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A bankruptcy judge gave Brazos Electric Power Cooperative Inc. more time to formulate its own restructuring plan, ruling against two member-owner cooperatives that have criticized its focus on raising debt to cover the steep costs of a freak winter storm in Texas in February, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Tuesday’s ruling by Judge David Jones of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston extends the deadline for Brazos to file a restructuring plan through next March and to solicit votes through May without the risk of a competing plan from creditors. Waco, Texas-based Brazos was the biggest Texas power company to fall victim to the winter freeze earlier this year, which knocked power plants offline and left millions of customers without electricity for days. Brazos racked up roughly $1.9 billion in charges from the state’s grid operator, the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas, during the winter storm and another roughly $180 million buying natural gas. Brazos has challenged the invoices from Ercot in bankruptcy court, a continuing dispute at the heart of the bankruptcy case, Brazos lawyer Louis Strubeck said during Tuesday’s court hearing.

A federal bankruptcy judge issued a $250-a-day fine to former operators of the Queen Mary who are accused of stealing $2.4 million from a COVID-19 relief loan meant to pay their employees during the pandemic, the Los Angeles Times reported. The judge’s order on Tuesday arrives amid a bankruptcy proceeding over how a real estate firm maintained the aging ship as part of a lease agreement with the city of Long Beach, which owns the ship and a parcel of land around the port. Urban Commons set its sights on revamping the retired British ocean liner as a tourist destination, but within five years of the company taking over the lease, a real estate investment trust it had created filed for bankruptcy, leaving behind a trail of debt. Beginning in 2016, Urban Commons held a 66-year lease to operate the Queen Mary and develop the surrounding land. It created Eagle Hospitality Real Estate Trust as an investment entity to generate revenue from the Queen Mary’s role as a hotel and from other hospitality ventures, but in January of this year, the trust filed for bankruptcy protection with roughly $500 million in debt. The Queen Mary is in poor shape. This year the city of Long Beach took back control of the ship after Eagle Hospitality Trust filed for bankruptcy. A recent report estimated it could cost the city $175 million to preserve the ship and $190 million to scrap it or sink it. A 2017 report estimated $289 million worth of renovations and upgrades were required to keep the ship afloat.

A Canadian court ordered Cineworld Group PLC to pay 1.29 billion Canadian dollars, equivalent to about $1 billion, in damages for walking away from a merger agreement with Cineplex Inc. after the COVID-19 pandemic rocked the movie-theater industry world-wide, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. An Ontario judge rejected arguments by U.K.-based Cineworld that Canada-based Cineplex violated the terms of a planned merger between the two companies when it took steps to conserve cash by deferring payments to landlords, vendors and film studios after box offices shut down in the early days of COVID-19’s global spread. “Cineplex cannot be held in default…when it was prevented from conducting its normal day-to-day operations by government mandate,” said Justice Barbara Conway of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in her ruling on Tuesday. Cineworld, which operates the Regal cinema chain in the U.S., said it would appeal the decision and “does not expect damages to be payable whilst any appeal is ongoing.” It reported about $450 million in cash holdings as of June and previously said it expected “no material liability” to arise from the Cineplex lawsuit. The U.K.-based company warned earlier this year there was doubt about its viability as a business after it posted a $3 billion loss for 2020 because of the pandemic’s impact. Cineplex had sought US$2.2 billion in damages from Cineworld for backing out of the acquisition.

A bankruptcy judge declined to boot a Manhattan skyscraper backed by Chinese conglomerate HNA Group Co. out of chapter 11, ruling the building owner had legitimate reasons to fear a forced sale, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Judge Mary Walrath of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., ruled that 245 Park Avenue owner PWM Property Management LLC could remain under court protection, deciding against its business partner SL Green Realty Corp., the skyscraper’s property manager, which argued the chapter 11 case was filed in bad faith. PWM filed for bankruptcy in October, saying it was at imminent risk of losing control of its bank accounts to mortgage lenders. Major League Baseball, a key tenant of 245 Park, is leaving the property next year, and lenders could begin confiscating cash if SL Green didn’t find a replacement tenant, according to PWM’s court papers. SL Green argued the chapter 11 case was filed to give PWM an unfair advantage in a two-party dispute that should be handled through litigation, rather than bankruptcy. Judge Walrath disagreed, saying that PWM was in financial distress and filed bankruptcy ahead of a possible “cascade” of negative consequences. “You don’t have to wait until the terrible events happen to file a bankruptcy proceeding,” the judge said in a bench ruling Monday.

Brooklyn property developer Yoel Goldman’s All Year Holdings Ltd. filed for bankruptcy Tuesday to protect itself from potential litigation in the U.S. and Israel while continuing negotiations with creditors over $1.56 billion in debt, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. All Year has been in restructuring talks with bondholders since April and looking for investors to either recapitalize or outright buy its property business, according to papers filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. Chief restructuring officer Assaf Ravid said in the papers that All Year has struggled to meet debt obligations tied to the 1,648 residential and 69 commercial units it owns in the Bushwick, Williamsburg and Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhoods in Brooklyn. New York City’s housing market crashed during the COVID-19 pandemic but has since rebounded, fueled by residents trading up and out-of-staters moving in. Even so, All Year’s revenues aren’t expected to grow enough to satisfy its roughly $800 million in bonds governed by Israeli law and $760 million in mortgage loans, Mr. Ravid said. All Year already lost a prized luxury property in Brooklyn this year to bankruptcy.

