Although a stock purchase and a loan payoff were one month apart, a district judge in Indiana found a sufficient nexus to invoke the safe harbor and dismiss a fraudulent transfer suit.
The high court’s ruling on the Takings Clause also seems to mean that real estate tax foreclosures can be avoided as constructively fraudulent transfers.
The families of Sandy Hook shooting victims said they had a strong case to reverse payments received by Alex Jones's wife and others in his family to help satisfy $1.5 billion in judgments they won against the bankrupt right-wing conspiracy theorist over his lies about the 2012 elementary school massacre, Reuters reported. Jones has engaged in "financial gymnastics" to hide his assets and avoid paying the judgments, spreading money to friends, family members and shell companies, David Zensky, a lawyer for the families, said during a bankruptcy court hearing in Houston. The families of the children killed by a gunman in Newtown, Conn., have a "very strong case" to claw back certain payments to Jones's family, including a $1 million payment from Jones to his wife, Zensky said. The Sandy Hook families have investigated $62 million that Jones has transferred out of his company, Free Speech Systems (FSS), and they accuse Jones of beginning to shift more money to friends and family members as the defamation cases neared trial. Jones's attorney, Vickie Driver, said that Jones is not opposed to reversing payments if they are proven to be improper, but he would prefer to appoint an independent expert for that work. The families have accused Jones and FSS of profiting off lies about the shooting for years and sued him for defamation. They have won about $1.5 billion in two trials so far. Jones and his company filed for bankruptcy protection in December and July of last year.
The Seventh Circuit explained how preponderance of the evidence became the standard of proof for turnovers and dischargeability when the Bankruptcy Code replaced the Bankruptcy Act.
Damages for a constructively fraudulent transfer were the difference between what the buyer paid and what the business was really worth, based on accurate income and expenses.
