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A federal judge approved a bankruptcy settlement of about $100 million Friday over Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper’s failed plan to build a practice facility for his NFL team in South Carolina, the Associated Press reported. The deal will turn the land and the incomplete steel shell of what was supposed to have been the team’s new headquarters over to the city of Rock Hill. It’s estimated to be worth $20 million. Tepper’s real estate company GT Real Estate Holdings will pay York County, which provided sales tax revenue for road improvements, $21 million, and $60 million will be split among the contractors who worked on the project before it was abandoned earlier this year. All sides agreed to drop their current lawsuits and not file any other claims as part of the deal approved on Friday by Bankruptcy Judge Karen Owens. Tepper, a hedge fund manager who is one of the NFL’s wealthiest owners, and the Panthers announced plans for an $800 million practice facility, team offices, sports medicine complex, hotels and entertainment near Rock Hill in 2019. Both local and South Carolina leaders cheered the investment, offering incentives and relishing getting a piece of the NFL team away from North Carolina and Charlotte, where the team plays its games about 25 miles (40 kilometers) away. But after less than two years, Tepper’s company abruptly stopped work. York County Sheriff Kevin Tolson and Solicitor Kevin Brackett continue to investigate Tepper and his company to see whether public money was misused on the project. York County, which is separate from the sheriff, released a statement after reaching its deal with Tepper that said Tepper and his company “have acted in good faith and that the county “believes that no action of any kind with respect to the county payment is warranted.”

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a sweeping property insurance bill on Friday. How much and when it will work to stabilize the stormy market is another question, the Associated Press reported. One of the key goals of the legislation is to keep the claims process from ending up being settled in courtrooms, a problem that DeSantis said drives up legal costs for insurers. “This bill reins in the incentive to litigate,” DeSantis said before signing the bill in Fort Myers, an area devastated by Hurricane Ian in September. “This is going to make a huge, huge difference.” Florida has struggled to keep the insurance market healthy since 1992 when Hurricane Andrew flattened Homestead, wiped out some insurance carriers and left many remaining companies fearful to write or renew policies in Florida. Risks for carriers have also been growing as climate change increases the strength of hurricanes and the intensity of rainstorms. The bill new law will create a $1 billion reinsurance fund, put disincentives in place to prevent frivolous lawsuits and force some customers to leave a state-created insurer of last resort, Citizens Property insurance, for a private insurer, even if the policy costs more. It will also set more stringent deadlines throughout the claims process to try to insure homeowners don’t face coverage delays.

York County and Rock Hill (N.C.) will have to wait a bit longer in efforts to recover public money given to the failed Carolina Panthers’ $500 million practice facility and headquarters after a federal judge on Dec. 14 delayed the confirmation of bankruptcy proceedings, the Rock Hill Post and Courier reported. GT Real Estate, the development company controlled by the NFL team’s owner David Tepper, had sought the judge’s approval of its plan to pay off debts incurred during construction at the site along Interstate 77, closing out bankruptcy proceedings first filed in June. Tepper’s company also sought approval of separate settlement agreements recently struck with the county and city over the combined $41 million in public funds contributed to the project, intended to cover the cost of roads and other infrastructure. But Bankruptcy Judge Karen Owens raised concerns on the proposal from Tepper’s lawyers on waivers that would bar subcontractors from seeking further repayment from the general contractor and Tepper entities. The judge will not approve the bankruptcy proceedings until Tepper’s companies can present a restructuring plan that is satisfactory, she said in court. Owens and Tepper’s lawyers are scheduled to meet Dec. 15 to discuss a suitable outcome. It is unknown when a final decision from the judge is expected. In the plan Tepper’s lawyers presented to Judge Owens yesterday about $150,000 in funds to subcontractors would go unpaid. The lawyers argued in court that this number was fair because $60 million was being paid to subcontractors in the process of their restructuring. The billionaire hedge fund manager pulled out of the landmark project, which was expected also to include retail, a hotel, offices and medical facilities in addition to the practice facility and team headquarters, more than halfway through construction, having spent $170 million.

