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A bankruptcy judge has again shielded Johnson & Johnson from jury trials in roughly 40,000 pending talc-related lawsuits, advancing the company’s second attempt to resolve mass cancer claims through the chapter 11 system, though he cautioned J&J faces an “uphill battle” ahead, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Judge Michael Kaplan of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Trenton, N.J., on Thursday extended to the healthcare-products company the same protection against talc-related trials enjoyed by its subsidiary LTL Management LLC, a vehicle created by J&J to carry its talc-related liabilities into chapter 11. The freeze on jury trials will last through mid-June while LTL moves through bankruptcy, Judge Kaplan said. His ruling marks the second time he has frozen jury trials in tort litigation alleging that J&J’s talc products cause cancer, which the company denies. The judge granted similar protections to J&J after LTL’s initial entry into chapter 11 in 2021 to give the company breathing room to negotiate with talc claimants and their lawyers on a settlement plan. A federal appeals court threw out that bankruptcy case this month, but LTL filed for bankruptcy again hours later, this time with a settlement offer supported by some plaintiffs’ law firms. That offer, valued at $8.9 billion, would rank among the largest tort settlements ever if accepted.

The U.S. government reached an agreement with Voyager Digital Ltd. allowing the bankrupt cryptocurrency platform to sell its user accounts to Binance.US, meaning Voyager customers will be able to access their funds again, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Federal authorities have agreed to allow a key part of Voyager’s chapter 11 plan—the transfer of customer accounts to Binance.US—to go ahead while a related government appeal of a narrow provision in Voyager’s reorganization continues, according to court papers filed Wednesday. Various state and federal regulators including the Securities and Exchange Commission opposed the Binance.US deal, which was approved in bankruptcy court only to be put on hold by appellate judges. The government has said a provision in Voyager’s chapter 11 plan could tie regulators’ hands in taking future enforcement actions against the parties involved in distributing its cryptocurrency. Voyager has said the provision is necessary to protect those involved in implementing the court-approved chapter 11 plan.

A former US Secret Service agent who specializes in probing financial cybercrime supported anonymity for creditors in the FTX bankruptcy because of risks from the criminals who stalk the cryptocurrency sector, Bloomberg News reported. Identifying customers of the fallen crypto exchange “imposes a severe and unusual risk of identity theft, asset theft, personal attack, and further online victimization,” Jeremy A. Sheridan, managing director in the blockchain and digital assets practice of FTI Consulting Inc., said in a filing on Thursday. FTI Consulting is the financial adviser for the official committee of unsecured creditors in the five-month-old FTX bankruptcy. Early in the case a judge agreed to keep the names of the 50 biggest unsecured creditors secret. The US Bankruptcy Code normally requires the names be filed in public documents. The U.S. Trustee and several media companies, including Bloomberg News, unsuccessfully fought to have the names of FTX customers made public earlier this year, arguing that their names would be listed if they were creditors in any other bankruptcy case. Naming customers with bigger crypto holdings is like “placing a target on their back and facilitating fraudulent schemes by malefactors,” Sheridan said.

U.S. District Judge Greg Guidry abruptly convened attorneys on a call last week to tell them his charitable giving to the New Orleans’ Roman Catholic archdiocese “has been brought to my attention” and he is now considering recusal from the high-profile bankruptcy he oversees in an appellate role, the Associated Press reported. “Naturally,” Judge Guidry told them, “I will take no further action in this case until this question has been resolved.” AP’s review of campaign-finance records found that Guidry, since being nominated to the federal bench in 2019 by then-President Donald Trump, has given nearly $50,000 to local Catholic charities from leftover contributions he received after serving 10 years as a Louisiana Supreme Court justice. Most of that giving, $36,000 of it, came in the months after the archdiocese sought chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May 2020 amid a crush of sexual abuse lawsuits. That included a $12,000 donation to the archdiocese's Catholic Community Foundation in September 2020 on the same day of a series of filings in the bankruptcy, and a $14,000 donation to the same charity in July of the following year.

More than three years after filing for bankruptcy, the Boy Scouts of America said it has emerged from chapter 11 after an appeals court denied opponents’ request to pause the youth group’s reorganization efforts, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The chapter 11 plan became effective Wednesday, officially ending the Boy Scouts’ bankruptcy case and beginning the process of creating the largest-ever compensation fund for victims of childhood sexual abuse. The bankruptcy plan includes roughly $2.4 billion to resolve more than 82,000 individual claims of sexual abuse, which dogged the Boy Scouts for decades before it filed for chapter 11 protection in 2020. The plan was approved last year by a bankruptcy court, but some non-settling insurers and sex-abuse survivors appealed. On Wednesday, the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals denied their request for a stay, allowing the plan to take effect. The Boy Scouts say the size of the settlement fund could grow, partly through settlements with the insurers that didn’t reach agreements to cap their exposure on policies they sold the youth group. Those non-settling insurers are expected to continue with their appeal.

