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Bankruptcy Judge Michael Wiles yesterday shot down a request by creditors of Westinghouse Electric Co LLC for a bigger role in the nuclear technology company’s bankruptcy just days after its parent company, Toshiba Corp., proposed a restructuring plan, Reuters reported. Judge Wiles dismissed claims by the official committee of unsecured creditors that Westinghouse was not making progress in restructuring its debt. The New York-based judge told a hearing that the creditors’ request to file their own proposal would have given them an “opportunity to throw a bomb” into the case just days after Westinghouse revealed that Toshiba had privately presented its plan. Westinghouse can now begin negotiating with Toshiba to hammer out details of a plan to bring the company out of chapter 11 bankruptcy in the coming months.

A second insurer has agreed to settle its part in a lawsuit brought by the Diocese of Duluth in its ongoing bankruptcy, the Duluth (Minn.) News Tribune reported. Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. would pay the diocese $975,000 to resolve claims filed in federal court in June 2016. It is the second of five insurers named in the lawsuit to reach an agreement. The proposed settlement, which must still be approved by a judge, would be used to continue litigation against the remaining insurers with the goal of obtaining monetary damages for victims of child sexual abuse, according to court documents. The diocese filed for bankruptcy in December 2015 in the wake of a $4.9 million verdict in the first case to go to trial under the Minnesota Child Victims Act. It sued the five insurers six months later, seeking to force coverage of 125 abuse claims received in the bankruptcy case.

GenOn Energy Inc. won court approval yesterday of a restructuring plan that splits it from parent NRG Energy Inc. and opens the way to a sale of the company, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. A wholesale power generator, GenOn operates electricity plants that use natural gas, coal and oil. Efforts to find a buyer began midway through a bankruptcy turnaround effort and have heated up in recent weeks, with “very active” interest from multiple potential bidders, GenOn lawyer Steven Serajeddini said at a hearing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston. At the hearing, Judge David Jones confirmed a chapter 11 workout plan that erases NRG’s ownership of GenOn, and hands the company to bondholders that agreed to extinguish at least $1.75 billion in debt in exchange for equity.

J.G. Wentworth Co., known for its “877-Cash-Now” television ads, filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday citing challenges ranging from unsustainable debt obligations to new competition that is easily able to find customer leads online, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. It marked the second bankruptcy filing in less than nine years for J.G. Wentworth, which last month announced a debt-for-equity swap with lenders that the specialty finance company warned would involve another chapter 11 reorganization. Earlier this month the Chesterbrook, Pa.-based company, which offers mortgages and buys life insurance policies and other hard-to-sell assets, began conducting voting on a restructuring deal that it had reached last month with lenders. J.G. Wentworth said in court filings yesterday that its pre-packaged reorganization plan has received enough votes from lenders and others.

Former employees of Gawker.com’s defunct publisher are raising money through a new crowdfunding campaign in a bid to purchase the blog out of bankruptcy and relaunch the website, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The campaign was launched yesterday on the crowdfunding website Kickstarter and seeks to raise at least $500,000. Gawker ceased publication in August 2016 after losing a lawsuit brought by Hulk Hogan. “This is a testing of the waters,” said James Del, a former vice president of programming at Gawker Media LLC who is organizing the crowdfunding drive. Gawker founding editor Elizabeth Spiers is also advising, while other former employees are providing input on the project. If successful in acquiring Gawker, Del said that the blog would be operated by a nonprofit foundation. If they reach their funding target but someone else purchases the blog in bankruptcy, Del said that they plan to launch a new publication intended to capture the “Gawker ethos” which he described as publishing unbiased and unfiltered gossip, news articles and writing.

Vitamin World, the Holbrook, N.J.-based retail chain that filed for bankruptcy protection in September, has received a $28 million offer from an affiliate of a Chinese dairy producer to acquire its 156 remaining stores after a previous bid fell through, Newsday reported. The new bid calls for Valuable Hero International, based in the British Virgin Islands, to pay $28 million cash, assume liabilities of about $1.2 million for employees’ accrued vacation and sick days, and pay half the costs related to property leases that exceed $2.4 million. Valuable Hero is an affiliate of Beijing-based Feihe International Inc., which produces and distributes milk powder and soybean powder in China. A filing in federal bankruptcy court in Delaware last week said that negotiations with a previous bidder, Holbrook-based Latium Enterprises, “broke down” and the agreement with Valuable Hero becomes the stalking-horse bid that potential rivals will have to better. Latium had bid $26 million in cash.

Fashion jewelry chain Charming Charlie LLC said yesterday that it filed for chapter 11 protection and entered into a restructuring agreement with lenders and equity sponsors, Reuters reported. The retailer said that it had secured $20 million in debtor-in-possession financing from a majority of its existing term loan lenders and entered into a $35 million asset backed loan with current lenders. The majority of its stores and its website would operate as usual, Charming Charlie said, adding that it would roll out a “back-to-basics” strategy, close underperforming locations and simplify business operations.

An unofficial committee of Seadrill’s unsecured bondholders has submitted a binding alternative proposal for the company’s restructuring, Reuters reported. Norwegian-born billionaire John Fredriksen and a group of hedge funds proposed on Sept. 12 to invest $1.06 billion via new equity and secured debt to restructure indebted Seadrill, once the largest drilling rig operator by market value. Yesterday was the deadline to submit binding proposals to Seadrill, which has been seeking the best available deal as part of its chapter 11 bankruptcy procedure. The unofficial committee includes about 40 investors from the U.S., Europe and Asia, and funds managed by Nordic asset manager DNB Asset Management, Nine Masts Capital Ltd of Hong Kong, and U.S. hedge funds such as Phoenix Investment Adviser LLC.

GenOn Energy Inc. is working to cobble together a deal designed to ease court approval of its chapter 11 bankruptcy exit plan, which is slated for review today, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The deal relates to legal clashes with owners of plants in Maryland, who claim GenOn and its owner, NRG Energy Inc., improperly manipulated the finances of a subsidiary in a futile effort to avoid bankruptcy for GenOn. Papers filed on Sunday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston outline a potential settlement that would end the threat of continued legal problems concerning the subsidiary, GenOn Mid-Atlantic LLC, or GenMa. Lawyers for GenOn, which twice postponed the crucial confirmation hearing on its chapter 11 plan, couldn’t immediately be reached yesterday to discuss the status of talks over the settlement.

Toys “R” Us Inc.’s unsecured creditors want to take a deeper look into the troubled retailer’s hefty and complex debt load, the Wall Street Journal reported. In court papers filed on Tuesday, the toy retailer’s creditors are seeking permission from Judge Keith Phillips to obtain more documents related to the numerous debt transactions that took place in the years leading up to the company’s September bankruptcy filing, including several transfers of intercompany notes, its 2005 leveraged buyout and fees paid to its private-equity backers. At the time of its filing, Toys “R” Us had $5.3 billion in debt, unchanged from when it was taken private by private-equity firms Bain Capital and KKR & Co. and real-estate investment trust Vornado Realty Trust in a $6.6 billion deal. The creditors have been in discussions with Toys “R” Us regarding these matters.