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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre has sold its headquarters for $5.2 million — money church officials say will be used to pay creditors, the Associated Press reported. Newsday reports the diocese became the largest in the country last year to declare bankruptcy amid more than 200 lawsuits it faced under New York State’s Child Victims Act. The law opened a so-called lookback window — since extended until August — that allows childhoods victims of sexual abuse to file civil claims beyond statute of limitations restrictions. The diocese, home to 1.4 million Catholics in the Long Island region, sold the five-story pastoral center and an adjacent parking lot to Synergy Holding Partners LLC. Church officials said they decided to sell the headquarters in 2018 after deciding it was no longer cost effective. Sean Dolan, a diocesan spokesman, said Friday that the location of the new headquarters has not been finalized. The diocese also decided to close seven grammar schools over the past year amid declining enrollment and revenue.

The Buffalo (N.Y.) Diocese dramatically cut spending after filing for bankruptcy, eliminating most of its funding of Catholic elementary schools while paying lawyers millions of dollars over the past year, the Buffalo News reported. Court records show the diocese spent $3.8 million on lawyer fees and other bankruptcy-related expenses in the first year of bankruptcy — an amount nearly equal to the subsidies it used to provide to 34 Catholic elementary schools. Most of the schools ended up being able to absorb the loss of the diocese aid in large part because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to an enrollment boom and a windfall of taxpayer-funded Paycheck Protection Program loans and grants for parishes and schools. Operational diocese spending between March 1, 2020, and Feb. 28, 2021, was down by 113% when compared with the diocese’s most recently published financial statement, according to an analysis of court records and financial statements. Spending on regular operations, such as pastoral costs, central support ministry and religious personnel development for the 12 months of bankruptcy was $8.5 million. It was $18.2 million in the diocese’s 2019 fiscal year, which ended Aug. 31, 2019.

The National Rifle Association and New York attorney general’s office plan to hold settlement talks in the coming days to see if they can resolve disputes over the gun rights organization’s bankruptcy case, lawyers for both sides said yesterday, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Negotiations are intended to gauge if either the NRA or state authorities can narrow or resolve legal fights that will be the subject of a scheduled trial examining the gun group’s decision to file for chapter 11 protection in January, and whether its leadership had the authority to do so. New York authorities have said the case should be thrown out. The trial, now scheduled to begin in early April, concerns New York’s request to dismiss the bankruptcy case or displace the NRA’s management through appointment of an independent trustee. Such discussions are common in bankruptcy proceedings. But talks will be especially difficult because of the charged politics around the gun group, a lawyer for the NRA said during a hearing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Dallas.

Greensill Capital’s U.S. subsidiary filed for bankruptcy protection, extending the U.K. financing startup’s insolvency proceedings to New York, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Greensill Capital Inc., owned by the London-based parent, filed a chapter 11 petition yesterday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York, listing up to $50 million in estimated assets against up to $100 million in liabilities, including hundreds of thousands of dollars in employee obligations. Most of the U.S. unit’s 70 employees were terminated last week, according to court papers. The U.K. company filed for insolvency protection earlier this month after losing credit insurance that was critical to the complex business of supply-chain finance, a form of short-term corporate lending. Greensill made supply-chain loans to companies, then packaged them up into notes, selling those on to investors.

Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain extended an injunction on lawsuits against members of the Sackler family, owners of Purdue Pharma, until April 21, NPR reported. Judge Drain made the ruling yesterday from his court in White Plains, N.Y., while urging parties to move swiftly to hash out a final deal over the future of the embattled drug company. More than two dozen state attorneys general are still hoping to move forward with separate civil claims against the Sacklers, who earned more than $10.8 billion selling opioids. According to Judge Drain, however, that kind of legal scrum would "irreparably harm the ability to conclude these negotiations." He also suggested the threat of new state lawsuits against the Sacklers was a "misguided" effort to gain leverage over the family in bankruptcy talks. At issue is how Purdue Pharma and its owners will be held accountable for their role in an opioid epidemic that's killed more than 450,000 Americans. The drug-maker filed for bankruptcy in 2019, facing an avalanche of claims linked to the marketing and sale of its highly addictive painkiller Oxycontin.

