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As her collection of troubled companies continues to struggle, distressed investing executive Lynn Tilton will face questioning under oath about the demise of one of them, failed emergency-care transport company Transcare Corp., the Wall Street Journal reported today. Over the past year, Tilton has gone to trial in New York and Delaware over her handling of what was once a $2.5 billion empire, spending days on the witness stand. Sometime this summer, Tilton will take questions about the fate of Transcare, which shut down suddenly last year, leaving more than 1,200 workers jobless, and many allegedly unpaid. The questions will come from bankruptcy trustees, who have been issuing subpoenas and getting court orders to fill in the gaps in the ambulance company’s financial records. More than a year after Transcare closed down, bank and tax records were missing, court documents say.

The Pearl Theater Company, which took the old-fashioned approach of assembling a resident acting company to mount classic plays in increasingly expensive spaces in Manhattan, announced yesterday that it had filed for bankruptcy and was closing after 33 years, the New York Times reported today. The Off Broadway troupe’s demise reflected both financial pressures faced by many small performing arts organizations these days, and a series of missteps that the Pearl had made. In recent years, as the company was buffeted by rising rents, it moved from its longtime home on St. Marks Place in the East Village to New York City Center Stage II in Midtown to its current home on West 42nd Street — where executives signed a 20-year lease in 2012 on a theater that quickly proved unaffordable. The company spent most of its already-small endowment in 2012, depleting it to $28,066 from $241,354, to help with its moving and construction costs. And the costs of its new 42nd Street home were rising: the company’s most recent annual report said its minimum lease payment would be $282,825 this year, growing to $329,317 in 2020.

International Shipholding Corp. (ISH) expects to emerge from bankruptcy as a Seacor Holdings Inc. subsidiary by July 3, WorkBoat.com reported today. ISH said it has received approvals from the U.S. Maritime Administration required under its reorganization plan. “The combination of ISH’s longstanding history of excellent customer service and Seacor’s financial resources will ensure continued growth and success” at ISH, said Eric Fabrikant, chief operating officer of Seacor, which just spun off Houma, La.-based Seacor Marine Holdings Inc., its OSV fleet trading under SMHI. ISH’s restructuring includes the issuance of new equity to Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Seacor in exchange for $10.5 million cash and the conversion of $18.1 million in outstanding debtor-in-possession financing claims to equity. In addition, there’s $25 million in a new senior debt exit facility, much of which will be used to satisfy creditor claims, and the sale of its pure car/truck carriers to NYK Group Americas Inc.

Toshiba Corp. didn’t know its U.S. nuclear subsidiary was preparing for a bankruptcy filing even after the unit had hired lawyers for the task, according to court records and Toshiba’s official timeline, the Wall Street Journal reported today. In a Nov. 30, 2016, letter, a lawyer at New York firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP wrote that Toshiba unit Westinghouse Electric Co. had engaged the firm to work on “the potential filing and administration of a chapter 11 proceeding under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.” A Toshiba spokesman, reiterating earlier statements by company executives, said this week that no one at Tokyo headquarters was aware of the potential for major losses or bankruptcy at Westinghouse until early December 2016. Toshiba Chief Executive Satoshi Tsunakawa learned of the problem in mid-December, the spokesman said. At a news conference on Dec. 27, Tsunakawa said Toshiba was facing a multibillion-dollar loss in connection with cost overruns at Westinghouse nuclear projects in the U.S. but didn’t discuss a possible bankruptcy.

The owner of the Joe's Crab Shack casual dining chain filed for chapter 11 protection yesterday amid falling sales, and plans to sell the company for at least $50 million to a private equity firm, Reuters reported. Ignite Restaurant Group Inc., which also owns the Brick House Tavern + Tap chain, has been closing weaker locations and began to pursue a sale of the business last year, according to court documents. However, as operations continued to worsen through early 2017, interested bidders withdrew their proposals and Ignite began to consider bankruptcy, according to a court filing by Jonathan Tibus, the company's acting chief executive officer. Ignite filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston a proposal to sell its assets to Kelly Investment Group, a private equity firm. Other interested buyers will be invited to challenge the Kelly bid at a court-supervised auction, according to court documents.

As the sun sets on an eight-year lawsuit over the spoils of General Motors Co.’s bankrupt predecessor, the fate of $1 billion may rest on a seemingly simple question: “What is a fixture?” Bloomberg News reported. A two-week trial has delved into this existential question for the conveyor belts, furnaces and fluid-collecting pits of old GM’s manufacturing plants, exploring when they were installed, how hard it would be to detach them from the property, and how the property would afterward be “healed.” A ruling or settlement  — either of which could come after the trial concluded without a ruling on Monday  — will determine whether senior creditors that were repaid in full during the 2009 bankruptcy have to give up to $1 billion to more junior creditors. The quirky case arose after lawyers accidentally terminated a senior loan by filing the wrong form in 2008, jeopardizing the rights of about 500 secured creditors. JPMorgan Chase & Co., an agent on the loan, is arguing that the mistake shouldn’t wipe out all their rights; some collateral wasn’t affected because additional filings under the Uniform Commercial Code, or UCC, protected its right to fixtures at some GM plants. General Motors’ current operations have no part in the suit.

A Catholic religious order has filed for bankruptcy protection following lawsuits alleging clergy sex abuse in Minnesota, the Associated Press reported yesterday. The Phoenix-based Crosier Fathers and Brothers yesterday filed for chapter 11 reorganization. The Rev. Thomas Enneking, the order's religious superior in the U.S., said that the decision to file for reorganization was difficult but is "the only way that all claimants can be offered a fair and just resolution within the Crosiers' limited financial resources." The order and the claimants agreed on the framework for a $25.5 million compensation plan for sex abuse victims.

Assets of Dutch Girl Brewery will be auctioned off less than two years after the Spring Lake Township, Mich., business opened, MLive.com reported yesterday. The brewery filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy with the Western District of Michigan Bankruptcy Court on May 2. On behalf of the court, Orbitbid.com will auction off remaining assets and equipment starting at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, June 27, during a one-day online auction. Items include a five-barrel Direct Fire Psycho Brew 600,000 BTU brewing system with four 100-gallon vessels and exhaust hood, three 10-barrel Psycho Brew jacketed fermenters, one 10-barrel Psycho Brew jacketed Brite tank, five-ton Fluid Chillers glycol chiller, 12-head Perlick Draft Beer System, Coolbots walk-in cooler, lab equipment, a full range of brewing equipment and accessories, commercial kitchen and bar equipment and more. 

Progress on a massive indoor-outdoor sports complex on the south side of Middletown, Del., came to an abrupt halt last week when its owners filed for chapter 11 protection, the News Journal reported today. The proposed $13 million Delaware Sports Complex was to feature 15 full-size grass fields for soccer, lacrosse or field hockey and 16 baseball diamonds. Also proposed was a 160,000-square-foot indoor facility with a World Cup-size indoor field and three hard courts. Six fields have been completed to date, as well as the beginnings of a parking lot. The town said it had installed infrastructure to provide irrigation to the fields, including pipes for wastewater. According to court documents, Delaware Sports Complex LLC owes 13 creditors more than $2.2 million.

Payless ShoeSource could nearly double the number of store closures under its bankruptcy plan as the extent of the discount footwear chain's troubles come into sharper focus, USA Today reported today. The company, which filed for chapter 11 protection in April, is asking a federal bankruptcy judge for permission to close up to 408 additional stores. Those closings add to about 400 locations the Topeka, Kan.-based retailer already put on the chopping block when it tumbled into bankruptcy. Taken together, the 800-some locations would represent about 20 percent of Payless' total locations worldwide.