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Chief Bankruptcy Judge Carl L. Bucki of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Western District of New York has temporarily blocked three dozen Child Victims Act cases against area Catholic parishes and schools from moving forward in State Supreme Court, the Buffalo (N.Y.) News reported. The judge put the 36 cases on hold until Oct. 1, saying their advancement now would threaten the Buffalo Diocese’s bankruptcy reorganization effort. “At a time when the vast majority of interested parties are working to find a way for the debtor to reorganize, the distraction of state court litigation for the benefit of a few will endanger the prospects of an outcome for the benefit of everyone,” Judge Bucki said in a written ruling on Wednesday. A chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in 2020 automatically stopped 260 Child Victims Act lawsuits against the diocese from advancing in state courts. Catholic parishes, schools and other entities that are separate nonprofit corporations did not file for bankruptcy. Judge Bucki last July temporarily protected parishes and schools from lawsuits. Those protections became more permanent when abuse survivors who make up the committee of unsecured creditors struck a deal with the diocese to not press forward with lawsuits against individual parishes. In exchange, the diocese agreed to hand over thousands of pages of confidential internal documents on abuse, clergy records, finances and other matters.

A lawyer representing New York’s attorney general accused National Rifle Association leader Wayne LaPierre of hiding from its board his plan to put the gun rights group into bankruptcy, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. LaPierre unilaterally authorized the January chapter 11 filing without proper NRA board approval, Gerrit Pronske, a lawyer representing the New York attorney general’s office, said during a virtual hearing on Wednesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Dallas. “Filing this bankruptcy was NRA’s best-kept secret,” Pronske said, “Except, you can’t keep an act secret from the persons who need to approve the act.” The allegation, which the NRA denies, is a basis for New York Attorney General Letitia James’s argument that the bankruptcy case was filed in bad faith and should be thrown out or, alternatively, that an independent trustee should be appointed to take charge of the NRA, wresting control from LaPierre and the board. James filed a lawsuit last August seeking to dissolve the organization. The NRA, a New York registered nonprofit organization since 1871, said in a news release that the bankruptcy was appropriately filed and is part of a broader strategy to depart a “toxic political environment” and reincorporate in Texas.

Greensill Capital’s U.S. unit has agreed to sell its Finacity Corp. business to the head of the division for $24 million unless a higher bid comes in at a proposed bankruptcy auction, Bloomberg News reported. Under the tentative deal, which must be approved by a judge, the U.S. unit would sell Finacity to its current president, Adrian Katz. In 2019, Katz and his family owned about 20% of Finacity when Greensill bought it, according to court papers filed Monday. Under that deal, Katz agreed to accept about $21 million in deferred payments that were tied to Finacity’s annual revenue. To buy back the company, Katz has offered to pay $3 million in cash and forgive the $21 million he says he is owed, according to court papers. Should U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael E. Wiles approve the proposed sale, Katz’s offer would be a stalking-horse bid at a potential auction. Should no other bids come in, a sale to Katz would become final.

A Texas wind farm facing a $113 million bill from Citigroup Inc. for failing to deliver power during last month’s cold snap filed a lawsuit seeking to protect itself against the risk of a takeover and forced liquidation by the bank, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Stephens Ranch Wind Energy LLC filed the lawsuit Tuesday in the Supreme Court of New York County, accusing Citi of using the winter freeze that swept Texas last month “as a basis to seize control of Stephens Ranch and liquidate its assets.” Citi declined to comment. The bank declared defaults against Stephens Ranch after its wind turbines were “incapacitated” during the winter storm and the facility couldn’t meet contractual obligations to generate power, according to the complaint. Stephens Ranch, which operates 210 turbines with a capacity of 376 megawatts located between the cities of Lubbock and Odessa, said the notices of default, which it disputes, put it at “severe risk of losing its business.” Justice Robert R. Reed entered a restraining order on Wednesday blocking Citi from taking action against the wind farm based on the alleged default and scheduled a further hearing on the dispute for April 22.

Electricity retailer Entrust Energy Inc. sought chapter 11 protection Tuesday as the latest corporate bankruptcy stemming from last month’s extreme weather events in Texas, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Entrust’s chapter 11 papers listed a disputed $270 million bill from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the grid operator at the center of the state’s energy crisis. Houston-based Entrust is among many municipal utilities, electric cooperatives and electricity retailers facing huge bills from Ercot for power they bought at vastly elevated prices during the cold snap in Texas last month. Brazos Electric Power Cooperative Inc., the state’s largest energy cooperative, was the first to file for chapter 11 after being overwhelmed with invoices. Energy retailers Just Energy Group Inc., Griddy Energy LLC and Brilliant Energy LLC also declared bankruptcy. Others have indicated they are in financial distress, are disputing the bills or need to borrow to pay Ercot, which allowed electricity prices to soar to the maximum level of $9,000 per megawatt hour, compared with the average price of roughly $22 last year, in an effort to get power generators to supply power amid widespread blackouts and equipment failures. Ercot cut off Entrust from the state power market after the company failed to make required payments and transferred its customers elsewhere, according to an Ercot notice. Rhythm, a renewable energy provider, said earlier this month it had acquired Entrust’s Texas customers as well as those of another retailer, Power of Texas Holdings Inc. totaling 40,000 residential and 10,000 commercial users.

