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A criminal bankruptcy fraud trial for a former Billings, Mont., neurosurgeon has been postponed to give the defense more time to reach a plea deal, the Billings Gazette reported. U.S. District Judge Susan Watters of Billings has reset a jury trial for Dr. John Henry Schneider for April 9. The trial had been set for Feb. 12. The judge previously continued the first trial from Dec. 11. Schneider pleaded not guilty in October to five counts of bankruptcy fraud for allegedly lying to hide his assets after filing for bankruptcy in 2014. Meanwhile, Schneider and the trustee in the bankruptcy appear to have reached an agreement to settle a complaint the trustee filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court against Schneider accusing the doctor of breach of contract, fraud and negligent misrepresentation.

A bankruptcy judge who slammed Bank of America Corp. for its treatment of a California couple over a foreclosure declined a request to tear up the scathing opinion, saying that it was important "to name and to shame" the company in order to shed light on practices that affect consumers, Bloomberg News reported. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Klein blasted Bank of America in a ruling in March for its "heartless" conduct against the couple, Erik and Renee Sundquist, and awarded more than $45 million in damages. The bank agreed to pay the Sundquists several million dollars more than the $6 million they won at trial if Judge Klein’s opinion was expunged. “This was a naked effort to coerce this court to erase the record,” Klein wrote in a Thursday opinion. “No chance. No dice.” Although the judge agreed to vacate the damages, he said "trials have consequences" and the litigation is no longer a two-party dispute. Nonprofit consumer advocacy groups and law schools that had intervened in the case on behalf of the public had a "potent point" when they noted that the bank "has shown no remorse, made no apology and promised no reform of the corporate culture practices illustrated by this case," Judge Klein said. Read more. 

Read further analysis of Judge Klein’s ruling in today’s Rochelle’s Daily Wire.