%1

FTX Group unveiled a draft creditor-repayment plan as part of its bankruptcy that calls for settling customer claims in cash and wiping out its digital token FTT, Bloomberg News reported. The plan — which FTX expects to amend based on feedback from stakeholders — proposes valuing customer claims in U.S. dollars as of the date it went bankrupt and repaying them by selling assets tied to various silos of the business, court papers show. FTX also still hasn’t ruled out rebooting an offshore exchange, according to the filings. Three so-called recovery pools will guide creditor repayments. They include assets linked to FTX.com customers, assets linked to FTX US customers and assets not clearly tied to the exchanges, court papers show. Almost every proposed creditor class is deemed impaired, meaning the company expects they will not be made whole. The plan calls for giving no recovery on account of FTT tokens due to their “equity-like characteristics,” advisers for FTX wrote in the filings. Equity is almost always wiped out in US bankruptcy reorganizations.

Digital Currency Group (DCG) said it's close to "reaching an agreement in principle to resolve the claims in the Genesis Capital chapter 11 cases," according to a letter sent to shareholders on Monday, CoinDesk.com reported. DCG added that it sees resolving the bankruptcy cases "soon." The Genesis lending business froze withdrawals last year in the aftermath of FTX's collapse, which, among other things, affected customers of a lending product from the Gemini exchange. This led to a public war of words between the two sides, and this remains one of the more contentious issues to iron out in the Genesis restructuring. In the letter, DCG also revealed it had found a new chief financial officer, Mark Shifke, filling a role vacant since earlier this year.

Judge Michael Kaplan of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Trenton, N.J.,threw out the second chapter 11 case that Johnson & Johnson filed to resolve its mass talc liabilities, again shutting down the healthcare-product company’s plan to achieve an $8.9 billion settlement, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Judge Kaplan said that J&J affiliate LTL Management LLC, created to carry the company’s talc-related liabilities into bankruptcy, wasn’t in sufficient financial distress to warrant granting it the legal protections of chapter 11. Friday’s ruling sets back J&J’s efforts to use the bankruptcy case to drive a settlement of mass claims alleging that its talcum-based baby powder caused cancer and contained asbestos, which the company denies. J&J said that it disagreed with the decision and would appeal. Outside of bankruptcy, J&J faces a tough road to resolving the talc litigation because of the large number of claims and the expectation that more talc users will sue for compensation in the future. In his ruling, Judge Kaplan cited a recent appeals court decision that threw out a prior bankruptcy case filed by LTL in 2021 to try to drive a settlement. A federal appeals court dismissed that chapter 11 case in January, but LTL filed for bankruptcy again in April, this time with a settlement offer supported by some plaintiffs’ law firms. That offer, valued at $8.9 billion, would rank among the largest tort settlements ever if accepted.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. launched the sale of an $18.5 billion loan portfolio from Signature Bank this week, a pool of debt tied to major private equity and investing firms, Bloomberg News reported. The portfolio comprises 201 performing capital-call loans tied to firms including Starwood Capital Group, Carlyle Group Inc., Blackstone Inc., Thoma Bravo and Brookfield Asset Management Ltd., according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified citing private information. The loans for sale “consist of subscription credit facilities to private equity funds,” according to a notice from the FDIC. The FDIC declined to comment. A representative for Newmark didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment. The sale, which launched July 25, is limited to FDIC-insured depository institutions, according to the FDIC’s notice. The deadline for a bid is in September, with closing set for early October. Newmark Group Inc. is handling the sale.

Yellow, the beleaguered trucking company that received a $700 million pandemic loan from the federal government, notified staff on Friday that it is shutting down and laying off employees at all of its locations, the New York Times reported. The move comes ahead of an expected bankruptcy filing by Yellow in the coming days. The closure of the company would mean the loss of approximately 30,000 jobs and mark the end of a business that just three years ago was deemed so critical to the nation’s supply chains that it warranted a federal bailout. “The company is shutting down its regular operations on July 28, 2023, closing and/or laying off employees at all of its locations, including yours,” the company said. Yellow has been locked in protracted labor negotiations with International Brotherhood of Teamsters over a new contract that the company has said is essential to its ability to move forward with a restructuring plan. As of the end of March, Yellow’s outstanding debt was $1.5 billion, including about $730 million that is owed to the federal government. Yellow has paid approximately $66 million in interest on the loan, but it has repaid just $230 of the principal owed on the loan, which comes due next year. Yellow is one of the largest freight trucking companies in the United States, and its downfall could have a ripple effect across the nation’s supply chain. Its impending bankruptcy comes days after United Parcel Service reached an agreement with the union representing more than 325,000 of its U.S. workers, averting a strike. Yellow’s management and union negotiators have been trying to reach an agreement over wages and other benefits but failed to clinch a deal. The fate of Yellow’s assets is not yet clear. In 2020, the Trump administration, which had ties to the company and its executives, agreed to give the firm a pandemic relief loan in exchange for the federal government assuming a 30 percent equity stake in the company.

