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All Saints Catholic Church, the only Catholic church in Buffalo’s Riverside section, will be put up for sale — likely this fall — as part of a plan to market a large school building, parish hall and rectory adjacent to the church, the Buffalo News reported. Parish leaders say they prefer to keep the church and sell just the other buildings, but the plan calls for all the properties to be listed together so as not to discourage potential developers. At the same time, they’re trying to raise money for repairs that will allow groups to use a portion of the school building again and generate some rental income for the parish of about 200 families. The entire school building on Esser Avenue has been off limits for months because the fire alarm system needs about $12,000 in repairs that are slated to begin in mid-August. Those fixes would allow the parish to reopen the first floor of a newer portion of the school for Boy Scout meetings, as a polling site and for other uses. In 2022, All Saints joined with Assumption in Black Rock and Holy Spirit, St. Margaret, St. Mark, and St. Rose of Lima in North Buffalo as one “family of parishes” under a new reorganization plan being pushed by the diocese as it deals with a chapter 11 bankruptcy and a growing shortage of priests.

OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma may proceed with a bankruptcy settlement that protects its Sackler family owners from lawsuits, despite a potential U.S. Supreme Court appeal in the case, a U.S. court ruled yesterday. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit approved Purdue's bankruptcy plan in May, ruling that the company can shield its owners from opioid lawsuits in exchange for a $6 billion contribution to the company's broader bankruptcy settlement. The New York-based court ruled that U.S. bankruptcy law allows legal protections for non-bankrupt parties, like the Sacklers, in extraordinary circumstances. Following the ruling, the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) bankruptcy watchdog asked the court to pause its approval of the bankruptcy plan to allow time for a potential appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The DOJ argued that Purdue should not be allowed to move forward with its restructuring before the Supreme Court had a chance to weigh in on legal protections for non-bankrupt entities, an issue that has divided bankruptcy courts across the U.S. The DOJ said it intended to file a Supreme Court petition by Aug. 28. Purdue had argued that a delay was unwarranted and that there was only a slim chance that the Supreme Court would agree to hear the appeal.

Two more insurance companies have agreed to sign on to a deal that will bring sexual abuse victims’ potential payout in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester’s long-running chapter 11 bankruptcy to more than $126 million, the Rochester Beacon reported. Negotiations involving the diocese, abuse survivors and insurance companies that wrote liability policies for the diocese when the decades-old abuses occurred have delayed a resolution of the case for nearly four years. The liability carriers will ultimately foot most of the final bill. In a July 21 court filing, the diocese notes agreements by the Interstate Insurance Co. to pay $50 million and First Insurance Co. to pay $750,000. The two insurers’ long-awaited capitulation moves the bankruptcy a tantalizing step closer to resolution. But one company, Continental Insurance, known as CNA, is stubbornly refusing to sign on to a settlement that the diocese and all other insurers have now agreed to, a holdout that could augur further delay in survivors’ payout.

Master Lending Group LLC, a local to Savannah, Ga., and private investment group owned by Gregory Hirsch, filed for chapter 7 protection on July 6, WSAV.com reported. The hedge fund has between 100 and 199 creditors, according to a court filing, with the amount of losses to individual investors ranging from $10,000 to $3 million. In the court document, Hirsch lists over $6 million in property owned along Bull Street, West Victory and East River Street, just under $1 million in cash and $95,000 in a checking account, along with a $5 million life insurance policy. Those amounts do not add up to the total owed of $42.996 million. Along with the individual investor losses, the chapter 7 filing lists that Master Lending LLC and Gregory Hirsch are in breach of promissory note loans totaling $16,000,000.

Celsius Network reached settlements that potentially clear a path for the crypto lender to win court approval for its plan to return assets to its customers and conclude its bankruptcy, the Wall Street Journal reported. One of the settlements resolves customer claims over allegations of fraud and misrepresentation by prior Celsius management by bumping up recoveries by 5%. The agreement resolves 30,000 claims seeking $78 billion in compensation, according to court papers filed on Thursday by lawyers for Celsius. The settlements set the stage for a confirmation hearing on Celsius’s reorganization plan in October before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn and for customers to start receiving disbursements of crypto and other assets by the end of the year, according to the court papers. Lawyers for Celsius had argued customers were owed no more money than what they deposited on its platform, but many users filed claims seeking damages over alleged misconduct by the company’s former management, according to the court papers.

Lawyers for FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried rejected prosecutors' claims that his discussions with a New York Times reporter amounted to witness tampering but agreed to accept a gag order, they said in a letter to the judge in the criminal fraud case, Reuters reported. The letter, released on Sunday, came after prosecutors sought to bar Bankman-Fried and allies from making public statements that could interfere with the case. Cryptocurrency exchange FTX, once valued at $32 billion, filed for bankruptcy protection in November as it was unable to repay depositors. Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to fraud. In the letter, Bankman-Fried's attorney confirmed he had spoken with and provided personal documents to the New York Times that included documents written by a former colleague, Caroline Ellison, who has cooperated with the U.S. government. "Bankman-Fried did not violate the protective order in this case, nor did he violate his bail conditions, nor did he violate any law or rule governing his conduct," Bankman-Fried's lawyer Mark Cohen said in the letter.

Sexual abuse survivors in the Diocese of Rochester’s bankruptcy case have reached a settlement with two of the diocese’s insurance companies, WHEC.com reported. The new settlement is $50.75 million. The Diocese filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy back in 2019, after 475 survivors brought suit against it. Friday’s settlement is in addition to a $75.6 million settlement from the Diocese and another insurance company. In total, survivors have won $126.35 million in settlements.

A health clinic in a Montana town plagued by deadly asbestos contamination must pay the government almost $6 million in penalties and damages after it submitted hundreds of false asbestos claims, a judge ruled, the Associated Press reported. The 337 false claims made patients eligible for Medicare and other benefits they shouldn't have received. The federally funded clinic has been at the forefront of the medical response to deadly pollution from mining near Libby, Mont. The judgement against the Center for Asbestos Related Disease clinic comes in a federal case filed by BNSF Railway in 2019 under the False Claims Act, which allows private parties to sue on the government’s behalf. After a seven-person jury agreed last month, U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen said in a July 18 order that he was imposing a stiff penalty to prevent future misconduct. BNSF — which is itself a defendant in hundreds of asbestos-related lawsuits — alleged the center submitted claims on behalf of patients without sufficient confirmation they had asbestos-related disease.