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Lawyers for a California man who says he developed a rare cancer from exposure to asbestos in Johnson & Johnson's talc-based baby powder on Monday urged a jury to order the company to pay heavy punitive damages, calling its conduct negligent and "despicable," Reuters reported. "A reasonably careful corporation would not sell a product that allowed carcinogens to be applied to babies," Joseph Satterley, a lawyer for Emory Hernandez Valadez, said in a closing argument at the end of a six-week trial in Alameda County Superior Court in California. J&J has consistently denied that its now-discontinued talc baby powder contains asbestos or causes cancer. Satterley asked jurors to award Hernandez punitive damages about nine times greater than so-called compensatory damages, which include $3.8 million for his medical costs as well as damages for pain and suffering. Satterley said the pain and suffering damages should be much larger than the medical costs. The U.S. Supreme Court has found that punitive damages should generally be no more than nine times compensatory damages, and that a higher ratio can be reduced on appeal as excessive. J&J's lawyers told the jury Monday that there was no evidence presented at the trial linking Hernandez's cancer to talc, and that the company had always gone out of its way to test its talc and ensure its safety.

Shareholders are suing Mallinckrodt, alleging the struggling pharmaceutical company made false and misleading statements about its financial health that resulted in investor losses, the Wall Street Journal reported. The company and three executives named in the suit received a court summons on Monday ordering them to appear in court within 21 days. Continental General Insurance and Percy Rockdale, plaintiffs who bought Mallinckrodt shares both this year and last year, said in a class-action complaint filed Friday that the company overstated its financial standing. The lawsuit cited Mallinckrodt’s statements about alleged improvements to its liquidity and balance sheet as well as its ability to fulfill obligations under a $1.7 billion opioid-related settlement agreement with state and local governments. Mallinckrodt last month delayed a $200 million payment to the opioid settlement trust. The company also missed interest payments to its bondholders, warning that it may need to file for bankruptcy a second time.

A U.S. judge said yesterday that he would consider dismissing the bankruptcy of a New York Roman Catholic diocese if the church cannot build more support among sexual abuse victims who have sued the church and its parishes, Reuters reported. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn said during a court hearing in Manhattan that he was not eager to be the first judge to kick a Catholic diocese out of bankruptcy. But if the Diocese of Rockville Centre cannot make progress toward a comprehensive settlement of sexual abuse claims, it would be unfair to prevent abuse survivors from resuming their lawsuits in other courts, Judge Glenn said. "The survivors deserve an opportunity to be heard by a jury of their peers," Glenn said. "They've been held off too long." The diocese filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York in October 2020, citing the cost of lawsuits filed by childhood victims of clergy sexual abuse. New York's Child Victims Act, which took effect in August 2020, temporarily enabled victims of child sexual abuse to file lawsuits over decades-old crimes. At least 20 other dioceses have filed for bankruptcy in response to New York's law and similar laws passed in other U.S. states. The diocese has estimated that its bankruptcy plan would provide between $185 million and $200 million in value to abuse survivors.

BlockFi Inc.’s past business with FTX appeared legitimate and gave management no reason to worry about lending to Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto platform before it melted down amid allegations of fraud last year, according to a probe by independent BlockFi directors and its lawyers, Bloomberg News reported. Findings of the seven month investigation were made public Monday in New Jersey bankruptcy court to support a BlockFi settlement that would resolve potential legal claims related to the crypto lenders’ collapse against co-founders Zac Prince and Flori Marquez, as well as other company officers. Management, in exchange, has agreed to assist company lawyers in potentially lucrative actions against firms they blame for BlockFi’s collapse including FTX and failed crypto hedge-fund Three Arrows Capital. BlockFi management will serve as key witnesses in litigation involving FTX and Three Arrows, the outcome of which could result in $1 billion in value for creditors, the crypto lender said. Prince, Marquez and the other executives have also agreed to waive or reduce recoveries of their personal digital assets on BlockFi’s platform and contribute $2.2 million in cash to the company, according to court documents. The settlement must be approved by a judge.

The Florida state financial watchdog brought charges against Bittrex Inc. before the exchange filed for bankruptcy protection in May, a new filing has revealed, CoinGeek.com reported. The Florida Office of Financial Regulation (OFR) recently revealed that it issued a complaint to Bittrex on April 17, the same day the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged the exchange with operating an unregistered securities trading platform. Bittrex would surrender its Florida license two weeks later and, on May 8, filed for bankruptcy protection. Bittrex Inc. operated in the U.S. and was based in Seattle, with Bittrex Global overseeing operations outside the United States. OFR accused Bittrex of failing to segregate customer funds, failing to always maintain a surety bond in the correct amount, and a third charge which was redacted from the public court filings.