The Boy Scouts of America reached an $800 million settlement with Chubb Ltd.’s Century Indemnity Co. over childhood sexual abuse within the youth group, potentially boosting the funds available for abuse victims under its chapter 11 plan, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The proposed deal caps Chubb’s exposure under insurance policies it sold the Boy Scouts and is supported by a coalition of law firms representing the bulk of the roughly 82,200 men who filed claims in the youth group’s bankruptcy over past abuse. The settlement with Chubb, if approved in bankruptcy court, would add to the nearly $1.9 billion in compensation the youth group has already pieced together from its own assets, its affiliated local councils, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and another major insurer, Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. “The proposed settlement trust to compensate survivors is now expected to exceed $2.6 billion, and we anticipate additional insurance proceeds and other settlement contributions will be added to this fund in the coming weeks,” the Boy Scouts said yesterday. The youth group is under intense pressure to win the backing of abuse survivors for its bankruptcy plan, which would lift the Boy Scouts out of court protection and resolve its financial liability related to decades of failures to protect children from predators. The Boy Scouts, which filed bankruptcy last year over a growing wave of lawsuits from abuse survivors, has apologized and said the chapter 11 plan will provide equitable compensation and preserve the organization’s mission.

The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday declined to hear a bid by Johnson & Johnson to throw out a lawsuit brought by the state of Mississippi over allegations that the company failed to inform residents that its talc-based products increased the risks of developing ovarian cancer, Reuters reported. The justices left in place an April ruling by the Mississippi Supreme Court that let the lawsuit move forward. In the case being pursued by Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, the state argues that J&J should have included a warning on its label for baby powder and other talc products about the risk of ovarian cancer. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in 2014 that no such label was required and the company has said that decision preempts state lawsuits like Mississippi's. In October, J&J put into bankruptcy tens of thousands of legal claims alleging its talc-based products caused cancer, offloading the potential liabilities into a newly created subsidiary. J&J said that the talc cases would be halted while the new entity saddled with J&J's talc liabilities navigates bankruptcy proceedings. Mississippi disagreed, telling the justices not to condone the company's "effort for further delay."

USA Gymnastics, U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee and their insurers have agreed to fund a $380 million settlement with victims of longtime national team physician Larry Nassar, drawing to a close a five-year legal battle that has upended American Olympic sports governance, the Wall Street Journal reported. The sum is among the largest ever recorded for victims of sex abuse and includes hundreds of athletes who were assaulted over three decades. The decision by the final holdout insurer, TIG Insurance Company, to pay a substantial share of the settlement was confirmed Monday in a hearing in bankruptcy court in Indianapolis. The settlement also includes a direct contribution from the USOPC of around $34 million and a $6 million loan from the USOPC to USA Gymnastics to contribute, as well. The settlement will include claims from Olympic gold medalists such as Simone Biles, Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney, who were treated by Nassar during his time as the U.S. women’s squad doctor. It also includes gymnasts competing for local clubs who sought treatment from Nassar on the strength of his national reputation, and a handful of victims of abusive coaches who had been pursuing claims against the sport’s governing bodies.

NSO Group Ltd., the scandal-plagued spyware company that’s in danger of defaulting on its debts, is exploring options that include shutting its controversial Pegasus unit and selling the entire company, Bloomberg News reported. Talks have been held with several investment funds about moves that include a refinancing or outright sale, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the discussions are private. The company has brought in advisers from Moelis & Co. to assist, and lenders are getting advice from lawyers at Willkie Farr & Gallagher. The prospective new owners include two American funds that have discussed taking control and closing Pegasus. Under that scenario, the funds would then inject about $200 million in fresh capital to turn the know-how behind Pegasus into strictly defensive cyber security services, and perhaps develop the Israeli company’s drone technology.

The assets for Old Country Buffet’s former owner have been sold to the parent company of Famous Dave’s and the company is winding down its bankruptcy. But that doesn’t mean an end to the controversy over the operation of the company, which had been known as Buffets LLC and then Fresh Acquisition, RestaurantBusinessOnline.com reported. Last week, a federal bankruptcy judge signed off on Fresh Acquisitions’ bankruptcy plan, which gives a trustee the go-ahead to sue its former owners for nearly $20 million in misused funds. Creditors for some $75 million in unsecured debt have accused the former owners of a variety of improper transfers and misused funds totaling $19.75 million. They include $4 million in misused Paycheck Protection Plan funds, along with $5.25 million in “excessive management fees” and $3.85 million in unexplained transfers to affiliates and other insiders. Creditors also say there are $8.6 million worth of additional transfers of funds or real estate, unexplained credit card debt as well as a $2 million insurance policy to protect the personal assets of directors and officers. According to court filings, the people who owned or controlled Fresh Acquisitions have a combined net worth of $62.7 million, including $31.6 million in cash.