St. Peters, Mo.-based Ben F. Blanton Construction Inc. has reorganized after electing to file under subchapter V of chapter 11 last year, the St. Louis Business Journal reported. All of the contractor's creditors accepted the plan, and the company has closed on its exit financing, according to company officials. In July, Blanton filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy, listing assets and liabilities of $10 million to $50 million, after an insurer failed to pay Blanton for a "construction related issue and Covid-related matters," officials said. The company at the time was granted a subchapter V bankruptcy, which allowed businesses carrying up to $7.5 million in debt to have an expedited bankruptcy. Previously, the Code limited small businesses to $2.7 million in debt. For Blanton, it meant a faster and less expensive bankruptcy process. Blanton Construction cited $2.5 million in secured debt obligations and $3.4 million in trade debt owed to various vendors, suppliers and others, in addition to reduced revenue due to COVID-19 as reasons for the July filing. The company reported $30 million in 2019 revenue and projected $25 million in revenue for the 2020 fiscal year, according to court documents. Blanton is a 50-year-old construction management, design/build and general contracting company. It does work in the industrial, commercial, retail, education, institutional and senior care markets.

A prominent paparazzi agency has filed for chapter 11 protection after a lengthy legal battle against Meghan Markle, FoxBusinessNews.com reported. Splash News & Picture Agency reportedly reached a settlement with the Duchess of Sussex in December over a case she filed earlier that year claiming an invasion of privacy after photographs snapped her and her son at a Canadian park. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Splash filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy, noting that in addition to a global pandemic keeping celebrities off the streets and in their homes for a year, the cost of battling Markle in court caused it to default on a loan now worth nearly $1 million. "Splash’s financial problems stem from three sources," Splash’s president, Emma Curzon, said in a declaration submitted as part of the bankruptcy (per THR). "As a consequence of the global pandemic the availability of celebrity images has declined and budgets within media companies have been cut to reflect wider macro-economic challenges. This situation has been exacerbated by two ongoing litigation cases and the costs of defending these cases." Although part of the case was settled in court, it’s unclear if Markle and Splash are done with their legal battle. However, Curzon noted that the cost of pushing the fight forward is simply not feasible for Splash at this time.

The first lawsuits protesting exorbitant gas prices during February’s historic deep freeze have begun, Bloomberg News reported. CPS Energy, a Texas utility, is suing energy giants including BP Energy Co., Chevron Corp. and Energy Transfer. CPS supplies over 1.1 million customers in the San Antonio area with power and gas, and is disputing charges amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars at a minimum in 13 lawsuits. “The aftermath of a declared statewide disaster should not be a ‘jackpot’ for gas sellers,” CPS said in a lawsuit against Energy Transfer obtained by Bloomberg. The deadly cold that battered parts of the U.S. and roiled energy markets last month is expected to result in waves of litigation involving producers and traders of power and natural gas. At the time, ice on wind turbines and frozen pipelines led to sweeping blackouts, and oil and gas wells shut down. Traders and power suppliers struggled to find fuel to meet obligations, causing gas to trade at hundreds of times normal levels. Electricity in Texas surged to $9,000 per megawatt-hour. There have been similar lawsuits filed involving power prices, though not gas. Earlier this month, a unit of Exxon Mobil Corp. sued Macquarie Energy LLC after having a declaration of force majeure rejected by the energy trader. On Monday, Spire Missouri Inc., a utility company, filed a lawsuit against Symmetry Energy Solutions LLC over failed natural gas deliveries that allegedly caused over $100 million in losses. Symmetry is also being targeted by CPS.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey says her office secured a guarantee through bankruptcy court to process refunds for Boston Sports Clubs customers who were charged for their memberships during the pandemic, WCVB.com reported. Last year, WCVB showed how Boston Sports Clubs kept charging members during the shutdown despite laying off staff and closing its doors. When the gym reopened, members say BSC made it nearly impossible to cancel without further charges, a violation of Massachusetts state law. After receiving thousands of complaints, Massachusetts Attorney General Healey sued BSC in the fall and the company declared bankruptcy. Healey now says her office secured a guarantee through bankruptcy court to process refunds for customers. Now, almost 600 customers will be getting back about $127,000, or an average of $215 each. Healey said her lawsuit is still moving forward and is seeking further assets from the company and its former leaders to make sure everyone who is entitled to a refund will get one.

The U.S.-based units of a Singaporean hotel real estate trust have obtained bankruptcy court approval of their sale procedures, despite concerns from business partners that the process is being controlled by lenders at the expense of other stakeholders, Reuters reported. Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Sontchi in Delaware signed off on the sale procedures for Eagle Hospitality Real Estate Investment Trust’s U.S. entities during a remote hearing on Tuesday afternoon, saying he had no evidence that lenders are running an insider deal. The U.S. debtors, represented by Paul Hastings, have lined up a lead bid for their assets from an affiliate of Monarch Alternative Capital LP for $470 million.