St. Croix Energy LLP won the auction for the shuttered Limetree Bay refinery in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the company confirmed yesterday, Reuters reported. The St. Croix-based company, which is looking to restart the facility, bid $20 million for the assets, according to a court filing earlier this week.
Bikram's Yoga College of India LP, which filed for bankruptcy in 2017 after facing legal judgments related to sexual harassment, discrimination and other allegations, has sold six additional cars that were once part of the hot yoga pioneer's collection, Dow Jones Newswires reported. The vehicles grossed $250,000, with a 2009 Rolls-Royce Phantom going for $155,000. Parties receiving the proceeds will include City National Bank and creditor Minakshi Jafa-Bodden. The cars also included a 2002 Bentley Arnage and a 2008 Mercedes Benz. Late last year, the bankruptcy auction of 22 of Bikram's cars received winning bids totaling $915,000.
Alto Maipo SpA wants to turn snow from high in the Andes Mountains into electricity for Chileans, but climate change is getting in the way, Bloomberg News reported. The AES Corp. subsidiary, which has been developing power plants that will use Andean snowmelt to produce electricity, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware yesterday. Declining power prices and increasingly scarce snow have made the project unsustainable in its current form, Alto Maipo said in court papers. “Unfortunately, in recent years, climate change has had a devastating impact on precipitation in the Andes Mountains, with the result that the rivers that will supply the project have experienced a steep decline in overall water flow,” Javier Dib, Alto Maipo’s board president, said in court papers. “The combination of lower prices and less precipitation mean that when the project goes online, it will be operating in a dramatically different economic and environmental reality than Alto Maipo originally forecasted.” Using the water flow levels of the last 59 years, the Alto Maipo project would’ve generated an average of 2,218 gigawatt-hours of energy per year, according to a report commissioned by the company. It would yield less than half of that in 2021 -- an estimated 1,100 GWh.
A lawyer for sex abuse survivors in the Boy Scouts of America's bankruptcy said yesterday that two attorneys for the official committee representing survivors' interests in the case should be disqualified after the committee sent an "inflammatory" email about the BSA's proposed reorganization plan and sex abuse litigation settlement, Reuters reported. Ken Rothweiler of Eisenberg, Rothweiler, Winkler, Eisenberg & Jeck claimed during a virtual hearing before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein that James Stang and John Lucas of Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones, who represent the official committee, knew the email was inappropriate but allowed it to be sent to thousands of survivors anyway. Rothweiler told the judge during the hearing that the email, which encouraged the survivors to vote against the plan, has tainted the voting process. Sex abuse claimants have until Dec. 14 to submit votes on the plan, which would establish a trust to compensate men who say they were sexually abused as children by troop leaders. The trust currently has around $1.887 billion available for survivors. The plan is supported by one large survivor group that Rothweiler works with. However, the official committee opposes the deal, saying that the amount being offered to more than 80,000 abuse claimants is too low. The committee sent an email on Nov. 6 to around 20,000 survivors that included a letter from plaintiffs’ attorney Tim Kosnoff, who is not part of the committee. The Boy Scouts say the letter contained false and defamatory statements. Additionally, the letter directed readers to Kosnoff’s Twitter account, where he has attacked Rothweiler, among others involved in the bankruptcy.
A bankruptcy judge threatened to jail a Manhattan real estate lawyer if he doesn’t promptly provide a list of creditors and detailed financial information about his failed law firm and the $17 million it allegedly owes its clients, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Judge David Jones of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan said anything short of incarceration wouldn’t be enough to ensure that lawyer Mitchell Kossoff produce details on assets, contracts and leases at his law firm that would make it possible to hold a meeting of creditors. Earlier this month, the trustee liquidating Mr. Kossoff’s namesake law firm asked that Mr. Kossoff be held in civil contempt for violating disclosure orders to provide a client list and schedules. On Tuesday, the judge did so. Allowing more time and “wrangling” between Mr. Kossoff and the trustee is unlikely to be successful in securing his compliance, the judge said. Judge Jones cited an “extensive pattern of delay” by Mr. Kossoff, who is the subject of a criminal investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office. The judge said he didn’t envision issuing an order for Mr. Kossoff’s arrest for at least seven days. “I hope he is never incarcerated,” Judge Jones said. “I hope he complies with the court order.”
