%1

InteliGlas, a provider of artificial-intelligence products for office buildings, has filed for bankruptcy as a result of a dispute with one of its co-founders and shareholders, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The Pasadena, Calif.-based company, which serves seven office buildings for four customers, installs smart sensors and software in properties to help bring down utility costs. In a sworn declaration filed on Wednesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., InteliGlas Chief Executive Scott Martin said shareholder and co-founder Robert Granadino had been wrongly taking money out of the businesses. Granadino, who was also its chief operating officer, started another company that provided the same storm-drain maintenance technology offered by InteliGlas, further hurting its business, Martin said. InteliGlas, which installed its first system in 2019, had revenue of roughly $164,000 this year through Wednesday, the date of the bankruptcy filing, according to court documents. That compares with revenues of $342,000 and $395,000, respectively, in the full years of 2022 and 2021.

Legacy Cares Inc., the non-profit owner of a bankrupt Phoenix-area sports complex, won a court fight to keep the venue’s planned sale on track after an Arizona judge rejected a federal monitor’s plea to appoint a trustee for the site, Bloomberg News reported. The decision is a victory as well for holders of $280 million in municipal bonds, unsecured creditors and the landlord of the 320-acre complex. The trustee for Vanguard Group, AllianceBernstein Holding LP and other bondholders and other creditors opposed the federal monitor’s request. Judge Daniel Collins of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Arizona ruled that naming a trustee for the complex would “gravely jeopardize” the sale of the facility and it’s ability to continue as a going concern. Legacy Cares asked the court to set a Sept. 18 deadline for bids on the venue and to complete the sale in early October. “All parties appear to agree on one thing — this estate is losing money at an alarming rate and the estate’s assets must be sold sooner than later,” Judge Collins wrote in an order on Wednesday.

Crypto trading platform Bittrex agreed to pay $24 million to settle charges that it operated an illegal securities exchange, the Securities and Exchange Commission said yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported. The SEC sued the platform's U.S. and overseas entities in April. The agency accused its U.S. firm of operating an illegal securities exchange, broker-dealer and clearinghouse. It alleged that Bittrex's overseas entity failed to register as a national securities exchange. Its U.S. entity filed for bankruptcy in May, after being sued by regulators and winding down its U.S. operations.

Bankrupt trucking company Yellow Corp will not seek court approval to borrow $142.5 million from private equity firm Apollo Global Management at a Wednesday court hearing, instead choosing to delay its request to a future court date, Reuters reported. The company, which filed for bankruptcy on Sunday, had planned to seek approval to borrow the first $60 million of a new $142.5 million loan to facilitate an orderly sale of its vehicle fleet and other assets. But a revised agenda published before the hearing indicates that Yellow will discuss the proposed loan in court without seeking approval for any new funding. The proposed loan, if approved, would put Apollo first in line for repayment ahead of the U.S. Treasury Department, which is owed over $700 million on a pandemic bailout loan approved by former President Donald Trump's administration in 2020.

WeWork has brought in a slate of new board members experienced in restructuring troubled companies through bankruptcy to succeed three directors who resigned because of disagreements about the company’s governance and strategy, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The flexible workspace provider, once valued at $47 billion but with a market capitalization today of less than $300 million, said in a securities filing Tuesday that due to business setbacks including weaker-than-expected demand and higher member churn, it has substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern. WeWork also said that board members Daniel Hurwitz, Vivek Ranadivé and Véronique Laury resigned last week due to “a material disagreement regarding board governance and the company’s strategic and tactical direction.” To replace them, WeWork appointed four new independent directors, all of whom have experience steering complex corporate defaults and bankruptcies.

Biotech firm Amyris Inc. on Wednesday said it has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in a U.S. court and is planning to sell its consumer brands to improve the company's liquidity position, Reuters reported. Amyris said that it has secured a $190 million financing commitment to support day-to-day operations, adding that its entities outside the U.S. are not included in the bankruptcy proceedings. In a filing with the Delaware bankruptcy court, the company listed estimated assets in the range of $500 million to $1 billion and liabilities in the range of $1 billon to $10 billion. "Restructuring is intended to improve the Company's cost structure, capital structure, and liquidity position while streamlining Amyris' business portfolio to focus on its core competencies in R&D...," the company said. In June, Amyris said it was cutting jobs to reduce costs and appointed Han Kieftenbeld as new interim CEO, following the resignation of John Melo.