Major League Baseball says teams have collected 94% of the money they have been owed by Diamond Sports, the Associated Press reported. The company controls 19 networks under the Bally Sports banner and has been in chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in Texas since March. MLB took over rights to San Diego Padres telecasts on May 31 after a rights payment was missed. “Of the rights fees that have come due, I think we’ve collected 94% of those rights fees so far. And that’s really important,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred told the Baseball Writers’ Association of America on Tuesday. “We have backstopped clubs to make sure that there isn’t some unforeseen alteration in their revenue, and all that’s designed to put clubs in a position to not have disruption when it comes to the most important side of their business, that is putting a good team on the field.” MLB’s sales of Padres broadcasts in San Diego are “well into the five figures,” according to Manfred. “Well before the Diamond bankruptcy, we were kind of on the topic of that part of the media landscape changing,” he said. “Our goal from the beginning has been to make a transition from the current situation into a new model that did two things, number one, increase the availability of our games to fans, and number two, to minimize any financial disruption for clubs.”

Stacks, a three-decade old Burlingame, Calif., breakfast spot with three other locations around the Bay Area, recently filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. But owner and co-founder Geoffrey Swenson said the business will continue to operate as usual, the San Francisco Business Times reported. Per the June 30 filing in the Northern District of California U.S. bankruptcy Court, the restaurant reported liabilities of more than $1.6 million, a majority of the claims disputed from lawsuits and a partially secured lien. Burlingame was the first location for Stacks, which entered 2020 with five locations around the Bay Area but closed its San Francisco spot in Hayes Valley shortly after shutdown orders were issued for the pandemic. Swenson said yesterday that the bankruptcy filing was a result of losing two restaurants to the pandemic — the San Francisco and the Menlo Park Stacks, the latter sold to a franchisor in 2021 — and that the chapter 11 reorganization is a means to “meet our obligations.” “The business won’t be impacted,” Swenson said. “We’re busier than we’ve ever been.” Swenson and friend Tom Duffy opened the original Burlingame Stacks at 361 California Dr. in 1992, offering comfort breakfast food in ample proportions with pancakes as the star of the show. The restaurant grew over the years to five locations by 2020: San Francisco, Menlo Park, Campbell, Redwood City and Burlingame. The Redwood City and Campbell restaurants had been franchised to Jessica “Yari” Nuñez prior to the pandemic, and Nuñez acquired the longtime Menlo Park spot (open since 2002) in 2021. After the longtime San Francisco outpost in Hayes Valley (501 Hayes St.) shuttered after 13 years in mid-2020, it was taken over by the Hat Trick Hospitality Team — behind The Brixton and Rambler — to become New American restaurant and cocktail bar Hazie's.

Audacy is set to begin negotiations with financial creditors to restructure its debt as the large New York-based radio network struggles with declining advertising revenue, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Lawyers representing two different groups of creditors have recently signed nondisclosure agreements to begin confidential discussions about restructuring Audacy’s $1.9 billion of debt. A group of senior lenders has hired law firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, while a group of second lien bondholders has engaged law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. Audacy has been working with restructuring adviser PJT Partners and lawyers from Latham & Watkins. Revenue at Audacy has decreased and net losses have widened due to lower advertising spending, driven by macroeconomic pressures including expectations of lower consumer spending. The company said in May that its current revenue forecasts over the next year indicate it will have difficulty satisfying its debt obligations and that this uncertainty raises doubt over its ability to continue as a going concern.

The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee on Monday asked Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to hand over confidential documents related to the central bank's supervision of failed Silicon Valley Bank, Reuters reported. Committee chair James Comer, in a letter to Powell published on the panel's website, also asked for documents related to Fed Vice Chair Michael Barr's investigation into the supervisory and regulatory failures that contributed to SVB's collapse in March, which triggered weeks of turmoil in the U.S. and global banking industry. Fed staff, the letter said, had so far only turned over already public information, but nothing that was "responsive" to the committee's specific requests as it investigates the SVB failure. "On June 1, 2023, Committee staff met with the Fed Board staff to discuss the Committee’s concerns with the assertion of a blanket privilege over all the documents we requested and ensure the Committee would receive the documents necessary to a full and complete investigation," the letter said. "During that meeting, Fed Board staff agreed to turn over non-public CSI (confidential supervisory information) materials and other responsive documents," it said. Among documents requested were all interviews and notes related to Barr's report.

The owner of the tropical island-themed Margaritaville Resort Times Square in New York has filed for bankruptcy to stop an imminent foreclosure sale, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The legal entity that owns the Times Square hotel, inspired by the namesake Jimmy Buffett song, blamed its financial difficulties partly on fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic since the hotel opened in 2021, according to its bankruptcy filing Sunday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of Manhattan. It owes $309 million to its lenders. The hotel, which has 75 employees, will likely file for bankruptcy itself, according to a court filing. A lender has said that the property is significantly underwater and that the owner doesn’t dispute that it has defaulted on its debt. In late June, the owner sued the lender in a state court, hoping to postpone a Monday foreclosure sale and give it time to hang on and search for debt refinancing. But the business “was unable to obtain a temporary restraining order to stay the auction sale in the state court, triggering the urgency for the bankruptcy filing,” President Sethian Pomerantz said in a sworn declaration filed with the court. The chapter 11 filing put the foreclosure sale on hold, a lawyer for the hotel owner told the Wall Street Journal. The company’s goal is to negotiate with its creditors and refinance its debt.