firm will also pay a $37 million fine for various compliance failures to the New York Department of Financial Services, Superintendent Adrienne A. Harris said in a statement Wednesday. Gemini is returning the funds to customers who lost money through the Gemini Earn program that the exchange ran together with now-bankrupt lender Genesis Global. Gemini also agreed to contribute $40 million to Genesis’s bankruptcy for the benefit of Earn customers in coordination with the bankruptcy court. “Gemini failed to conduct due diligence on an unregulated third party, later accused of massive fraud, harming Earn customers who were suddenly unable to access their assets after Genesis Global Capital experienced a financial meltdown,” Harris said. “Today’s settlement is a win for Earn customers, who have a right to the assets they entrusted to Gemini.” The Earn program, which was launched in early 2021, let more than 200,000 Gemini users — including almost 30,000 New Yorkers — lend out their coins through Genesis for yield. Genesis stopped withdrawals in late 2022, and filed for bankruptcy in early 2023. Gemini failed to conduct ongoing due diligence into Genesis, or to maintain adequate reserves throughout the running of Earn, the department said.

A Texas bankruptcy judge declined to bring monetary sanctions against lawyers for Sorrento Therapeutics, ruling that a bank account and mailbox established to justify the company’s chapter 11 filing in Houston didn’t rise to the level of bankruptcy fraud, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Timothy Culberson, a Sorrento shareholder, earlier revealed that Sorrento’s lawyers at the firms Latham & Watkins and Jackson Walker had prepared a bankruptcy petition for the company’s subsidiary Scintilla Pharmaceuticals that relied on a bank account Sorrento wired $60,000 to three days before the filing and a mailbox established at a UPS store in a Houston suburb the day before the filing. Sorrento had used Scintilla’s Feb. 13, 2023, petition as a basis to make its own chapter 11 filing in Houston immediately after. The U.S. trustee for the Southern District of Texas, which serves as a bankruptcy watchdog on behalf of the U.S. Justice Department, presented evidence earlier this month showing that Scintilla had made representations to the California Secretary of State both before and after its bankruptcy filing that its principal address was in San Diego. Both the trustee and Culberson filed court papers this month demanding that the Sorrento and Scintilla cases be either dismissed or transferred out of state, alleging that the Scintilla petition falsely stated the company’s principal assets and place of business were in Texas. Culberson had separately alleged that the actions Latham and Jackson Walker had taken in preparing the filing amounted to bankruptcy fraud, seeking both firms to pay monetary damages.