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A disbarred Beverly Hills lawyer pleaded guilty today to a federal criminal charge for scheming to steal more than $500,000 from a client he represented in bankruptcy proceedings and then use part of the money to pay off a $75,000 debt, according to a Department of Justice press release. Alan F. Broidy pleaded guilty to a one-count information charging him with interstate transportation of stolen property. According to his plea agreement, Broidy was hired to represent GRL-Mesa Investments LLC, a Phoenix-based company that filed for chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles in December 2015. In August 2016, the bankruptcy case was resolved and dismissed. Broidy was directed by the court to hold $2,469,926 in a client trust account — funds derived from the sale of assets belonging to GRL-Mesa’s bankruptcy estate. This money was supposed to be distributed to Mesa’s creditors. Although he transferred a total of $1,937,400 of Mesa’s funds to its creditors, including $975 owed to the United States Trustee, Broidy did not return the remaining $512,526 that belonged to Mesa. Instead, he stole it and used it to pay for personal expenses.

Offshore driller Noble Corp may have to defend itself against a $2.7 billion fraudulent transfer lawsuit as it embarks on a chapter 11 case in which it is trying to wipe out $3.4 billion in debt, Reuters reported. The company, which filed for bankruptcy on Friday, has been tied up in litigation surrounding its 2014 spinoff of Paragon Offshore. Paragon creditors, via a litigation trust, sued Noble in 2017 after Paragon completed its own bankruptcy, saying the spinoff was a fraudulent transfer. The Paragon creditors and Noble defendants filed competing motions for partial summary judgment, which were slated for a trial to begin on September 14 in Delaware bankruptcy court. That trial is on hold as a result of Noble's bankruptcy and the automatic stay protecting chapter 11 debtors from litigation. But a lawyer for the Paragon creditors, Jeffrey Zeiger of Kirkland & Ellis, said during Noble's first bankruptcy hearing on Monday that the creditor trust will seek relief from the stay, which would allow the trial to continue, absent a settlement of the creditors' claims. Despite mediation before retired U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross, the two sides have been unable to resolve the claims, Zeiger said during Monday's hearing. Gross has said in court papers that he believes the parties will ultimately settle, but Zeiger and Noble lawyer George Panagakis of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom said that they are preparing to deal with the litigation if no agreement is reached.

Wirecard AG’s insolvency is inflicting pain on some banks who lent to the once-highflying, now-insolvent German fintech, the Wall Street Journal reported. Some of Europe’s largest lenders anticipate recovering as little as 20 percent of the almost $2 billion they are owed. Meanwhile some banks seeking an exit from their portion of the loan are challenged to find buyers at cents on the euro even as Wirecard’s insolvency administrator seeks to sell the company’s assets to pay off debt. Those struggles underscore expectations among some investors, investment bankers and restructuring experts that Wirecard’s lenders and other creditors are unlikely to recoup much of what they are owed. Fraud allegations against Wirecard over its accounting will push potential buyers to comb through the company’s books to evaluate the businesses. But that takes time, raising the risk of Wirecard customers flocking to rivals and further undermining any effort to realize value from asset sales. Wirecard’s debt load includes a €1.75 billion ($2 billion) revolving credit facility. Lloyds Banking Group PLC is one of the 15 lenders to that facility. It is owed around €120 million, yet sold the holding recently at around 18 cents on the euro to distressed debt hedge funds, according to the people and others familiar with the transaction. The move suggests the bank didn’t expect insolvency proceedings to generate much value for stakeholders.