LS Power Development LLC is in advanced talks on handing control of its coal-fired Sandy Creek Energy Station in Texas to lenders in a roughly $1 billion debt restructuring, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The potential agreement being negotiated covers LS Power’s Sandy Creek Energy Associates LP, the controlling stakeholder in the Sandy Creek electric generating plant in Riesel, Texas, which would be turned over to the lenders. LS Power has been in negotiations with lenders since last year about a possible restructuring of a roughly $800 million loan and other debt obligations. If the restructuring deal is completed, lenders would take majority ownership of the power plant near Waco, while LS Power would receive roughly $50 million in return for relinquishing its equity. The tentative deal comes on the heels of a bankruptcy filing by Brazos Electric Power Cooperative Inc., a major Sandy Creek customer, and broader turmoil in the Texas energy market stemming from extreme winter weather that struck the state last month.

Aircraft leasing company AeroCentury Corp. filed for chapter 11 protection in Delaware, citing the dramatic decrease in air travel during the coronavirus pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. The company, which buys used regional aircraft and leases them to domestic and foreign carriers, joins a long list of businesses felled by disruptions related to COVID-19 over the past year. AeroCentury, which will seek to sell aircraft assets during the court restructuring, will continue to operate in bankruptcy. “Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the aircraft industry as a whole has experienced a substantial and sustained decrease in air travel,” AeroCentury’s Chief Financial Officer Harold Lyons said in court documents. “This downturn has resulted in lower utilization of the debtors’ aircraft assets, which in turn materially and adversely affected the debtors’ businesses, revenues, financial condition, and results of operations.” AeroCentury has entered into a so-called stalking horse agreement for Drake Asset Management Jersey, its sole secured lender, to acquire aircraft collateral backing the debt as a means of repayment. The sale is subject to higher and better bids. Even before the pandemic, the company faced cash-flow problems, according to court documents. AeroCentury defaulted on its credit line in 2019 and had a deficit on the loan’s borrowing base. Lenders agreed to forbearance to allow the company time to shore up its finances, but the pandemic upended those efforts with worldwide travel restrictions and lockdowns. By the third quarter, AeroCentury’s revenues had plunged 85% from a year earlier, Lyons said. The publicly traded company listed assets of about $121 million and debt of almost $125 million as of Sept. 30, according to its bankruptcy petition. The only holder of more than 5% of stock is Chairman Toni Perazzo.

The Texas attorney general’s office is asking a judge to approve the creation of a committee to represent customers in the chapter 11 case of Griddy Energy LLC, which went bankrupt in the wake of the state’s historic winter storm last month, Reuters reported. During a virtual hearing yesterday, Assistant Attorney General Abigail Ryan told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Marvin Isgur in Houston that it would be helpful to have the thousands of Griddy customers who were affected by the devastating Texas winter storm in February be represented under one umbrella in the case. The retail electric provider filed for chapter 11 protection on March 15 after the storm left it owing $29 million to the state’s grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas Inc.

NextEra Energy Inc.’s long-running quest to recoup $60 million from the bankruptcy of former Texas energy giant Energy Future Holdings Corp. comes with a hitch — collecting the money means tangling with an old foe, Elliott Management Corp., WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. As one of the largest creditors, Elliott got most of the cash left behind when Energy Future’s operating businesses exited bankruptcy in 2018, following a failed deal with NextEra for which the Florida-based power company has been seeking compensation ever since. NextEra’s legal arguments had been largely rejected until earlier this month, when an appeals court revived the company’s efforts to recoup its fees and expenses from trying and failing to buy Texas utility Oncor Electric Delivery Co., Energy Future’s former crown jewel. Oncor was eventually sold to Sempra Energy when Texas regulators rejected NextEra as a buyer. The defunct shell of the old Energy Future has only $2 million to its name, having paid out more than $1 billion to creditors in the years since its bankruptcy terms went effective. Its chapter 11 administrators were back in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., on Friday, facing a renewed fight with NextEra but with precious few resources to litigate, let alone pay a potential judgment.

Archbishop of Santa Fe John C. Wester is living out of two rooms at an Albuquerque parish these days, his formal diocesan home sold to help pay for the sins of his predecessors and the damage done by priests and other clergy members who molested children, the Albuquerque Journal reported. The archdiocese reported selling the four-bedroom, tri-level house near its Catholic Center on Albuquerque’s West Side for about $425,000 as part of a stepped up liquidation of assets in its ongoing chapter 13 bankruptcy reorganization, which appears closer than ever to settlement. Basically every piece of property the Archdiocese of Santa Fe corporation-proper owns is ‘on the block,’ ” according to a bankruptcy update written earlier this month by archdiocese Vicar General Father Glenn Jones. He reported that Wester has moved to smaller quarters in an undisclosed “parish facility.” Properties being sold include a well-known archdiocese retreat center in Santa Fe and may ultimately include the St. Pius X High School property in Albuquerque.