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The mystique of Jay Peak, the northernmost ski area in Vermont, is intimately bound to the Jay Cloud, a mythical storm cloud that hovers over its rocky summit. The resort, five miles from Quebec, claims to receive more snow — an average of about 350 inches — than any resort east of the American Rockies, and even more than many Western ski areas, including Park City, Utah, and Steamboat Springs, Colo. But another cloud, for years, hung over Jay Peak Resort: Its former owners perpetrated the biggest financial fraud in ski industry history — as well as the biggest fraud in the state of Vermont, the New York Times reported. In 2016, officials from the Securities and Exchange Commission seized the ski resort and accused its owners, the longtime Jay Peak president, Bill Stenger, and a Miami businessman named Ariel Quiros, of defrauding foreign investors of $200 million in a Ponzi-like scheme. Both men landed in jail. The ski area remained open while under federal receivership, emerging from it in the fall 2022 when the area was purchased by the Park City-based Pacific Group Resorts for $76 million.

The shrinking North American box office has forced a 100-year-old movie theater operator into bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. Metropolitan Theatres Corp. — a family-owned business operating 16 theaters in California, Colorado and Utah — said in court papers that the COVID pandemic and its aftermath on the movie industry stressed its liquidity. Last year’s Hollywood strikes are a further blow because fewer film releases are expected through 2025, the company said. Much-larger peer AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. avoided bankruptcy during the height of the pandemic, but Regal Cinemas parent Cineworld Group Plc filed chapter 11 in 2022. Others have either gone bankrupt or closed in recent years, including the former owner of the historic Cinerama Dome in Hollywood. Metropolitan Theatres said in Thursday’s filing that it doesn’t have enough cash to make-up for this year’s poor ticket sales without reducing rent at its remaining locations. President David Corwin, in a sworn statement, also highlighted continued pressure from streaming as North American ticket sales are down roughly 20% this year. Corwin, whose family has owned Metropolitan Theatres since it was founded by Joseph H. Corwin in 1923, said the company intends to use chapter 11 to negotiate rent reductions with landlords and close locations it can no longer afford. The firm pays about $2.6 million annually in rent, a cost he said continues “to be a drain.” Metropolitan Theatres elected to file for subchapter V under chapter 11 protection. The company filed customer motions to continue paying ordinary business expenses, including wages for 240 part-time and 12 full-time employees.

The North Carolina Theatre, Raleigh’s largest professional theatre company producing live musical theatre for the past 40 years, announced on Friday they are filing for chapter 11 protection, WRAL.com reported. They are also suspending the remainder of their 2024 season. This comes after financial challenges the production company faced during and following the pandemic. "With profound sadness, the NCT Board of Directors announces that it must implement a financial restructuring by seeking protection under Chapter 11," said. "The financial restructuring is a necessary step toward rebuilding and revitalizing The North Carolina Theatre for the future." NCT will join multiple prominent live theatres across the country that have either closed or sought bankruptcy protection resulting from external forces during and after the pandemic, including significant increases in production costs, loss of corporate and personal sponsorships, decline in subscription sales and a slow return of audiences to live venues.

Cruise operator Hornblower has filed for bankruptcy, saying its overnight cruise business hasn’t rebounded from the COVID-19 pandemic, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Private-equity firm Strategic Value Partners, an existing Hornblower creditor, has agreed to acquire majority ownership of the business in a proposed debt-for-equity swap that is part of a larger restructuring agreement that requires approval from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston. SVP will also “provide a significant equity investment in the business,” Hornblower said in a statement. Private-equity firm Crestview Partners, which has been majority owner of the company, will keep a minority interest. SVP and Crestview also will provide $121 million in new-money financing. SVP will get four seats on a new five-person board, with Crestview getting the remaining one. Hornblower said the chapter 11 is expected to help cut the company’s debt load by $720 million. The company enters bankruptcy with assets of up to $1 billion, and liabilities of roughly $1.2 billion. Its debt load rose from $630 million in 2019 as the business tried to maintain liquidity during the pandemic.

Los Angeles Clippers point guard Russell Westbrook joined the group of investors who took over a sprawling Arizona youth-sports facility that hammered bondholders with losses when it collapsed into bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. Westbrook, a nine-time National Basketball League all-star, will also lead the facility’s basketball programming and community outreach efforts. The efforts to revive the complex may help boost the recoveries for bondholders, who were virtually wiped out after it filed for bankruptcy last year but retain a small equity stake in the business. Legacy Park, financed with $280 million of bonds issued through the Arizona Industrial Development Authority in 2020 and 2021, was unable to pay its debts after the pandemic upended the sports industry and usage of the facility fell far short of expectations. A firm founded by Chad Brownstein, a Los Angeles-based investor and a former vice chairman of Banc of California, purchased Legacy Park for approximately $26 million at the end of 2023. The purchase provided bondholders with $2.4 million in cash and an 11% equity stake in the new ownership entity. The new owners have since rebranded the facility as Arizona Athletic Grounds.

