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U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Shon Hastings in Fargo, N.D., approved a mediated settlement among major secured creditors in the McM Inc. farm bankruptcy on Thursday, divvying up the $9.1 million in cash to be paid out by today, the West Fargo Pioneer reported. The Dec. 28 settlement allows 14 cents on the dollar, overall, but only for secured creditors — nothing so far for unsecured creditors, such as workers or laborers. On Feb. 10, McM Inc., a St. Thomas, N.D., farm, filed chapter 7 bankruptcy, which requires liquidation. In September, the company's owner, Ronald G. McMartin Jr., filed personal bankruptcy, also in Fargo. McM was one of the region's largest high-value crop farms, controlling some 40,000 acres in 2016, producing potatoes, edible beans and corn. Total claims are nearly $64 million, of which $48 million are secured. BMO Harris Bank has a $43 million claim but will receive about $4.9 million from this settlement.The farm at times produced about $20 million in gross annual revenue. Trustee Erik Ahlgren, a Fergus Falls, Minn., lawyer, has accumulated nearly $9.1 million in crop proceeds for the escrow account.

Creditors of American media entrepreneur Robert F.X. Sillerman are seeking to force the onetime billionaire into bankruptcy to try and collect on a $7.36 million judgment against him, according to court documents, Reuters reported. Two Chicago-based concert promoters yesterday filed an involuntary chapter 7 bankruptcy petition against Sillerman in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. They are seeking to collect a judgment they won last month against Sillerman over a promissory note he guaranteed on behalf of SFX Entertainment Inc. Sillerman founded the company in 2012 to promote electronic dance music festivals, and in 2014 acquired React Presents Inc. and Clubtix Inc. from Jeffrey Callahan and Lucas King. Part of the payment for the deal was in the form of a $10 million promissory note. SFX Entertainment acquired festivals such as TomorrowWorld but had trouble bringing them together in one corporate family and filed for bankruptcy in February 2016. A month later, King and Callahan and the their two companies sued Sillerman in Chicago federal court to collect on the promissory note.