U.S. veterans and members of the military on Wednesday urged a judge to dismiss 3M's bid to use the bankruptcy of its subsidiary Aearo Technologies to shield itself from nearly 260,000 lawsuits over military-issue earplugs that former users allege were defective and damaged their hearing ability, Reuters reported. 3M and Aearo say the earplug litigation has spiraled out of control. But attorney Adam Silverstein, who represents veterans suing 3M over hearing loss, said at a court hearing in Indianapolis that filing for bankruptcy, like "pulling a fire alarm," should be reserved for urgent threats. Aearo was not in need of emergency rescue, because it had filed for bankruptcy solely as "a strategic alternative to managing 3M's litigation," Silverstein said. "If the firemen determine something is a false alarm, they don't wait around to see if a fire might start later or if there's some other problem they can assist with," he said. "They leave." Aearo, which made the combat arms earplugs, filed for bankruptcy last July, with 3M pledging $1 billion to fund its liabilities stemming from the lawsuits that accuse both Aearo and 3M of misrepresenting the earplugs' effectiveness, leading to hearing damage. The plaintiffs have called that move a bid to escape the Florida federal court where the earplug lawsuits are consolidated in a so-called multidistrict litigation, following a series of unfavorable legal rulings and trial losses. On Tuesday, Aearo attorney Chad Husnick said U.S. law does not require the "house to be on fire" before a company files for bankruptcy. Aearo should be allowed to proactively resolve the growing problem of earplug lawsuits through a bankruptcy settlement, Husnick said.

A Johnson & Johnson subsidiary is again asking a U.S. judge to pause tens of thousands of lawsuits alleging that the company's baby powder and other talc products cause cancer, as it takes another shot at resolving the litigation in bankruptcy after a federal appeals court found its first attempt improper, Reuters reported. At a hearing yesterday in Trenton, N.J., a lawyer for LTL Management argued that the lawsuits, which are already stayed against LTL, should also be stopped against J&J, which has a market value of over $430 billion and has not filed for bankruptcy itself. LTL has said litigation against J&J would imperil its effort to negotiate a comprehensive settlement of all current and future talc claims in its bankruptcy. Two groups of cancer plaintiffs and the U.S. Department of Justice's bankruptcy watchdog have opposed the company's bid for a stay, arguing that it is a fraudulent attempt to evade the earlier court ruling and that the second bankruptcy has "slim to nonexistent prospects" of success. LTL attorney Greg Gordon pushed back on those arguments at the start of the hearing, saying "the likelihood of a successful reorganization is very high." LTL believes it now has support of 70,000 to 80,000 claimants, enough to meet the 75% voting threshold required for a bankruptcy court to approve the settlement and make it binding on all claimants, Gordon said.

FTX’s potential plan to reboot its crypto exchange has attracted interest from Tribe Capital, a venture firm that invested in the platform before FTX collapsed and is now considering a fresh capital injection to jump-start the effort, Bloomberg News reported. Tribe co-founder Arjun Sethi met with FTX’s committee of unsecured creditors in January to discuss the informal proposal. Tribe is considering leading a $250 million fund-raising campaign, anchored by $100 million from itself and its limited partners. Founded in 2018, Tribe was a venture investor in both FTX, the international exchange, and FTX US, the American entity. With more than $1.6 billion under management, the San Francisco-based firm invests in a range of startups, including crypto platform Kraken, payments firm Bolt, and e-commerce vendor Shiprocket. John J. Ray III, FTX’s new chief executive officer, aims to decide in the second quarter whether a restart is feasible, according to a presentation in bankruptcy court. FTX attorney Andrew G. Dietderich said during a hearing last week that the company is still in the early stages of assessing the idea, and that a restart would require a significant amount of cash, which may come from third-party investors.

Celebrities who promoted FTX, including NFL quarterback Tom Brady and comedian Larry David, said an investor lawsuit seeking damages in the wake of the cryptocurrency exchange's collapse should be dismissed, Reuters reported. The proposed class action in Miami alleges that FTX yield-bearing accounts were unregistered securities that were unlawfully sold in the United States, which required the promoters to disclose the compensation they received. The lawsuit seeks damages from FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried alongside several celebrities who promoted FTX including David, the creator of TV shows "Seinfeld" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm." It also seeks damages from a National Basketball Association team that promoted FTX, the Golden State Warriors. The celebrities and the Warriors said in court papers filed on Friday that they had never pitched the accounts at issue in the case and did not cause the investors' losses. They said that under the investors' theory, "actors in any brokerage ad would be liable for selling any security that an individual user later purchased using the brokerage's services." "That's nonsense," the celebrities said.

Minnesota has reached a settlement agreement with e-cigarette manufacturer Juul Labs and its major shareholder Altria Group over ads that allegedly violated state laws by targeting minors, YahooFinance reported. The state’s attorney general, Keith Ellison, announced the settlement on Monday, but held back the terms of the agreement. Ellison said in a press release that those details will be announced “soon.” “One of my goals in bringing this case was to send a message: We will not tolerate youth marketing of nicotine products in Minnesota,” Ellison said in a statement sent to Yahoo Finance. Ellison filed suit against Juul in 2019 — and later added Altria as a defendant — claiming that the pair disregarded consumer protection laws, breached a duty of reasonable care, and created a public nuisance. The settlement comes within days of Juul’s largest multi-state agreement to date to end a string of disputes over its allegedly deceptive ads targeting children. On Wednesday, state attorneys general for California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, and the District of Columbia announced a $462 million settlement with the company over alleged violations of their respective consumer protection laws. Juul did not admit wrongdoing in entering the multi-state settlement.