The slot machine operator formerly known as Lucky Bucks is suing members of its former management and their affiliates, seeking the return of approximately $200 million and accusing them of defrauding the company, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Now known as Arc Gaming and Technologies, Georgia-based Lucky Bucks emerged from bankruptcy in October. The company’s new management filed a lawsuit in state court on Tuesday under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act that named nine former high-ranking employees and one contractor as well as a dozen associated entities. The lawsuit alleged Lucky Bucks founder and former owner Anil Damani led a scheme to loot the company. Damani was barred from the company’s operations by a state regulator in June 2020, the lawsuit said. Damani and his lieutenants had Lucky Bucks and its affiliated entities borrow hundreds of millions of dollars from lenders and distributed the proceeds among themselves, the lawsuit said. The mounting debt ultimately pushed the company to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last June, the lawsuit said. Lucky Bucks covered about 345 locations throughout Georgia with about 2,300 slot machines when it filed for bankruptcy. It blamed a sharp decline in revenue in 2022 caused by challenges such as increased local competition and regulatory enforcement. Lucky Bucks handed itself to its lenders in exchange for reducing its debt by more than $500 million under the company’s chapter 11 plan, which was approved in July.

A bankrupt Arizona youth-sports complex was sold in a transaction that will virtually wipe out bondholders, capping a collapse that marks one of the biggest municipal-debt defaults since the pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. The project was financed with $280 million of bonds issued through the Arizona Industrial Development Authority in 2020 and 2021, when still rock-bottom interest rates were fueling demand for high-yield debt. But the sprawling sports-field venue outside of Phoenix, known as Legacy Park, faltered as the pandemic upended the sports industry and interest in the facility proved lackluster. It subsequently defaulted on the debt and filed for bankruptcy in May. The saga highlighted the risk carried by bonds that are issued by government agencies on behalf of speculative businesses. Because the agencies aren’t on the hook if the ventures fail, they’re far more default-prone than typical municipal bonds backed by state and local tax revenues. As part of the bankruptcy, an affiliate of Rocky Mountain Resources on Thursday closed on the approximately $26 million purchase of the facility, a set of fields and courts for soccer, football, baseball, basketball and other sports. Most of the proceeds are going to building contractors for unpaid work. Bondholders will get $2.4 million in cash and an 11% equity stake in the new ownership entity.

The ownership entity for the Gastonia Honey Hunters baseball team has filed for bankruptcy, the Charlotte Business Journal reported. On Dec. 1, NC Gas House Gang LLC, which is led by Brandon Bellamy, filed for chapter 11 reorganization in Maryland bankruptcy court. Court filings show the entity's total liabilities are nearly $4.1 million. The chapter 11 filing comes after the team's financial woes surfaced in recent months. Gastonia sued NC Gas House Gang last month to end its agreement with the Honey Hunters for the use of the city-owned CaroMont Health Park. The Honey Hunters also have been dropped by the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. Creditors in the case claim they are owed money for a range of expenses including taxes, payroll, league expenses and more. Each of the 20 largest creditors in the case has claims listed as disputed, court records show. NC Gas House Gang's list of creditors includes the N.C. Department of Revenue, which has a claim of $140,000 for taxes owed. The Department of the Treasury/IRS is also listed as a creditor with a claim for taxes totaling $126,402.72.

The office of Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell on Monday filed a petition objecting to the proposed terms of the chapter 11 voluntary bankruptcy of Vantage Travel, the Boston-based international travel company that went out of business last month, the Boston Globe reported. In a 15-page petition filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Boston, Campbell joined with the attorney general of New York in saying the proposed terms of liquidation of Vantage’s paltry remaining assets doesn’t do enough for consumers. Thousands of Vantage customers are owed a total of more than $100 million in refunds for trips the company booked but then postponed or canceled. The attorneys general in New York and Pennsylvania earlier this year sued not only Vantage on behalf of customers in their state, but also Vantage’s founder and longtime owner Hank Lewis, who may have personal assets that could be subject to the proceedings. The suits accused Vantage and Lewis of “persistent fraudulent conduct” and “deceptive and unfair business practices” in the handling of customer deposits. In Monday’s filing, Campbell’s office said the bankruptcy proceedings unfairly treats customers as “general unsecured” creditors, when they should be treated as priority creditors for at least the first $3,350 owed to them. It also says future travel credits offered to customers “are really just coupons” which aren’t appropriate for settling claims.