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Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. told a court it wants a faster breakup from its bankrupt sports broadcasting unit after the company was accused of draining more than $1.5 billion from the subsidiary, Bloomberg News reported. Sinclair on Monday provided a defense against allegations it wrongly extracted substantial sums from its Diamond Sports Group subsidiary before the unit filed bankruptcy earlier this year. Sinclair said it agreed to waive millions of dollars in management fees and provided other financial assistance in hopes restructuring Diamond’s balance sheet. But instead of continuing to work with its parent company on a plan to get the business out of bankruptcy, Sinclair told a Texas bankruptcy judge that Diamond and some of its creditors “pivoted to an all-out ‘shoot-first’ litigation war on Sinclair.” Diamond accused Sinclair of charging excessive fees under a management services agreement that costs more than $100 million a year. In response, Sinclair said Diamond should terminate the deal if it believes it’s too expensive, but claimed the subsidiary is dragging its feet because it wants benefits it gets under the deal while paying its parent company a significantly lower rate in bankruptcy. On Monday, Sinclair demanded Diamond make a choice: either accept the management agreement and drop some of the allegations in its complaint or end the deal with its parent company. Scuttling the agreement would mean Sinclair would no longer be forced to subsidize Diamond’s business or litigation against the parent company, Sinclair said.

Old Dominion Freight Line stepped up competition for bankrupt trucker Yellow’s sprawling North American real-estate holdings, outbidding a rival operator with a $1.5 billion offer for the properties, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The bid surpasses a $1.3 billion proposal by Estes Express Lines and signals a potentially spirited bankruptcy court-supervised auction for the network of 169 truck terminals that would provide Yellow with more than enough money to roughly cover the loans the company accumulated before its chapter 11 filing this month. Yellow was in business for 99 years before the company collapsed this summer. Its terminals include sought-after sites close to major metropolitan areas that are ideal for trucking and logistics companies looking to store and deliver goods quickly to homes. A lawyer for Yellow said earlier this month in bankruptcy court that the company had received formal expressions of interest in Yellow’s assets from almost 100 parties. Executives at several rival trucking companies have said they would be interested in buying some of Yellow’s locations. ODFL’s bid was disclosed in a court filing, setting up the Thomasville, N.C.-based operator as the stalking horse bidder, meaning its offer is subject to higher or better proposals at a court-supervised auction, for Yellow’s properties.

Survivors who say they endured sexual abuse during their involvement with the Boy Scouts of America are one step closer to receiving compensation, CBSNews.com reported. According to a statement from the trustee of the Scouting Settlement Trust, Hon. Barbara J. Houser (ret.), the processing portal for all general claimants opened on Aug. 17 which is estimated to include 75,000 people or their legal counsel. The trust first opened the portal on Aug. 4 only to those survivors who elected to have expedited claims. The trust's team says 7,000 people are included in that group. Last fall, the U.S. District Court of Delaware approved a $2.46 billion bankruptcy reorganization plan for the BSA approximately two years after it filed for bankruptcy protection. The protection allows the organization to continue to operate while compensating thousands of people who submit claims against the trust.

A senior-living company filed for bankruptcy this week after it exhausted an emergency loan, the latest to falter because of COVID-19, Bloomberg News reported. Nashville Senior Care LLC’s plight illustrates the pressures bearing down on the senior-living sector. Higher staff and supply costs on top of tepid demand for such facilities have caused defaults to outpace the rest of the municipal bond market this year. About 8% of the $43 billion in outstanding senior-living bonds is in default, compared with less than 1% of the total municipal bond market, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. At Nashville Senior Care, the pandemic shutdown lowered the number of residents “precipitously,” while expenses rose “dramatically,” leaving the facilities without the means to make needed investments, executive director Thomas Johnson said in a court filing. Read more.

The financially troubled healthcare sector, including a spotlight on struggling senior care centers, will be the focus of the ABI Healthcare Program, September 18-19, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn. For more information and to register, click here.

London-based digital-first healthcare platform Babylon Health has filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy for two subsidiaries — Babylon Healthcare and Babylon Inc. — as it shuts down core U.S. operations, according to documents filed on Aug. 9 in a Delaware bankruptcy court, Becker's Hospital Review reported. The filing comes shortly after a planned combination Babylon's core operating subsidiaries with MindMaze, digital neurotherapy company, collapsed. Both Babylon subsidiaries list hundreds of creditors with liabilities between $100 million and $500 million, according to the filing signed by COO Paul-Henri Ferrand. After administrative expenses are paid, only secured creditors — where the debt is backed by collateral — will be able to get paid. Earlier this month, Babylon closed its Austin, Texas, headquarters, laid off 94 employees and abruptly canceled patient appointments.