Intelsat SA is facing increasing opposition to its proposed reorganization plan as certain creditors and shareholders accuse the satellite communications provider of caving to the demands of one favored creditor group and failing to conduct an impartial probe into pre-bankruptcy transactions, Reuters reported. In court papers filed on Monday, a group of noteholders urged U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Keith Phillips in Richmond, Va., to reject the plan, saying it improperly shifts most of the company’s value to one set of creditors and institutional shareholders, including hedge fund Appaloosa, at the expense of others. The plan, if approved, would cut Intelsat’s debt from $15 billion to $7 billion and hand control of the company over to unsecured bondholders of subsidiary Intelsat Jackson Holdings SA. Intelsat filed for bankruptcy in May 2020 to restructure its debt as it prepared to transfer some of its C-band spectrum to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. In exchange, Intelsat is receiving about $4.9 billion. The noteholder group also accused directors that signed off on the plan of being conflicted and settling certain claims to protect themselves against potential liability arising from pre-bankruptcy transactions, including restructuring deals, decisions relating to the FCC payments and accusations of insider trading. The noteholders allege that the directors agreed to the "favored" creditor group's demands after it threatened to sue them personally.
The lawyer who oversaw payments to victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has agreed to mediate part of the fight between Johnson & Johnson and thousands of women who claim the company’s baby powder causes ovarian cancer, Bloomberg News reported. Kenneth R. Feinberg would share duties with another mediator as part of an effort to resolve nearly 14,000 lawsuits against J&J and its former supplier, Imerys Talc America. Imerys filed bankruptcy in Delaware in 2019 with plans to force J&J to help pay for a victim’s trust that would settle all current and future lawsuits. J&J claims it isn’t responsible for helping Imerys. During a virtual court hearing Monday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein said she will likely sign an order setting up the mediation once lawyers submit a final version. The talks are unlikely to resolve all of the baby powder lawsuits that J&J faces because the mediation only covers liabilities faced by Imerys and another talc mining company. J&J is involved because it has previously promised to indemnify Imerys against all talc lawsuits. To try to end all current and future baby powder claims, J&J put a unit into bankruptcy with plans to pay at least $2 billion into a victims trust. J&J faces about 38,000 lawsuits claiming the talc in its baby powder was tainted and causes ovarian cancer and other health problems, mostly in women.
A bankruptcy judge threatened to send two shareholders of Eagle Hospitality Real Estate Investment Trust to jail, finding the “fraudsters” had defied court orders to account for an illicit $2.4 million government loan, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Taylor Woods and Howard Wu took out a government-backed loan on behalf of the bankrupt hotel company “without authority and absconded with the proceeds,” leaving either Eagle Hospitality or the taxpayer on the hook, according to yesterday’s ruling by Judge Christopher Sontchi of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. “Messrs. Woods and Wu are fraudsters,” the judge wrote in an opinion published Monday. He said that he would consider what sanctions to impose, including potential incarceration, at a hearing on Friday. The judge had previously ordered the two men to account for the government funds they received and show that they’ve not dissipated their assets. Eagle Hospitality filed for bankruptcy in January and was broken up in chapter 11, selling 14 of its hotels for $480 million and turning over the keys to 1930s ocean liner Queen Mary, which it had leased from the city of Long Beach, Calif. In May, Eagle Hospitality sued Mr. Woods and Mr. Wu, seeking to recover $2.4 million in funds it alleged they received on behalf of the Queen Mary operations under the Paycheck Protection Program, the popular program of forgivable, government-guaranteed loans designed to keep checks flowing to Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic.
LeClairRyan co-founder Gary LeClair continues to seek an escape from litigation initiated by the bankruptcy trustee for the defunct firm, arguing in a filing Nov. 12 that he himself lost $2 million as a consequence of the firm’s 2018 collapse, Law.com reported. LeClair, who was added as a defendant to trustee Lynn Tavenner’s suit against alternative legal service provider UnitedLex in August and accused of conspiring to bleed the firm dry, described the allegations against him as a “fantasy.”
A possible buyer has emerged to purchase the bankrupt Limetree Bay oil refinery in the U.S. Virgin Islands for $20 million, a fraction of the roughly $4.1 billion that investors have spent trying to make the project viable, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. St. Croix Energy LLLP has been named as the only qualified bidder eligible to purchase the facility out of the bankruptcy, with the goal of reopening operations after the company exits chapter 11, Limetree’s lawyers said in court filings on Sunday. A hearing to consider designating St. Croix Energy as the lead bidder, or stalking horse, is scheduled for Monday afternoon. Any sale transaction requires approval from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston, where Limetree Bay sought protection in July. The Environmental Protection Agency suspended Limetree’s operating permits in May after a number of pollution incidents, including a release of noxious gases and oil vapors across towns on the island of St. Croix. Bankruptcy followed when investors pulled support. The refinery had been operating only a few months after nearly a decade offline. The $20 million offer pales in comparison to the capital dedicated to the facility’s restart under the auspices of ArcLight Capital Partners LLC and EIG Global Energy Partners, two of Limetree’s biggest backers since 2016. While St. Croix Energy had initially offered $11.5 million to buy Limetree Bay in late October, the bidder increased its offer to $20 million last week, in exchange for expense reimbursement of up to $1 million out of the purchase price, court filings show.
