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The bankrupt parent of Puerto Rico’s failed Doral Bank wants three more months to control its chapter 11 case without the threat of rival proposals as it looks to sell off more assets, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Doral Financial Corp. said that while it has “achieved a number of important tasks” in its chapter 11 case so far, including selling its insurance unit, it needs until Oct. 7 to file a viable reorganization plan and until Jan. 5, 2016, to solicit votes on that plan. Without the approval of Bankruptcy Judge Shelley C. Chapman, those periods would expire after July 9 and Sept. 7, respectively. A hearing on the matter is set for July 23, meaning Judge Chapman will likely enter a temporary extension in the meantime.

Caesars Entertainment Corp.’s main operating unit asked a bankruptcy judge to let a court-appointed investigator scrutinize the 2008 buyout that left the casino giant saddled with billions of dollars in unmanageable debt, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The former prosecutor looking into the bankruptcy of Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. should broaden his probe to include the $30 billion leveraged buyout, the unit said in a filing on Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago. Richard J. Davis was appointed to investigate Caesars’ pre-bankruptcy restructuring actions with the goal of determining which, if any, can be successfully challenged by a lawsuit. Because some creditors have also questioned the 2008 buyout, Davis should also look into that transaction, Caesars said. Any conclusions the examiner reaches on the deal’s legitimacy “will be particularly helpful in assisting the parties in plan negotiations,” the company said. Caesars’ main operating unit filed for bankruptcy in January with a plan to eliminate debt and reorganize itself. The proposal has split creditors holding billions of dollars in claims. Some have sued, saying that the Las Vegas-based company’s pre-bankruptcy actions were illegal and designed to shield the most valuable assets from creditors.

JW Resources Inc. filed for chapter 11 protection yesterday, the latest coal miner to seek court protection during troubles in the industry, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. The Knoxville, Tenn., company said in court papers that the decline in demand for coal and a "dramatic" increase in coal mining costs have kept it from meeting its secured debt obligations and left it struggling to operate. Unable to find new financing to sustain itself, JW Resources said it would use its time in bankruptcy to find a buyer through a court-supervised auction process. JW Resources reported assets in the range of $1 million to $10 million and debts in the range of $50 million to $100 million in its bankruptcy petition, filed in bankruptcy court.

Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey said yesterday that the U.S. government and former students of Corinthian Colleges, which closed in April, need to promote the government's loan relief program before asking for a stay on all student debt collections, Reuters reported yesterday. Judge Carey declined to rule on a request by an official committee of Corinthian students to halt all loan repayments amid allegations the company misrepresented itself to prospective students. Corinthian Colleges Inc. became the largest failure in for-profit higher education when it abruptly closed 28 schools in April and left 16,000 students without classes. Corinthian has been the target of lawsuits and government investigations alleging it defrauded students and acted as a predatory lender. The company filed for bankruptcy last month, soon after the U.S. Department of Education announced a plan under which tens of thousands of former Corinthian students could seek relief from their federal student loans.

The owners of Baha Mar, a Caribbean resort project valued at more than $3.5 billion, filed for bankruptcy court protection in Delaware, blaming delays by the general contractor, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The four-hotel resort and golf complex, featuring the largest casino in the Caribbean and its own private island, was presented as the most significant tourism project in the history of the Bahamas. But disputes between the Swiss-Bahamian Izmirlian family, which runs Baha Mar, and a Chinese builder caused the project to miss its scheduled opening in March. Construction on Baha Mar, which was to open on March 27, remains unfinished and no new date has been set. The project is 97 percent complete, according to court papers. Baha Mar Ltd. listed unaudited assets of $3.1 billion and debt of about $2.7 billion in chapter 11 documents in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., where affiliate Northshore Mainland Services Inc. is incorporated. 

