International Insolvency

Digital Assets Are Coming to a Bankruptcy Near You

This session will introduce participants to the very hiogh likelihood that digital assets could be a part of a bankruptcy estate given the rapid growth in the use of digital assets to transact business and in the number of people in the United States that own digital assets. Participants will be made aware of the resources, tools, and professional services available to locate, track, quantify, value and recover digital assets for the bankruptcy estate. 1. Participants will gain a working understanding of blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies and other digital assets and their rapid adoption by individuals and businesses.
2. Participants will learn to identify signs that a party may possess digital assets and will be familiar with the resources available to aid in discovering and identifying digital asset ownership.
3. Participants will learn about the techniques and tools available to trace and recover digital asset transactions.
4. Participants will learn the basic issues and challenges in valuing digital assets. Creditor Suggested Speakers Marc Schwartz Mschwartz@schwartzassociates.us Schwartz Associates, LLC

ABI International Committee Leadership Updates

Meet the new Membership Relations Director, Charles Phiri

Charles Phiri is an international restructuring expert with more than 15 years in international and cross-border Insolvencies. He is a founder of CP ADVISERS (PTY) LTD., a Johannesburg, South Africa-based company that is involved in corporate restructuring, cross-border insolvency, business advisory, business turnarounds, business rescue and tax services.

A Tale of Sovereign Restructurings: Venezuela and the CITGO Saga

Discussion on the developments of Venezuela's indefinitely postponed external debt restructuring process and the individual execution efforts over the country’s most valuable assets in the US—CITGO’s network of downstream assets—in the context of the Crystallex litigation in Delaware. The session would highlight the tension between “first come / first served” principles guiding the current stream of individual enforcement / execution, and the creditor coordination features of a pure insolvency proceeding. The session will provide clarity on the status of the ongoing melee of court cases going after Venezuela's assets abroad, in the zoom-out context of the prospects for a broad, all-encompassing, debt restructuring process Creditor Suggested Speakers Roland Pettersson rpettersson@dra.com.ve D'Empaire

Co-Chair’s Corner

As your co-chairs, we are very excited to welcome new members to the committee and also look forward to connecting with long-time committee members. Thanks to those who have contributed articles to this newsletter (and to Simon Eickmann and Olya Antle for acting as editors). Special thanks to Evelyn Meltzer for her service as co-chair of the International Committee over the past two years, and a warm welcome to Ken Kraft as the incoming co-chair.

Dance on the Volcano: Steering a German Corporation Through Crisis

In cross-border restructuring cases, frequently there is a U.S. or U.K. parent company and a German subsidiary. In a crisis, the managing director of the German entity often has a hard time explaining to the parent company what the duties are under German law if there is a crisis. From a U.S./U.K. perspective, the managing directors seem to be “wetting their pants” for no reason. This article wants to show that the dangers are all too real. It is also meant to raise awareness about these issues for managing directors of German corporations who have no German background.

Instrumental Use of Legal M&A Procedures to Avoid Liability by Debtors in Poland

This article deals with the controversial practice of a Polish debtor being a capital company entering a multi-million M&A procedure by dividing assets and transferring part of the assets to a new shell company, in which the ownership structure was created on the model of the old company. We will assess this practice from the perspective of debtors withdrawing assets from the company by dividing it while simultaneously using a speculative accounting method, the adjusted net assets method, in order to understate the value of the transferred assets.