The Creditor Rights Coalition on Friday held an inaugural roundtable discussion titled, "Women in Credit." These experts debated bankruptcy tactics, where we are in the credit cycle, expected areas of activity in 2023, and career highlights. Click here to read the full feature.
Additionally, Rachel Ehrlich Albanese of DLA Piper and Cullen Drescher Speckhart of Cooley LLP took part in a Reuters Q&A titled, "The Gender Gap in Bankruptcy and Restructuring Practice." Albanese and Speckhart reflected on the unique challenges women face in bankruptcy and restructuring practice, and how law firms can work to improve the retention and promotion of female attorneys. Click here to read the full article. (Registration required.)
When it comes to overbroad exculpations and nondebtor releases, a nonseverability clause in a chapter 11 plan won’t invoke equitable mootness to dismiss an appeal from confirmation.
FTX’s bankruptcy lawyers, legal and financial advisors have billed the company more than $19.6 million in fees for their work done in 2022, according to court documents unveiled on Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported. The law firms that billed FTX are Sullivan & Cromwell, Landis Rath & Cobb, and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. Advisory firms Alvarez & Marsal and AlixPartners also billed the company, according to their applications for compensation.
An Agoura Hills, Calif.-based real estate developer has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges for failing to disclose on a bankruptcy petition that he had earned nearly $2.3 million in income and for failing to report almost $6.9 million in income on his tax returns, according to a Justice Department press release. Mark Handel has agreed to plead guilty to a two-count information charging him with making a false statement in bankruptcy and subscribing to a false tax return. Both the information and Handel’s plea agreement were filed today in United States District Court. Handel has agreed to forfeit approximately $3,545,712, which represents the proceeds of the sale of real estate in Alameda County. Handel also has agreed to pay to the IRS approximately $1,450,070 in tax liabilities, which include civil fraud penalties. He is expected to enter a guilty plea in the coming weeks. According to his plea agreement, in April 2015, Handel filed a bankruptcy petition in Los Angeles in which he knowingly made false statements. Under penalty of perjury, Handel stated that he had no income from 2013 until April 2015. In fact, Handel earned approximately $2,263,221 in income from DTMM Construction Inc., his West Los Angeles-based real estate development company. Handel caused DTMM, which, according to court documents, stands for “Don’t Touch My Money,” to be registered in his wife’s name but used DTMM to deposit the profits from his own work as a real estate developer and to pay for his and his family’s living expenses.