China Evergrande, which is the world's most heavily indebted property developer and became the poster child for China's property crisis, yesterday filed for chapter 15 protection from creditors in a U.S. bankruptcy court, Reuters reported. An affiliate, Tianji Holdings, also sought chapter 15 protection yesterday in Manhattan bankruptcy court. Evergrande's filing comes amid growing fears that problems in China's property sector could spread to other parts of the country's economy as growth slows. Since the sector's debt crisis unfolded in mid-2021, companies accounting for 40% of Chinese home sales have defaulted. The health of Country Garden (2007.HK), China's largest privately run developer, is also worrying investors after the company missed some interest payments this month. Evergrande recently had $330 billion of liabilities. A late 2021 default triggered a string of defaults at other builders, resulting in thousands of unfinished homes across China. In a filing in the Manhattan bankruptcy court, Evergrande said it was seeking recognition of restructuring talks under way in Hong Kong, the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands. Evergrande has said creditors may be able to vote this month on a restructuring, with possible approval by Hong Kong and British Virgin Islands courts in the first week of September. The company proposed scheduling a chapter 15 recognition hearing for Sept. 20.

FTX-affiliated cryptocurrency trading firm Alameda Research was granted a $175 million unsecured claim on the estate of bankrupt crypto lender Genesis Global Capital, according to a court filing dated Wednesday, Reuters reported. The settlement marks a significant reduction from the nearly $3.9 billion claim that FTX, which is also bankrupt, had asserted earlier this year. Genesis said the settlement was "fair and equitable" and would allow the company to avoid pursuing "protracted litigation," the outcome of which would be "inherently uncertain." Once-prominent digital asset exchange FTX and lender Genesis Global are two of several crypto firms that went belly up after a turbulent 2022 hit investor sentiment for bitcoin and other crypto tokens. FTX has previously said Genesis was a primary "feeder fund" for Alameda, loaning it crypto assets that it used for further loans and investments. As part of the settlement, the companies also agreed to release all claims against each other.

Bankrupt trucking company Yellow has struck a deal to sell its real estate to rival Estes Express Lines for a minimum of $1.3 billion, enough to roughly cover the loans the company accumulated before its chapter 11, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Estes, a rival trucker that had been vying to finance Yellow’s wind-down in bankruptcy, agreed instead to serve as a stalking-horse bidder for the property assets, meaning its offer is subject to higher or better proposals at a court-supervised auction, a lawyer for Yellow said at a court hearing Thursday. Yellow also accepted an offer from Citadel and Boston hedge fund MFN Partners, the trucker’s largest shareholder, to jointly provide a $142 million bankruptcy loan, according to Yellow lawyer Allyson Smith. The loan will fund operations at the business as it winds down and sells assets. Citadel will provide $100 million of the new bankruptcy loan, while MFN will fund the rest, Smith said. Yellow will seek bankruptcy court approval for both the debtor-in-possession loan, which will fund the company’s limited operations as it winds down, and the stalking-horse bid from Estes.

Logistics service provider Matheson Flight Extenders Inc. will permanently close its Atlanta facility in October and lay off 335 employees, according to a letter sent to the state through the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported. The decision comes nearly a year after the Sacramento, California-headquartered company filed for voluntary chapter 11 protection. The WARN filing for the Atlanta facility, which is located at 1970 Maple Avenue in West Fulton, did not indicate if Matheson Flight intends to close other locations. The positions affected by the layoffs, which will start Oct. 15, include supervisors, assistant managers, forklift drivers and material handlers, according to the WARN filing. Matheson Flight contracts with the U.S. Postal Service to haul mail. It’s an affiliate of postal logistics contractor Matheson Trucking Inc., which also filed for voluntary chapter 11 protection during the same period.

Mallinckrodt said on Tuesday that it was preparing to seek bankruptcy protection for the second time in three years after struggling to make a required $200 million settlement payment to opioid victims, Reuters reported. The drugmaker, one of the largest makers of opioids, said that it is negotiating a restructuring support agreement with its stakeholders, while deferring deadlines for missed debt payments and opioid settlement payments to next week. The agreement contemplates a second bankruptcy filing that would result in no recovery for holders of its ordinary equity shares, Mallinckrodt said. The Ireland-based company failed to make scheduled payments to its lenders and opioid creditors in June, and it has sought several short-term extensions of the debt deadlines. Mallinckrodt emerged from bankruptcy last year after winning court approval for a reorganization plan that included a $1.7 billion settlement. It paid the first $450 million of that settlement after emerging from bankruptcy, but it failed to make a $200 million payment due in June. The company on Tuesday said it has reached an agreement to extend the opioid payment due date to Aug. 22.