Florida lawmakers on Monday began considering ways to shore up the state’s struggling home insurance market in the year’s second special session devoted to the topic, the Associated Press reported. Lawmakers are considering legislation to help keep private insurers solvent by creating a $1 billion reinsurance fund, reducing litigation costs and compelling some customers to leave the state-created insurer of last resort and rejoin the private market. It also would force insurers to respond to claims more promptly and boost state oversight of insurers’ conduct following hurricanes. The Senate and House GOP bills are identical, meaning the measure should sail through the Republican-dominated Legislature. “We will continue to focus our efforts on fair costs and strong protections for consumers while adding reasonable guardrails for insurance companies against frivolous litigation and fraudulent claims that drive up rates for everyone,” Republican Senate President Kathleen Passidomo told lawmakers as she opened the session. The 123-page bill on home insurance was filed late Friday. During the special session, which is expected to last three to five days, lawmakers also will consider property tax relief for Hurricane Ian victims and highway toll reductions for frequent commuters.

WeWork Inc. is trying to turn a profit before its once formidable cash reserves run out, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Federal Reserve’s efforts to fight inflation have made that harder. Recession fears and tech-industry job cuts are weighing on demand for co-working desks. Meanwhile, money-losing companies such as WeWork are squeezed by higher interest rates, which have made debt harder to come by and the promise of future profit less appealing to investors. WeWork, saddled with expensive long-term leases and more than $3 billion of debt, recorded a negative cash flow of around $4.3 billion between July 2020 and September of this year. It has been able to cover its losses partly with loans and equity investments from its biggest backer, SoftBank Group Corp., which to date has sank more than $10 billion into the business. WeWork has burned through nearly all of it. The company has $500 million in undrawn debt commitments from SoftBank and has said it expects to end 2022 with $300 million in cash, less than one-third of what it had at the end of 2021. Its debt contracts allow it to borrow another $500 million. WeWork chief executive Sandeep Mathrani said that the company has enough resources to make it through next year, even if its occupancy drops by 10 percentage points. In November, WeWork said that it would close 40 money-losing U.S. locations, and Mr. Mathrani said he can close more to preserve cash.

Billionaire Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper and his real estate company settled a dispute with York County, S.C., over now-scrapped plans to build a training facility for the National Football League team, Bloomberg News reported. The dispute concerned the transfer of $21.2 million from the county to GT Real Estate Holdings, the Tepper company that was building the facility, and affiliates like Appaloosa Management, Tepper Sports Holding and DT Sports Holding. The county had sued Tepper and his companies over the use of the funds, and local law enforcement officials began a criminal investigation earlier this month. Under the settlement, York County will receive the $21.2 million that that has been in escrow since July. The county considers all matters related to the payment closed and believes that no further action is warranted, it said in a statement announcing the settlement. York County Sheriff Kevin Tolson, whose office launched the criminal probe with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, said in a statement that the investigation remains ongoing. “This agreement was reached with county government and not the Sheriff’s Office and does nothing to affect the current investigation into the possible misuse of public funds,” Tolson said.

The Trump Organization, the family real estate business that made Donald J. Trump a billionaire and propelled him from reality television to the White House, was convicted yesterday of tax fraud and other crimes, the New York Times reported. The conviction on all 17 counts, after more than a day of jury deliberations in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, stemmed from the company’s practice of doling out off-the-books perks to executives: They received luxury apartments, leased Mercedes-Benzes, extra cash at Christmas, even free cable television. They paid taxes on none of it. The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which prosecuted the case, had previously obtained a guilty plea from the scheme’s architect, Allen H. Weisselberg, the company’s longtime chief financial officer. Mr. Weisselberg, one of Mr. Trump’s most loyal lieutenants, testified as the prosecution’s star witness but never implicated the former president. Prosecutors did not charge Mr. Trump, but they invoked him throughout the monthlong trial, telling jurors that he had personally paid for some of the perks and had even approved a crucial aspect of the scheme. The prosecution sounded a drumbeat of damning evidence about a freewheeling culture at his company, revealing that pervasive illegality flourished there for years.