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Seven years after residents of the small, low-income Butler County, Pa., community called the Woodlands became convinced that Rex Energy’s shale drilling had ruined their water wells, the company spent $159,000 to settle their claims, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. State College, Pa.-based Rex Energy Corp. paid the money in April to end lawsuits brought by nine Woodlands families who said they watched as their water turned black or orange or stopped flowing altogether right around the time that Rex was ramping up its drilling and fracking in the area. As with nearly all such settlements, both the amounts and the details of the cases were kept under wraps by strict nondisclosure clauses. But when Rex filed for bankruptcy in May, it had to disclose all of its spending for more than a year preceding the filing. In those documents, Rex revealed that it paid the Woodlands families between $16,250 and $27,125 each.

Harvey Weinstein’s bankrupt movie studio has a settlement that will allow it to close its sale to Lantern Capital Partners at a discounted price, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Lantern will shave $21 million off the originally agreed $310 million price for the business of Weinstein Co., the entertainment company brought down by allegations of sexual assault and harassment against its co-founder. Harvey Weinstein has denied engaging in nonconsensual sex. He pleaded not guilty on Monday to New York state court sex-crime charges after being indicted for predatory sexual assault and a first-degree criminal sex act. The most recent charges are in addition to others, including charges of first- and third-degree rape. Weinstein Co. filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March, shunned in the entertainment industry and facing an onslaught of litigation for allegedly failing to stop, or aiding, Harvey Weinstein. Lantern, a Dallas buyout firm, had demanded a $23 million price cut, provoking an outcry from the official committee of unsecured creditors. A mid-July court fight was scheduled, with junior creditors vowing to challenge the company’s decision to bow to Lantern’s demands.

The Weinstein Co., its buyer and creditors on Friday said that they reached a deal to increase the bankrupt film studio’s sales price by $2 million, to $289 million, to ensure the deal goes through, Reuters reported. Robert Del Genio, a senior managing director of business advisory firm FTI Consulting who is serving as Weinstein Co.’s chief restructuring officer, said in statement that the agreement “clears the path for this sale to close.” The deal follows a bid last month by the Weinstein Co. to cut its sales price to $287 million to settle disputes that broke out after it announced a plan in May to sell its library, television shows and unreleased movies to Lantern Capital Partners for $310 million. Weinstein Co. said that it needed to cut the sales price to close the transaction because it was nearly out of cash and financing deadlines for the sale were approaching fast. Weinstein Co. had won bankruptcy court approval for the $310 million sale, but before it could close disputes broke out over so-called cure amounts the studio would have to pay to exit or transfer certain contracts.

There's been some progress in the bankruptcy of the Diocese of Duluth, now halfway through its third year, but a resolution is not near, MPRNews.com reported. Insurance companies have agreed to kick in $25 million to a fund that would compensate survivors of clergy sexual abuse. But contributions from the diocese and parishes are not yet settled. "We don't have a timeline," said Josh Peck, one of the attorneys representing 125 abuse survivors. "But we are making progress. Our hope is that the archdiocese bankruptcy settlement will be somewhat of a blueprint to get things moving along." Next week, a federal judge will rule on requests to pay $1.1 million to lawyers and other professionals working on the bankruptcy for the Duluth diocese. They've already been granted $2.5 million, court records indicate. Attorneys for abuse victims will get a share of the settlement. The Duluth diocese filed for bankruptcy in December 2015, saying that was the only way it could compensate clergy sex abuse victims and continue the church's mission.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is one step closer to resolving its bankruptcy and paying hundreds of victims of clergy sex abuse, the church said, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. The church filed a reorganization plan yesterday in bankruptcy court that signifies an “important step” in paying out a record $210 million settlement announced last month, said Thomas Abood, chairman of the archdiocese’s reorganization task force. The church said that the plan involves “significant” contributions from insurance policies purchased by the archdiocese and parishes, money from medical and “other insurance excess reserves” and “meaningful cash contributions” from the church and its parishes. The archdiocese funded its cash contributions partly through the sale of properties and plans to continue offering $1 million a year for five years.

Meryl Streep, George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt are among a group of actors who have sought to defend their financial and artistic interests in films distributed or produced by Harvey Weinstein’s former studio as the business is sold in bankruptcy to a private-equity firm, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. More than a dozen objections were filed Monday in the studio’s chapter 11 case in Wilmington, Del., on behalf of actors, writers and producers who are challenging the terms under which Weinstein Co. seeks to transfer film participation agreements to the purchaser, Lantern Capital Partners. Weinstein Co. has classified these agreements as so-called non-executory contracts. The studio has said that it can make this classification because “the failure to perform any remaining obligations under any such contract would not constitute a material breach” of the agreements. Lawyers for the actors say the distinction is important because it could give the studio or Lantern the ability to forgo outstanding participation payments or exploit these films in the future without their clients’ input.

Harvey Weinstein wants jurors to decide whether Chubb Ltd. and other insurers are acting in “bad faith” by refusing to pay to defend him against nearly a dozen lawsuits accusing him of assaulting or sexually harassing women over a period stretching four decades, Bloomberg News reported. Weinstein’s lawyers said in court filings yesterday that they want an eight-day trial in federal court in Manhattan on the issue of insurers’ refusals to pick up the tab for his defense under policies that exclude coverage for “sexual molestation.” A trial date hasn’t been set. Chubb, based in Zurich, filed a countersuit against Weinstein and said it won’t be paying him to defend against the women’s allegations. Karyn Faggello, A U.S.-based spokeswoman for the company, didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment on the insurance dispute sent after normal business hours. Weinstein, whose studio sought bankruptcy protection in the wake of the scandal, was arrested in Manhattan in May on rape charges and released after posting $1 million bail and surrendering his passport. He denied the charges. That same month, his Weinstein Co. was sold to Lantern Entertainment in a deal worth about $437 million.

A major insurance settlement will bring another $15 million to victims of child sexual abuse in the Diocese of Duluth, N.D., the Duluth News Tribune. The settlement with Continental Insurance Company will more than double the pool of funds made available for the 125 claimants in the diocese's bankruptcy, increasing the total to $24.2 million. The agreement, filed on Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, makes Continental the fourth of five insurers to come to terms with the diocese, which filed suit in June 2016 to force coverage of claims. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Kressel is expected to approve the agreement at a June 28 hearing, along with the $250,000 settlement reached with Church Mutual Insurance Company last week.

The court-appointed trustee liquidating Bernard Madoff’s firm yesterday announced a $280 million settlement with one of the swindler’s earliest investors, enabling customers to recoup more than 75 percent of the principal they lost, Reuters reported. The accord with hedge fund manager Ezra Merkin also resolved claims against Ascot Partners LP, a “feeder fund” he ran that sent customers’ money to Madoff, often without their knowledge, as well as his management company Gabriel Capital Corp. Upon receiving court approval, the accord would boost recoveries for former customers of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC to $13.26 billion. That is nearly 76 percent of the $17.5 billion that the trustee Irving Picard said that was wiped out in Madoff’s fraud, which was uncovered in December 2008. A New York state judge appointed a receiver for Ascot the following July. The settlement allows Ascot to file a claim in the Madoff firm’s liquidation. But any payouts must go to its investors, not to Merkin, who also lost money with Madoff.