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Brad Johnson, an associate of Health Diagnostic Laboratory Inc., has sought bankruptcy protection after being hit with a $110 million judgment tied to a blood-testing business that a federal jury found committed Medicare fraud, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Johnson filed for chapter 11 protection on Friday along with a half-dozen corporate affiliates in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Alabama. In court papers, Johnson listed total liabilities of between $100 million and $500 million, the bulk of which stems from the recent Medicare fraud judgement. The greatest asset in the case, his lawyers say, is “Brad Johnson himself — with all of his skills, abilities, and work ethic.” The businesses wrapped up in Johnson’s bankruptcy include a compounding pharmacy, independent contractors, cattle farms, and real estate companies. Court papers say the compounding-pharmacy business in particular has “excellent financial prospects,” but only so long as it continues to be run by Johnson.

The YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh has reached a proposed settlement with its landlord at the Downtown Y over a lease that resulted in the YMCA filing for bankruptcy protection last month, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. The proposal calls for the YMCA to pay the landlord, Millcraft Industries, more than $2.75 million over the next four years while both seek a new fitness center operator for the facility on Fifth Avenue, according to documents filed in U.S Bankruptcy Court. A hearing is scheduled today in federal bankruptcy court in Erie, Pa., during which the YMCA will seek approval of the plan. The YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh filed for chapter 11 protection on May 8, citing the lease at its Downtown Y as a primary issue why the nonprofit is struggling with an annual deficit of $1 million.

Oaktree Capital Group is contesting Apollo Global Management LLC’s role in restructuring Claire’s Stores Inc., while Aurelius Capital Management is zeroed in on plans by Sycamore Partners to turn around Nine West Holdings Inc., according to a Bloomberg News analysis. Both funds claim that the sponsors deprived other creditors of fair recoveries, either by extracting assets before the cases reached court or through their reorganization strategies afterward. “Creditors have become more sensitive to private equity sponsors using loopholes to take value away from them,” said Anthony P. Canale, global head of research at the independent firm Covenant Review. He cited coercive debt exchanges that give cooperative creditors a higher priority than holdouts, and strategies that move valuable intellectual property out of lenders’ reach.

A Talen Energy Corp.-owned company that operates three natural gas-fired electricity generation plants has filed for bankruptcy protection with a pre-negotiated plan to restructure roughly $600 million in senior debt, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The company, New MACH Gen LLC, filed for chapter 11 protection yesterday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. MACH Gen, which emerged from an earlier trip through bankruptcy in 2014, said its debt and “poor market conditions” including a mix of competition from other power generators and low prices affecting a New York grid operator the company sells power to have contributed to its financial problems. MACH Gen in court papers listed asset of roughly $503 million and liabilities of $654 million as of March 31.

Enduro Resource Partners LLC has a deal to sell undeveloped oil and gas properties in northern Louisiana to Comstock Resources Inc. for $20 million, subject to better offers, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The private equity-backed oil and gas producer on Thursday filed a stalking horse purchase agreement with a Comstock affiliate. The deal, which must be approved by a judge, sets a floor on the price for the Louisiana properties at a potential auction. When Enduro Resource filed for chapter 11 protection last month, the company already had three purchase agreements in hand to sell other properties in Louisiana, North Dakota and Wyoming. Enduro Resource said in a court filing earlier this week that the aggregate value of its now-four stalking horse purchase agreements is $97.5 million.

Authentic Brands Group LLC won the auction on Sunday for the intellectual property of bankrupt U.S. shoe and accessories company Nine West Holdings Inc with a revised bid of about $350 million, Reuters reported. Authentic Brands, a brand development and marketing company, was bidding against shoe retailer DSW Inc. for the well-known Nine West brand, found in department stores. Authentic Brands had submitted an initial offer for the Nine West and Bandolino brands of $200 million, according to court papers. The proceeds from the sale will go toward paying down some of Nine West’s approximately $1.5 billion in debt.

Movie equipment supplier VER Technologies LLC won court approval to put its reorganization plan to a creditor vote, which would see the company slash more than $750 million in debt and merge with another entertainment-related company, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross on Monday signed off on the disclosure statement. VER’s creditors will have until July 6 to cast their ballots, and Judge Gross will weigh in on the plan on July 13. The company is one of the largest suppliers of rental production services and equipment globally to the corporate, television, cinema, live music and hotel and sports industries. Before seeking bankruptcy protection in April, VER reached a deal with its lenders to see the company merge with Production Resource Group LLC, which is backed by private-equity firm The Jordan Company, and also provides equipment and services for live events, television and film.

Defunct energy company Worley & Obetz filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday, two days after the Manheim energy firm suddenly closed, the Courier Express reported. The nine-page filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Philadelphia calls for the firm’s assets to be liquidated and the proceeds given to its creditors. Worley & Obetz says it has 1,000 to 5,000 creditors who are owed between $50,000,001 and $100 million. The company estimates its assets at $10,000,001 to $50 million. The filing includes its Ranck Plumbing Heating & Air Conditioning and Amerigreen Energy divisions, which also went out of business. Devastated by an alleged fraud, Worley & Obetz in May shuttered its commercial business and began laying off more than 100 employees while hoping to continue serving residential markets. But Worley & Obetz’s bankers, who already face up to $62 million in losses on their loans to the company, balked at the restructuring plan on Monday. That triggered the company’s instantaneous shutdown and the immediate layoff of its remaining 150 workers.

As Toys ‘R’ Us prepares to close more than 700 stores around the country, some of them in the Chicago area won't stay dark for long, Crain's Chicago Business reported. The giant toy retailer has found takers for a small group of its stores in the Windy City after conducting two auctions for more than 400 of its locations nationwide. The fortunate few include Regency Centers, the Jacksonville, Fla.-based owner of Roscoe Square, a 140,500-square-foot shopping center on the western edge of Roscoe Village, on the city's Northwest Side. In a recent auction of 273 Toys ‘R’ Us stores and other properties, Ashley Furniture and Huntington National Bank offered to take over part of a 38,600-square-foot Toys ‘R’ Us store at Roscoe Square, according to a June 5 court filing. Regency is taking over the rest of the space, which Toys ‘R’ Us controls through a ground lease. In an earlier auction approved by a bankruptcy judge in April, Toys ‘R’ Us, which has about 30 stores in the Chicago area, was able to sell off leases for stores in Highland Park, Vernon Hills and at Bricktown Square Shopping Center on Chicago's West Side. Read more.

Occupancy issues are at the heart of many significant retail cases, as detailed in the ABI publication Retail and Office Bankruptcy: Landlord/Tenant Rights, available at the ABI Store. 

The real-estate investment trust planning to take control of bankrupt HCR ManorCare Inc. explained its decision to keep the nursing home operator’s management, saying that debt placed on it by its private-equity owners burdened an otherwise “effective” team, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Thomas DeRosa, chief executive officer of Welltower Inc., appeared Wednesday at the Nareit REITweek 2018 Investor Conference in New York. His Toledo, Ohio-based real-estate investment trust, which focuses on health-care properties, is forming a joint venture with hospital operator ProMedica Health System Inc. to acquire the operations of HCR ManorCare, a nursing home operator that filed for chapter 11 in March in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. HCR ManorCare, also based in Toledo, is owned by private-equity firm Carlyle Group, which took it private in a $5.15 billion deal in 2007. Carlyle will have no stake in the reorganized company.