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General Motors Co. again faces the prospect of a potential $1 billion stock payout to address claims stemming from the auto giant’s ignition-switch crisis after a trust for the company’s bankruptcy estate renewed discussions with plaintiffs about a settlement, the Wall Street Journal reported. The trust, tasked with compensating creditors of the “old GM,” is discussing a possible deal that previously fell apart, lawyers said during hearing yesterday in a Manhattan federal bankruptcy court. Old GM is the term often used to describe the assets GM left behind in 2009 as part of its $50 billion government rescue and bankruptcy restructuring. A deal, which isn’t guaranteed, could have GM paying the trust $1 billion in stock to address claims from accident victims and customers seeking recompense for declining vehicle values arising from faulty ignition switches.

The planned sale of the Weinstein Company collapsed again yesterday, when the investor group that had agreed to purchase the embattled studio said that it had called off the deal after receiving “disappointing information,” the New York Times reported. The investor group, led by Maria Contreras-Sweet, who ran the Small Business Administration under President Barack Obama, and the Weinstein Company’s board announced last week that an agreement to buy most of the assets of the near-bankrupt studio had finally been reached. The deal called for the group to pay off the Weinstein Company’s debt, which it believed totaled around $225 million. In return, the group would receive the majority of the studio’s assets, which include “Project Runway” and a 277-film library. But once the buyers began looking deeper into the Weinstein Company’s finances, they discovered that it had more debt than they had been led to believe. Additional liabilities totaling between $55 million and $65 million were discovered, including $27 million in unpaid residuals and profit participation; and $20 million in accounts payable. Read more. 

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The Catholic Diocese of St. Cloud will become the fourth Minnesota Catholic institution to declare bankruptcy following a flood of clergy sex abuse claims, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported. Its announcement reinforced Minnesota’s position as the state with the largest number of bankruptcies related to clergy sex abuse. It follows dioceses in New Ulm and Duluth, as well as the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, which filed for chapter 11 in 2015. The St. Cloud diocese is facing 74 claims of clergy sex abuse. Thirty-one clergy serving 30 parishes are accused of abusing children over the decades.

The Weinstein Co. said that it will file for bankruptcy after the troubled studio founded by Harvey Weinstein ended talks to sell the company outside of chapter 11 to a group led by businesswoman Maria Contreras-Sweet, the Wall Street Journal reported. The decision comes two weeks after New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed a lawsuit against the studio alleging sexual harassment and civil-rights violations. The studio had been close to a deal with Contreras-Sweet’s group before the lawsuit was filed and parties continued to discuss a deal after the legal action was taken. The studio said in an email that it would prepare a bankruptcy filing “in the coming days.” The studio has been searching for a buyer that could keep the company out of bankruptcy as lawsuits against the company have piled up. The proposed deal from Contreras-Sweet’s group was the only known offer that wouldn’t have required the Weinstein Co. to file for chapter 11 protection.

Virginia and Maryland were among dozens of states to reach a $650 million settlement with the U.S subsidiary of a Japanese company that manufactured faulty airbags installed in millions of automobiles worldwide, bags that sprayed deadly shrapnel that killed at least 22 people and injured hundreds more, the Washington Post reported. The agreement was reached with TK Holdings, Inc., the American subsidiary of Takata, as part of a settlement between 44 state governments and Washington, D.C., requiring a $650 million payout by the Japanese firm. Nearly 34 million of the 250 million vehicles on U.S. roads have been part of the largest recall in U.S. history.

