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American Apparel Inc. founder Dov Charney’s attempt to return to the company moved a step closer after firms backing him made nonbinding offers to buy the bankrupt retailer, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. More than one entity working with Charney have signed nonbinding letters of interest — which include the value of potential offers — and nondisclosure agreements to review the retailer’s financial documents. Charney said earlier this month that he was working with a financial adviser on an offer and that he’d been in talks with potential financial partners. He’s been trying to hatch a return to American Apparel since he was fired last year from his dual roles of chief executive officer and chairman following allegations of misconduct. Last year, Irving Place Capital was working with Charney and submitted a letter of interest with an offer price, but a deal stalled. American Apparel, which entered bankruptcy in October, said there’s currently no progress on a potential bid and no transaction to consider.

The future of Doctors' Hospital of Michigan in Pontiac will remain uncertain for at least another week after creditors failed yesterday to reach a conclusive vote on competing bankruptcy reorganization plans for the long-struggling hospital, the Detroit Free Press reported today. None of the three rival plans for buying the hospital out of bankruptcy attracted enough votes from the hospital's nearly 700 creditors to win confirmation by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Detroit. Judge Walter Shapero said that the creditors had questions about the feasibility of all three plans that will need hearings to resolve. A tightly packed series of court dates is scheduled for next week in hopes of confirming one of the two still-competing plans by Christmas Eve. The backer of a third reorganization plan backed out yesterday because of the plan's low vote tally.

Gun maker Colt Defense LLC won confirmation on Wednesday of its chapter 11 plan, the end point of a contentious bankruptcy case, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported yesterday. Most objections were swept aside in deals in advance of the hearing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., where Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein granted approval to the workout plan. Colt filed for chapter 11 protection in June, blaming the loss of key military business and an overload of debt. In September, Colt reclaimed a U.S. Army contract to provide M4 rifles, an opportunity to tap into a planned $212 million of government spending in the coming years.

An examiner needs to be appointed in the bankruptcy of Samson Resources Corp. to look into the theft of nearly $2 million from the energy company and allegations it short-changed landowners on royalty payments, according to the U.S. government's bankruptcy watchdog, Reuters reported yesterday. Acting U.S. Trustee Andrew Vara said in court papers filed on Tuesday that about $1.8 million of Samson's estate funds were stolen last month when an email account of its chief financial officer was used to direct an employee to wire the money to an account at a Regions Bank in Birmingham, Ala. About $1.5 million has been recovered by Regions Bank and the remaining $300,000 may be covered by Samson's insurance, Vara said, adding that Samson is investigating who may have gained access to Chief Financial Officer Philip Cook's email account. Vara also said in the court papers that his office has been contacted by various landowners regarding royalties they get from Samson for oil and natural gas leases. They assert that Samson "over a period of years" intentionally and fraudulently miscalculated royalty payments, Vara said.

Millennium Health LLC’s chapter 11 plan was confirmed on Monday, but it was almost immediately challenged with an appeal from Voya Investment Management, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Voya, formerly ING’s U.S. arm, is one of dozens of financial institutions that bought into a nearly $1.8 billion financing for Millennium in April 2014. A little over a year later, the drug-testing company revealed it was threatened with the loss of the right to bill government-funded programs due to fraud accusations from the Justice Department. Voya didn’t buy into the chapter 11 plan that was designed to provide funds to pay Millennium’s settlement with regulators. The lender is seeking a fast trip to federal appeals court to argue the plan unfairly blocks Voya’s right to sue Millennium’s departing owners. During confirmation hearings last week, Millennium and the lenders that supported the plan said repeatedly that the company’s survival is on the line. If Millennium can’t come up with funds to cover a $256 million settlement of the fraud charges by Dec. 30, the Justice Department could move to strip the laboratory testing company of its government billing privileges, lawyers said.

A union lawyer negotiating with Walter Energy Inc. said that miners would rather gamble jobs at the bankrupt coal producer than make additional concessions, a stance the judge called “a game of chicken,” Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Walter Energy filed for bankruptcy in July and is set to put its assets up for auction Jan. 5. As an opening bid, lenders have offered to exchange $1.25 billion in debt and pay $5.4 million in cash. That agreement hinges on a consensual resolution with unions or court approval to reject collective-bargaining agreements. The union’s lawyer told Bankruptcy Judge Tamara O. Mitchell yesterday that issues involving worker safety were too important to bargain away. Judge Mitchell cautioned that under such a strategy, the union “stands to lose everything.” If the union wins, “the buyer walks because there’s no sale and then all the employees are out of a job, the mines close down” and there won’t be benefits for anyone, Judge Mitchell said. Sharon Levine, the attorney for the United Mine Workers of America, said that the union’s stance is “not a threat.”

Molycorp Inc. is moving forward with a restructuring plan that some creditors said would benefit its senior lender, Oaktree Capital Management LLC, after a mediation aimed at devising a new plan failed, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The parties couldn’t agree to terms on how to handle a sale of assets, and, as a result, the company’s existing restructuring plan remains in effect. Creditors of the bankrupt rare-earths miner had been engaged in negotiations over the past two weeks after some lenders accused Molycorp of running a “specious sale process” that benefited Oaktree. The contending creditor groups, which included JHL Capital Group LLC, the largest holder of the company’s senior bonds, maintained that the process gave Oaktree veto power and made it impossible to persuade potential buyers to join an auction. The mediation’s collapse means the contending creditors now must try to devise a new sales process if they seek to challenge the current plan as the bidding continues.

Seaboard Realty, a company that owns and manages a number of commercial and residential properties in Stamford, Conn., filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday and its president stepped down after two partners in the company questioned his bookkeeping, the Stamford Advocate reported today. Unspecified “recent events” prompted two owners to question the company’s finances under now-former president John DiMenna’s leadership, and the two hired a law firm and forensic accountant, according to a statement from the company. DiMenna resigned from his managerial duties with Seaboard Realty and also from its affiliates.

Molycorp Inc. has failed to attract any offers for the entire company as a first-round bidding deadline approaches, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. The potential buyers, mostly rare-earths producers and processors based outside the U.S., are instead looking to take on part or all of the bankrupt rare-earths miner’s overseas business. Those bids do not include its idled Mountain Pass mine in California, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Offers could still emerge in a later round. The sale, which was announced on Nov. 3 and is part of a reorganization plan, has been tumultuous, with Molycorp’s lower-ranking creditors accusing the company of running a “specious sale process.” The contending creditors, which are negotiating with the company in mediation sessions ordered by the judge, argued that the proposal gives veto power to Oaktree Capital Management LLC, Molycorp’s senior lender, and makes it impossible to persuade potential buyers to join an auction. The company, which is advised by Miller Buckfire & Co. and AlixPartners LLP, said last month that it would sell the entire company or certain assets, or reorganize the business if a sale doesn’t take place.

Cubic Energy Inc., the latest Texas oil company brought down by falling oil prices, filed for bankruptcy protection after reaching a deal with its lenders to hand over control of the company, MarketWatch.com reported yesterday. The Dallas-based Cubic, which drills for oil and natural gas in Texas and Louisiana, said that it has agreed to cede control of the company to Wells Fargo Energy Capital and its secured bondholders, including an affiliate of Anchorage Capital Group. The company, which listed assets of $120.7 million and debts of $114.2 million in its bankruptcy petition, filed for chapter 11 with a pre-packaged bankruptcy plan having already secured the votes to secure passage of its debt-for-equity swap. Read more.

For further analysis and insight into oil and energy company bankruptcies, be sure to pick up a copy of ABI’s When Gushers Go Dry: The Essentials of Oil & Gas Bankruptcy.