A health clinic in a Montana town plagued by deadly asbestos contamination has filed for bankruptcy protection after a judge ordered it to pay the government almost $6 million in penalties and damages for submitting false medical claims, the Associated Press reported. The federal bankruptcy filing, submitted Tuesday, will allow the Center for Asbestos Related Disease clinic in the small town of Libby, Mont. to continue operating while it appeals last month's judgment, said clinic director Tracy McNew. A seven-person jury in June found the clinic submitted 337 false claims that made patients eligible for Medicare and other benefits they shouldn't have received. The federally-funded clinic has been at the forefront of the medical response to deadly pollution from mining near Libby that left the town and the surrounding area contaminated with toxic asbestos dust. The $6 million judgment against it came in a federal case filed by BNSF Railway under the False Claims Act, which allows private parties to sue on the government's behalf. The clinic has denied any intentional wrongdoing and its attorneys have appealed the jury's verdict to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Proterra Inc., the electric bus maker touted by President Joe Biden that filed for bankruptcy this week, was the recipient of millions of dollars in U.S. Covid-relief government aid, Bloomberg News reported. The Burlingame, Calif.-based company was awarded a $10 million loan from the Paycheck Protection Program by the Trump administration in 2020 that was forgiven in May 2022, according to a company filing Wednesday. Proterra reported it as a net gain of $10.2 million after interest payments were refunded by the Small Business Administration, the Securities and Exchange Commission filing said. The COVID-relief aid came on top of other federal government incentives and support for the electric bus industry more broadly, as well as repeated shout-outs for the company from Biden. Proterra was also widely expected to benefit from new demand for electric buses fostered by last year’s infrastructure and climate laws, including more than $5 billion earmarked for replacing existing buses with zero-emission models and new tax credits for battery and clean-vehicle manufacturing. The White House and the Small Business Administration didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. An administration official said policies championed by Biden and other Democrats were responsible for an increase in electric-vehicle demand and pointed to a Cox Automotive study that said EV sales hit a record high last quarter. Some 96% of Paycheck Protection Plan loans were forgiven, according to an October report by the SBA. The nearly 20-year-old manufacturer of electric buses and batteries was valued at $1.6 billion when it went public in June 2021 and has drawn praise from Biden who went on a virtual tour of a company facility earlier that year amid White House plans to electrify the nation’s fleet of transit and school buses.

Wheels Up Experience said on Wednesday there was "substantial doubt" about its ability to continue operations, even as it disclosed short-term funding from Delta Air Lines, sending its shares plunging 42%, Reuters reported. The company, which charters planes by the hour, has taken a slew of restructuring measures this year including job cuts and management changes as private jet traffic, which soared on demand from wealthy travelers during the pandemic, has slowed. North American business flights were down 3.6% compared with July 2022, according to data from Argus International. Delta said in a statement that it was providing a short-term capital infusion in the form of a secured promissory note to Wheels Up, which is pursuing strategic partnerships. It did not disclose the size of the funding. There was a huge growth in private jet travel because people avoided commercial airlines during the pandemic, but as commercial travel has recovered, it has hit private operators, Delta CEO Ed Bastian told Reuters in an interview last month.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters on Tuesday called for changes to U.S. bankruptcy laws following the chapter 11 filing of freight trucking company Yellow Corp (YELL.O), saying that workers must not be "left behind" when big businesses fail, Reuters reported. The Teamsters union said that 22,000 of its members were out of work despite making significant concessions on wages and pension benefits in labor negotiations with the nearly 100-year-old company, which filed for bankruptcy on Sunday. Yellow has blamed the Teamsters' opposition to its internal reorganization efforts for its collapse. But the Teamsters said its members had sacrificed more than $5 billion in wage and benefit concessions since 2009 to keep Yellow moving. The union warned that the bankruptcy could mean they will not receive bargained-for retirement benefits or severance pay. The union argued that U.S. bankruptcy law should be reformed to protect collecting bargaining agreements and worker retirement plans, which can be terminated by a bankrupt company or by a new buyer who acquires a company out of bankruptcy.