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Fisker Inc. is pausing production for the next six weeks as the electric-vehicle maker looks to rein in inventory and avoid possibly having to file for bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. The company didn’t make a required interest payment of about $8.4 million last week on its unsecured convertible notes due in 2026, according to a regulatory filing Monday. Fisker warned it may not be able to meet obligations to service its debt and “could need to seek protection under applicable bankruptcy laws.” Fisker shares fell as much as 14% shortly after the start of regular trading. The stock had plummeted 90% this year through last week’s close. Fisker also said Monday that it plans to raise as much as $150 million through a financing deal with the holder of its 2025-dated convertible notes. The Los Angeles-based EV maker didn’t identify the existing investor and said the funding will be organized in four tranches and subject to certain conditions. The disclosures expound on the dire state of Fisker, which warned late last month that there was substantial doubt about its ability to stay in business. The company has said it will cut 15% of its workforce after struggling with production issues, software glitches and short-seller criticism.

The profits were multiplying at a dizzying clip: 50%, 100%, then suddenly almost 200%. Even for long-time veterans at Attestor Ltd., a boutique London firm that specializes in trading distressed assets, this had the makings of a score to remember, Bloomberg News reported. The trade — targeting the remains of Sam Bankman-Fried’s once-vast cryptocurrency empire — became a popular one in distressed investing circles last year. Many of Attestor’s rivals jumped in, too, and as the value of crypto coins skyrocketed once again, so did the value of the assets they had purchased at rock-bottom prices from clients of Bankman-Fried’s, desperate to recoup whatever they could. Lawyers running the bankruptcy now estimate the clean-up will deliver investors 100% of the money frozen in FTX when it failed. But this is where the story gets messy for Attestor — and its grip on a chunk of that windfall becomes a bit fragile. The seller of one of the biggest FTX accounts it purchased — an obscure Panamanian firm called Lemma Technologies that’s controlled by an embattled South Korean trader — has opted, so far at least, to keep the claim for itself. Attestor’s lawyers have argued in a New York court that this is a clear case of “seller’s remorse.” Over the years, other bankruptcies have brought handsome returns, but rarely, if ever, so rapidly. Back in June, Lemma agreed to a sell price of $58 million, according to evidence submitted to the court. Today, the claim is expected to pay out $165 million.

Dayton Senior Care LLC, which does business under the name Friendship Village, is part of a chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in Tennessee along with six other entities owned by the same company, but the Ombudsman Office does not anticipate the facility will close, the Dayton Daily News reported. Friendship Village filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Tennessee in Nashville. Among the top creditors listed is the Montgomery County Treasurer’s Office with $444,411.31 owed in property taxes, according to court records. The Ombudsman Office recently visited Friendship Village to conduct staff and resident interviews at the request of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to ensure resident care does not decline during the bankruptcy proceedings. While the Ombudsman Office does not anticipate Friendship Village to close — expecting it will be sold — the facility would be required to give residents a 90-day notification before closing. Friendship Village’s assets are listed as being between $10 million and $50 million, according to court filings. The liabilities for the debtors are between $100 million and $500 million with between 200 and 1,000 creditors.

Federal judiciary leaders on Friday released the text of a revised policy directing district courts to assign judges at random in civil cases that have statewide or national implications, making clear that the policy is a recommendation and that they cannot force district courts to follow it, the Washington Post reported. The Committee on Court Administration and Case Management of the Judicial Conference of the United States, the policymaking body for the federal courts, released the guidance after receiving intense pushback about the change from judges, conservative lawmakers and judicial experts. On Tuesday, conference officials announced that cases with statewide or national implications that are filed in single-judge divisions should no longer be automatically assigned to the judges who preside there. Such divisions exist in rural parts of the country where courthouses are spaced very far apart. District courts may continue to assign cases to a single-judge division if those cases don’t seek to bar or mandate state or federal actions through declaratory judgment or injunctive relief, the Judicial Conference said. When random assignments are required, the case should be assigned to a judge within the same judicial district. The policy does not apply to criminal or bankruptcy cases, according to the memo released Friday. “Case assignment in the bankruptcy context remains under study.” The memo, shared with district court judges across the country, includes guidance explaining how the judges might follow the updated rule “while recognizing the statutory authority and discretion that district courts have with respect to case assignment.”

Fabric and crafts retailer Joann Inc. filed for bankruptcy, unable to sustain its debt load after a sales boom during pandemic lockdowns faded, Bloomberg News reported. The Hudson, Ohio-based chain will be delisted after the bankruptcy proceedings and be privately owned by “certain of its lenders and industry parties,” according to a company statement released as it filed a chapter 11 petition in Delaware today. The filing listed liabilities of $1 billion to $10 billion. Joann’s lenders struck a restructuring deal to provide about $132 million in new financing that would help the company reduce debt by about $505 million, the firm said. The parties in the deal also agreed to a six-month extension of certain loans and credit facilities.

