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Cayman Islands-based Caledonian Bank Ltd. filed for bankruptcy in New York, saying that a federal court’s freeze on its U.S. assets triggered a run on the bank by customers, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued the bank Feb. 6 over claims that it profited from stock sales of invalidly registered shell companies. The SEC won a court order the same day temporarily freezing the bank’s accounts at Northern Trust International Banking Corp. and Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC. A subsequent waiver of the freeze didn’t calm customers who made “a substantially larger number of withdrawal requests than expected,” Caledonian said in court papers filed yesterday in bankruptcy court.

A stalemate in the bitter dispute over Argentina’s bonds looks set to drag on, even after a ruling on Friday in an English court gave one side a small victory, the New York Times DealBook blog reported today. A New York federal judge has for months blocked Argentina from making payments on most of the bonds that is has issued in foreign markets, greatly frustrating investors who hold the bonds. Some of those bonds were issued under English law, which prompted investors who hold the debt to pursue their case at the England and Wales High Court, Chancery Division, in London. Judge David Richards, in his ruling, agreed with the investors’ assertion that 225 million euros ($257 million) set aside to pay the bonds is governed by English law. But the judge did not rule that the bank that handles the bond payments was free to pass the money to the bondholders.

Argentina Economy Minister Axel Kicillof said that the country won’t meet the demands of a group of holdouts from its 2001 default that won a New York court ruling ordering the South American nation to pay them in full, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The group of litigants led by billionaire Paul Singer’s Elliott Management are “obstinate” and only offered Argentina a 15 percent discount on the $1.6 billion a New York-based judge ruled they are owed, Kicillof said yesterday. Settling at those terms would trigger further demands from other holdouts, meaning Argentina could have to pay as much as $20 billion.

Spyker was forced into bankruptcy late last year by a Dutch court after it was determined the struggling sports car brand, already behind in its payments, wouldn’t be able to pay back creditors, MotorAuthority.com reported today. Fast forward to today and Spyker is no longer in bankruptcy thanks to a bridging loan that will keep the company going for the time being. The bridging loan provided a solid foundation for Spyker in lodging a successful appeal to have the bankruptcy ruling overturned yesterday in court. The automaker isn’t quite out of the woods yet, as it still is operating under a “temporary moratorium of payment” which is similar to chapter 11 protection in the U.S.

Iron ore and coal miner Cliffs Natural Resources has become the third major U.S. company in the past six months to seek creditor protection for its Canadian arm to try to isolate losses and protect shareholders, Reuters reported yesterday. The mining company said that it had commenced restructuring proceedings yesterday in Montreal. The move mirrors the route taken by U.S. Steel, which sought creditor protection for its money-losing Canadian operations in September, and by U.S. discount retailer Target Corp., which announced this month it was abandoning its Canadian expansion. The long-anticipated move by Cliffs will help insulate the publicly listed U.S. parent company from the vast majority of the $650 million to $700 million in closure costs tied to its mothballed assets in Canada.

AT&T Inc. said that it will buy bankrupt NII Holdings Inc's wireless business in Mexico for $1.875 billion, less outstanding net debt, Reuters reported today. NII Holdings, the parent of Nextel operators in Latin America, filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. in September after struggling with $5.8 billion in debt and fierce competition in Brazil and Mexico. AT&T plans to combine Nextel Mexico with Iusacell, which the company acquired in November for $1.7 billion. While Nextel Mexico has about 3 million subscribers, Iusacell, Mexico's third-largest wireless operator, has over 8 million subscribers.