Back Yard Burgers has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after shuttering its Charlotte, N.C.,-area restaurants, the Charlotte Business Journal reported. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of North Carolina has consolidated affiliated filings under the Tantum Companies LLC. Tantum CEO Mark Cote, in a declaration filed with the court on June 27, says a chapter 11 restructuring is necessary to maximize the value of the debtors’ estates, provide the greatest recovery for stakeholders and preserve ongoing operations. Charlotte-based Axum Capital Partners — co-owned by former Carolina Panthers wide receiver Muhsin Muhammad II — bought a controlling interest in Back Yard Burgers in 2017. The bankruptcy petition is signed by managers including Muhammad, Denis Ackah-Yensu, Raymond Groth, Jim Phillips. Axum also filed for chapter 11 protection for Wild Wing Cafe on July 19. Tantum's filing claims it has between $1 million and $10 million in assets and at least $10 million to $50 million in debts. It has between 200 and 999 estimated creditors, including the N.C. Department of Revenue, the Tennessee Department of Revenue and Mississippi State Tax Commission as well as Primax Properties in Charlotte, multiple divisions of Sysco and Gordon Food Service.

Tattooed Chef Inc., a plant-based food producer with properties in Albuquerque, is filing for bankruptcy, with the company citing an inability to turn a profit, the Albuquerque Business First reported. While the Paramount, Calif.-based company did not comment on the details of the extent of employee layoffs either in New Mexico or elsewhere, it said in a statement on June 30 announcing its intention to file for bankruptcy that “the Company has provided notice of intended layoffs to its employees in California and New Mexico.” In addition, the company on June 30 filed a worker adjustment and retraining notification (WARN) with the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions that listed the total number of layoffs at 272, with a layoff date of Aug. 30. Tattooed Chef acquired Albuquerque-based New Mexico Food Distributors Inc. and Karsten Tortilla Factory LLC in a $34.1 million deal in May 2021. The company was awarded $190,424 by the state of New Mexico under the Job Training Incentive Program in 2021, with the money intended to be used for on-the-job or classroom training for newly created positions for businesses either relocating or expanding their presence in New Mexico. The funds were not awarded outright, but instead the company was able to be reimbursed by the State with them once the training was complete, Tattooed Chef never filed for reimbursement, so no funds were disbursed, Bruce Krasnow, public information officer at the New Mexico Economic Development Department, said. Tattooed Chef was backed by Kansas City, Mo.-based UMB Capital, a subsidiary of UMB Bank, who invested $7 million in the company before it went public in 2020.

An entity that is controlled by Charif Souki and behind the ownership of Aspen Valley Ranch declared bankruptcy last week in its latest attempt to stop creditors from foreclosing on the 813-acre property with a gated community in Woody Creek, the Aspen Daily News reported. Bankruptcy also was declared by Strudel Holdings, a Souki entity that owns one-half of Ajax Holdings, in order to put off an auction by creditors to sell its assets, which include the Coldwell Banker Mason Morse real estate firm in Aspen. The filings came amid a dispute between Souki, who lives in Aspen and Houston, and the lenders, who say Souki has defaulted on $90 million in personal loans that have soared over $120 million with interest, according to court records. Souki pledged Aspen Valley Ranch and Ajax Holdings as collateral for the loans that he received last decade. The 25 million shares in the stock of Houston-based Tellurian, a liquified natural gas company Souki co-founded in 2016, also were put up as collateral, as was his luxury yacht. The creditors sold those shares earlier this year at below $2 per share, according to court filings. Allegations in the bankruptcy filings are similar to ones carried out by Souki in the Supreme Court of the State New York, which are that Souki’s debt should be wiped clean because his loans were overcollateralized and the lenders dumped the Tellurian shares at fire-sale prices rather than following a strategic timeline. Souki’s New York suit is now on hold with the bankruptcies on file.

Bankrupt crypto companies FTX Trading Ltd. and Genesis Global Holdco LLC reached an in-principle agreement on resolving a dispute involving their chapter 11 cases, Bloomberg News reported. Collapsed exchange FTX had argued that it was owed as much as $3.9 billion by crypto lender Genesis, a contention that Genesis rejected. The sum was later reduced to up to $2 billion. Their legal representatives said in a Thursday letter to a bankruptcy judge that the two parties’ claims against each other would be settled by the agreement. They plan to file motions to bankruptcy courts for approval of the deal. The letter didn’t provide details about the settlement. The settlement would likely be a relief for many Genesis creditors, who expected the disagreement to delay bankruptcy proceedings and the eventual payout of claims.

A Florida doctor accused of taking kickbacks from Insys Therapeutics to prescribe its fentanyl spray should face a civil trial despite his recent bankruptcy, federal prosecutors are arguing, even as a judge delayed it from going forward, Reuters reported. In a filing Wednesday in Tampa federal court, lawyers for the Middle District of Florida U.S. Attorney's Office said their civil lawsuit against Edward Lubin stems from the government's "police or regulatory power," and so was not automatically paused like most legal claims against a newly bankrupt debtor. They noted that federal appeals courts in other cases have ruled that lawsuits brought by the government under the federal False Claims Act, like the one against Lubin, are examples of police or regulatory power. Lubin had notified the court of his chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier on Wednesday, saying it should halt the case. His lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment. U.S. District Judge Thomas Barber, who is presiding over the case, said in an order on Thursday that he would wait for the bankruptcy court to decide whether the trial can go forward. For now, he put the Aug. 2 trial date on hold.