Takata Corp’s U.S. unit received court approval for its bankruptcy exit plan, a plaintiffs’ law firm said on Saturday, clearing the way for a $1.6 billion sale of Takata assets and providing compensation for those injured by the company’s deadly air bags, Reuters reported. Takata and its U.S. unit, TK Holdings Inc., filed for bankruptcy last year in the wake of the largest automotive recall in history. The company’s air bags can inflate with too much force and spray metal fragments, and have been linked to hundreds of injuries and at least 22 deaths. The U.S. unit’s reorganization plan will include funds provided by automakers to help compensate those injured by the air bags. On Friday, a lawyer for Takata’s U.S. unit told the bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Delaware, that the U.S. government will complete its review of the planned sale of Takata’s non-air bag businesses by March 26. The non-air bag inflator businesses are being sold to Key Safety Systems, a unit of China’s Ningo Joyson Electric Corp.

The chances Weinstein Co. can avoid a bankruptcy filing are growing slimmer, as legal issues pile up for the movie studio co-founded by Harvey Weinstein, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The New York attorney general filed a lawsuit on Sunday tagging top studio executives with liability for Harvey Weinstein’s alleged harassment of women, which may have derailed a buyout offer led by businesswoman Maria Contreras-Sweet. The Weinstein Co. had been close to a deal with Contreras-Sweet’s group before the lawsuit was filed. Representatives for the attorney general’s office, Contreras-Sweet and Ron Burkle’s The Cos., which is backing the deal, are working to set up a meeting that could salvage the sale, a person familiar with the matter said yesterday. As of Monday, however, Contreras-Sweet had not yet decided whether she would go ahead with efforts to buy the studio, in the wake of the New York lawsuit.

A group of 13 automakers will contribute as much as $130 million to compensate those injured by faulty Takata Corp air bag inflators as part of a deal to resolve the Japanese company’s bankruptcy, Reuters reported. The agreement clears the way for the sale of Takata’s non-inflator business to Key Safety Systems, a unit of China’s Ningo Joyson Electric Corp, for $1.6 billion, helping to ensure a steady supply of car parts for the world’s biggest automakers. Takata and its U.S. unit, TK Holdings Inc., filed for bankruptcy last year in the wake of the world’s largest automotive safety recall, triggered by air bag inflators that can explode with excessive force, unleashing metal shrapnel inside cars and trucks. Attorney Joe Rice of Motley Rice, who represents dozens of personal injury plaintiffs in the bankruptcy, said the deal, which was disclosed in court papers on Saturday, was aimed at keeping Takata operations afloat so it could make replacement inflator kits. Tens of millions of air bags with the inflators have been recalled but not yet replaced.

A federal judge yesterday granted a motion allowing two claims of sexual abuse by an Absarokee, Mont., priest in the 1970s and '80s to proceed to conclusion through the state courts, the Great Falls Tribune reported. The order by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Jim Papas allows two claims to move forward in district court, which was not previously an option after the Great Falls-Billings Diocese filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy last year to move toward a settlement for the 86 people who have filed claims of sexual, physical and emotional abuse. Most claim the abuse took place in their youths at the hands of eastern Montana clergy from 1940s to the 1990s. Attorneys for the victims argued in January that while settlement negotiations are not moving forward, processing two claims at the state court level would provide more insight when working toward a settlement for the remaining 84 victims. The district court case will likely decide whether or not the diocese was negligent in these instances of abuse, as alleged by attorneys for the victims.

Takata Corp.’s U.S. operations, pushed into bankruptcy by the largest automotive recall in U.S. history, settled with two groups representing victims of its faulty air bags, Bloomberg News reported. Two committees for people suing over the air bags have agreed to support a bankruptcy-exit plan that would resolve lawsuits by channeling them into a trust funded in part by the sale of Takata assets. Takata has recalled millions of air bags that had been linked to deaths in the U.S. Defective air bags can explode in car crashes, sending metal shards flying. Japan-based Takata entered a guilty plea last year as part of a $1 billion settlement with the U.S. Justice Department over the air-bag problems. On Tuesday, the company is scheduled to seek final approval of its reorganization plan, which is built on a sale and setting up a trust to handle air-bag claims. The two groups representing the air-bag plaintiffs have agreed to drop their opposition to the plan, according to court documents.