Genesis Global is facing off against its parent company in bankruptcy court on Monday, aiming to resolve more than a year of disputes over who reaps the benefits of the surging bitcoin price, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Judge Sean Lane of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, N.Y., is scheduled to hear closing arguments of Genesis’s chapter 11 plan that would offer a path, if approved, for it to wind down the business. After lengthy litigation that played out in court, Genesis’s lenders, customers and regulators support a proposal that would repay as much as 77% of its customers’ holdings in the type of digital assets that they are owed. However, Digital Currency Group, Genesis’s parent company and the biggest borrower, opposes the chapter 11 plan. Much of DCG’s dispute centers around who gets the benefit of bitcoin’s current high price, which has gone up more than 200% since January 2023, when Genesis filed for bankruptcy. DCG has argued that Genesis should repay its lenders and customers at the old rock-bottom price in U.S. dollars, allowing the remaining stakeholders, including DCG, to benefit from the upside of the price increases in digital assets. DCG has cited bankruptcy code stipulating that chapter 11 claims be valued in dollars as of the filing date. New York-based Genesis filed for bankruptcy in the aftermath of the collapses of crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and crypto exchange FTX in 2022. The bankruptcy exposed the interconnected nature of the crypto industry, where companies lend to each other and when one fails it creates a domino effect.

Creditors want to force Rudy Giuliani to sell his $3.5 million Florida condo to help pay his significant debts, according to a court document filed on Friday, CNBC.com reported. The former New York City mayor filed for bankruptcy protection in December, citing myriad unpaid debts including a $148 million payment to two Georgia election poll workers who he falsely claimed had tampered with the 2020 election ballots while he was serving as a lawyer for former President Donald Trump. In response to Friday’s filing, Giuliani’s counsel said the request to sell the Florida condo is “extremely premature.” “The case is still in its infancy,” said Heath Berger, partner at Berger, Fischoff, Shumer, Wexler & Goodman, LLP, who is representing Giuliani in his bankruptcy litigation. Giuliani has argued that he does not have the funds to pay his debts, the Friday court filing said: “According to the Debtor’s counsel, ‘there’s no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.’” Giuliani’s primary income comes from Social Security payments and money from his Individual Retirement Account, Berger told CNBC. But the court document cited various expenses Giuliani pays now to maintain his lifestyle.

Sushi Garage, LLC, a Japanese restaurant in Miami Beach aims to reorganize its business through chapter 11 bankruptcy, the South Florida Business Journal reported. The sushi restaurant, which is a subsidiary of the hospitality-focused Juvia Group, filed for Chapter 11 reorganization with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida on March 12. Sushi Garage was founded by local restaurateurs Jonas and Alexandra Millán and chef partner Sunny Oh. It launched in 2016 with a 4,000-square-foot, 100-seat restaurant in the Sunset Harbour neighborhood of Miami Beach. The restaurant is located at 1784 West Ave. The 19-page bankruptcy filing lists Jonas Millán as the managing member of Sushi Garage, LLC. Sushi Garage’s bankruptcy filing says the company estimates it has 50 to 99 creditors and owes less than $3 million in debt. The restaurant also estimates it has assets and liabilities valued at between $1 million and $10 million.

A Charlotte-based construction company has filed for liquidation as it faces $11.4 million in total liabilities, the Charlotte Business Journal reported. Arbor Construction LLC last week filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy in North Carolina, bankruptcy court records show. The company reports its liabilities surpass its total assets of $11.1 million. It has between 200 and 999 creditors. Arbor Construction focuses on homebuilding and remodeling, according to its LinkedIn page. The company's assets include $10.8 million in real property. That includes sites throughout the Charlotte region in Waxhaw, Lancaster, Indian Land and Fort Lawn, bankruptcy court records state.

Bankruptcy Judge Jerrold Poslusny yesterday approved the Diocese of Camden's chapter 11 bankruptcy plan, allowing the New Jersey diocese to move ahead with a $87.5 million settlement of sex abuse lawsuits, Reuters reported. The diocese initially had agreed to settle with about 300 sex abuse victims in April 2022, but the deal had been held up in bankruptcy court over objections raised by the diocese's insurers. Judge Poslusny said at hearing yesterday that recent changes to the deal had resolved all of the insurance-related issues. The bankruptcy settlement was supported by more than 97% of the abuse claimants who voted on it. Bishop Dennis Sullivan said yesterday that the approval would allow the diocese to move on from a "painful" three-year bankruptcy restructuring and "provide substantial reparations to survivors harmed by sinful priests dating back more than six decades." Insurers had argued that the bankruptcy plan would create a settlement trust that was "biased" against insurers and could allow for the payment of inflated, invalid or fraudulent claims, in addition to excessive attorneys' fees. Judge Poslusny initially agreed with the insurers and rejected an earlier version of the settlement. But he said that the revised plan gave insurers the ability to defend themselves in court if the settlement trust tried to sue them for coverage without fulfilling its obligations under the diocese's insurance policies. Those obligations may include payment of the initial legal defense costs before insurance coverage kicks in, as well as requirements to cooperate with insurers to defend against claims, Judge Poslusny said.