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Siga Technologies Inc. is expected to say by today what its loss to PharmAthene Inc. in a long-running court fight means for its future, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Last week, the Delaware Supreme Court upheld a $113 million damages award against Siga, which makes an antiviral drug that shows promise against smallpox. PharmAthene, which won the damages award, holds a seat on the official committee of unsecured creditors in Siga's chapter 11 case. Siga is supposed to file a report today with the bankruptcy court that explains its thinking on how to settle up with PharmAthene.

Molycorp Inc. laid out the financial facts that it says justifies allowing it to exit chapter 11 bankruptcy in trimmed-down form as opposed to being pushed into a liquidation, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The rare-earths company says it would be valued at $252 million at most in a liquidation scenario, far from enough to cover more than $2 billion in debts. Oaktree Capital Group, a major lender, would collect, at most, about half of what it is owed if Molycorp’s bid to exit bankruptcy whole fails, according to estimates in new bankruptcy-court documents. The estimates are to be included with voting materials to be sent to creditors asked to vote on the distressed company’s fate. Set for court review in January, the voting materials set out Molycorp’s case for confirmation of its chapter 11 plan. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

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Scout Energy Partners will buy Parallel Energy LP for $110 million after no rival bidders emerged for the bankrupt Oklahoma oil and gas driller, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. With no other bidders, the company said in court papers that it was canceling a bankruptcy auction scheduled for early January. A hearing to approve the sale is slated for Jan. 13 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. Parallel filed for bankruptcy in early November with a stalking- horse bid from an affiliate of Scout, a Texas upstream oil-and-gas investment firm.

Multiple parties — including Black Diamond LifePlan Fund, Evergreen III LifePlan Fund, Pillar 5 Life Settlement Fund, Advanced Life Settlement Portfolio 2011-1 and Transparency Alliance — filed separate objections in bankruptcy court to Life Partners Holdings' disclosure statement, BankruptcyData.com reported today. "It fails to set forth even the most basic information (such as the estimated recovery for current position holders) about the proposed disposition of approximately $2.4 billion in highly-complex assets, and the fate of approximately 20,000 current position holders — parties who were initially victimized by an elaborate pre-petition fraud perpetrated by the debtors' former principals,” according to the Transparency Alliance. The alliance also filed a separate objection to the joint motion of Life Partners Holdings, its chapter 11 trustee and the unsecured creditors’ committee for entry of order approving the plan support agreement.

An attorney for alleged victims of sexual abuse by priests has declined to sign a letter listing financial terms of a settlement in the Diocese of Gallup, N.M., bankruptcy case because the agreement is “nonbinding,” according to an attorney in the case, and could allow insurers to walk away from the deal, the Albuquerque Journal reported on Thursday. “We want to know that the letter means something,” and that insurers and others are required to provide the amounts indicated in the letter, said James Stang, who represents 57 alleged victims of clerical abuse who have filed claims in the case. Bankruptcy Judge David T. Thuma said that he was not surprised that attorneys are having difficulty finalizing a settlement in the 2-year-old bankruptcy case and asked them to continue working toward resolution. He set a hearing for Jan. 6 to review any progress toward a deal.

MF Global Holdings Ltd. collapsed more than four years ago, but former New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission are still sparring in federal court over who is to blame, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. The brokerage firm collapsed in the fall of 2011 revealing a shortfall of more than $1 billion in customer accounts. In an exchange of court papers, lawyers for the CFTC and for Corzine argued whether Corzine is liable as the person in control when the brokerage tapped customer accounts to support its own proprietary operations. Sued by the CFTC, Corzine says that he is entitled to a pretrial ruling that the regulator has no case against him.

A federal judge said San Bernardino’s leaders need to explain their plan to have the southern California city exit bankruptcy protection by repaying a fraction of its debts instead of raising taxes, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Meredith Jury on Wednesday rejected — for a second time — the city’s proposal to cut debts, saying that it didn’t contain enough information for bondholders, retirees who face health-care cuts and others to vote on the proposal. She agreed to consider another draft of the plan at a March 9 hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Riverside, Calif.

Pandora Media Inc. said yesterday that it has bought bankrupt subscription music service Rdio Inc. for $75 million, a day after it struck deals with the music industry’s biggest rights licensing groups, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Pandora signed two separate multiyear agreements with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, and Broadcast Music Inc. to access their combined catalogs of more than 20 million musical works.

The bankrupt California city of San Bernardino won praise from bondholders yesterday for its handling earlier this month of the massacre that killed 14 people, but at the first significant court hearing since the attack, creditors questioned a plan to increase spending to bolster the police force, Reuters reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Meredith Jury also praised the city for its handling of the shooting by a married couple. Creditors were concerned with their treatment in San Bernardino's proposed plan to exit chapter 9 protection. Bondholders questioned the city's plan to spend $159 million over 20 years to increase police staffing, improve technology and replace aging vehicles, and another $24 million set aside as a bankruptcy reserve. Representing EEPK, the Luxembourg-based bank and the city's second-largest creditor, Vince Marriott said the plan was "completely opaque," and the city needed "to explain in more detail what it is, what it is for, and how it is calculated." San Bernardino has proposed to pay a penny on the dollar on nearly $50 million in pension obligation bonds held by EEPK.

Bankruptcy Judge Kevin R. Huennekens approved a deal resolving a dispute between coal operator Alpha Natural Resources and West Virginia regulators over the company’s mine reclamation bonds, the Associated Press reported yesterday. Judge Huennekens’ order said that the agreement is fair and equitable, and represents “a sound exercise of the Debtors’ business judgment.” He overruled an objection filed by the Sierra Club, the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy and the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. Tuesday’s order, filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond, Virginia, authorized Alpha to enter into a consent order with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. Under the consent order, Alpha agreed to reduce its self-bonding obligations and to continue reclaiming mining operations in the state. Alpha also will provide $39 million in financial commitments to back its remaining self-bonded obligations. The company has more than 500 mining permits for its operations in West Virginia.