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Hedge-fund founder Dan Kamensky pleaded guilty in a federal prosecution stemming from his efforts to suppress bidding for a piece of Neiman Marcus Group Ltd. during its chapter 11 bankruptcy last year, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Kamensky pleaded guilty to one count of bankruptcy fraud and will be sentenced in May, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan. The founder of hedge-fund firm Marble Ridge Capital LP, Kamensky was arrested in September after he was caught trying to get rid of his competition to acquire shares in Neiman’s valuable Mytheresa e-commerce business. He previously admitted to Justice Department bankruptcy watchdogs that he had used his pull with investment bank Jefferies LLC, where he was a client, to coerce it to scrap a competing offer for the Mytheresa shares so he could buy them himself for less. “DO NOT SEND IN A BID,” he wrote in a chat message to a Jefferies employee, according to a government inquiry into the matter. Though the bankruptcy-fraud charge carries a maximum five-year prison sentence, prosecutors have agreed to recommend a term of between 12 and 18 months for Kamensky. His sentence is up to the federal judge overseeing his case.

McKinsey & Co. is close to reaching a settlement with state attorneys general over advice it gave to Purdue Pharma LP and other opioid manufacturers that have been targeted by states over their alleged role in fueling the nation’s opioid crisis, the Wall Street Journal reported. The talks come amid the release of court filings in recent months detailing recommendations McKinsey made to Purdue on how to aggressively boost sales of its OxyContin painkiller at a time the country was reeling from opioid addiction and deaths. The potential deal could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, though the exact terms are still being worked out and discussions may not result in an agreement. McKinsey has told the states it is open to a deal that would avert any civil lawsuits attorneys general could file against the consulting firm. States and local governments have been investigating opioid-industry players for several years, filing thousands of lawsuits that pushed Purdue into bankruptcy in 2019 and have resulted in multibillion-dollar settlement talks with other manufacturers and drug distributors.

A top law firm’s raid of a rival’s bankruptcy talent is roiling a corporate feud over the multibillion-dollar cleanup bill for New Jersey’s polluted Passaic River, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The dispute concerns a number of high-profile hires by White & Case LLP, the law firm representing businesses that have sued Argentine energy giant YPF SA over environmental contamination linked to its defunct former subsidiary Maxus Energy Corp. White & Case in October poached rainmaker lawyer Jessica Boelter and other bankruptcy litigators from Sidley Austin LLP, the firm defending YPF against the pollution claims. Potential damages in the lawsuit, viewed as a test of U.S. environmental laws, include an estimated $12 billion tab for cleansing the Passaic of byproducts from the manufacture of Agent Orange, the Vietnam War-era defoliant once produced by a predecessor of Maxus. The dispute took a detour last month when YPF moved to disqualify White & Case, saying that its star hire Boelter knew too much about YPF’s legal strategy, which she helped design.

A bankruptcy trustee recovered and distributed $12 million to thousands of creditors who were victims of a $332 million investment fraud, the South Florida Business Journal reported. Cassel Salpeter and Co. chairman and co-founder James S. Cassel, who was appointed director of 1 Global Capital's estate in bankruptcy court, said that about 3,750 creditors that invested in the company received a payment. To date, Cassel has recovered $124 million on behalf of 1 Global Capital victims, after distributing an initial $112 million payment to investors in 2019. Cassel said that the liquidating trust will continue to pursue actions to generate additional returns to creditors. Hallandale Beach-based 1 Global Capital, which provided loans to small businesses, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2018. Soon after the bankruptcy filing, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil fraud charges against the company and former CEO Carl Ruderman, claiming they fraudulently raised $332 million from investors. According to the SEC lawsuit, 1 Global Capital overstated the value of investors’ accounts and their rate of returns and misappropriated at least $32 million to personally benefit Ruderman. Ruderman agreed to disgorge $32 million in ill-gotten gains and pay a $15 million civil penalty to settle the charges. Many of the scheme's victims were elderly individuals who invested between $50,000 and $100,000, Cassel said.