A federal judge said yesterday that he will approve Revel AC Inc.’s liquidation plan after the former owner of the twice-bankrupt Atlantic City, N.J., casino reached several long-elusive settlements with its creditors, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan said that the liquidation plan, which will bring Revel’s hard-fought chapter 11 case to a close, will start the process of rejuvenating Atlantic City. The plan divvies up proceeds from the sale of the 47-story boardwalk tower. Revel, which cost $2.4 billion to build, was sold to developer Glenn Straub for $82 million, leaving little behind to repay creditors.

Bankruptcy Judge Shelley C. Chapman yesterday approved a settlement in the long-running legal fight between Lehman Brothers Inc. and Barclays PLC, punctuating one of the more intriguing sagas of Lehman’s collapse and its aftermath, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Judge Chapman said yesterday that the deal, which calls for Lehman to pay Barclays $1.28 billion for so-called margin assets tied to Barclays’s purchase of Lehman’s brokerage business in 2008, was “fair and equitable.” The legal battle over the assets, which climaxed in a 34-day trial back in 2010, ends with both sides agreeing to drop all litigation against the other. More than $580 million cash will become available for Lehman creditors, because Lehman had set aside about $1.87 billion for the dispute. Both Barclays and James W. Giddens, the trustee unwinding Lehman’s brokerage, have said the payment is about $80 million less than what Giddens would have had to pay without a settlement.

Anna's Linens, a California-based home decor retailer, is liquidating its inventory and closing its stores after filing for chapter 11 protection earlier this month, the Chicago Tribune reported today. The chain began notifying customers that it was selling off its assets last week through email and signs posted in store windows, while the company's website is closed for business. Northbrook-based Hilco Merchant Resources and Gordon Brothers Group announced yesterday they are managing the liquidation sale, which will include everything from merchandise to store fixtures. Anna's Linens currently operates 252 retail locations in 19 states. It filed for chapter 11 protection on June 14 with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California. Founded in 1987 by Alan Gladstone, the retailer generates more than $300 million in annual revenue, according to bankruptcy documents. The chain, named after Gladstone's mother, has more than 2,500 employees.

ProNerve LLC, a defunct maker of surgery-monitoring devices, is seeking bankruptcy court approval of chapter 11 plan that pays unsecured creditors about five cents on the dollar, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. The company on Wednesday filed a combined chapter 11 plan and disclosure statement with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. ProNerve sold its assets to SpecialtyCare IOM Services LLC in a $35 million debt-for-equity swap after failing to attract any other qualified offers. The purchase price took the form of a credit bid, meaning Specialty Care, which had bought more than $43 million in the company's debt at a discount, essentially forgave that amount. Read more. (Subscription required.)

For more on credit bidding and issues surrounding the strategy, be sure to pick up a copy of ABI’s Credit Bidding in Bankruptcy Sales: A Guide for Lenders, Creditors, and Distressed-Debt Investors. 

A federal appeals court in Philadelphia last month endorsed an agreement among stakeholders of Jevic Transportation Inc. to toss the trucking company's bankruptcy case out of court before a formal chapter 11 exit plan was approved, Reuters reported yesterday. Known as "structured dismissals," such agreements usually occur when all creditors agree on how to divide a debtor's assets. In the Jevic case, though, the dismissal benefited only a few creditors, including private equity owner Sun Capital, while leaving out laid-off drivers entirely. New Jersey-based Jevic was acquired by Sun for around $80 million in a 2006 leveraged buyout, and was bankrupt by 2008. Thanks to a lien on a loan guarantee, Sun was also Jevic’s senior-most creditor, along with CIT Group, which financed the buyout. When Jevic went bankrupt and fired about 1,800 truck drivers, Sun and CIT held all the cards, claiming entitlement to the $1.7 million left in its coffers. A committee of unsecured creditors, including vendors to whom Jevic owed unpaid bills, sued Sun and CIT for more than $100 million, alleging that they saddled the company with too much debt. To settle, CIT paid $2 million to cover the committee's lawyer fees, while Sun surrendered the $1.7 million for the creditors themselves. But the agreement left nothing for the truck drivers, who had asserted $8.3 million in wage debts entitled to payment ahead of the committee.