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GT Advanced Technologies and its former CEO have settled allegations that they misled investors about its performance of a contract to supply Apple with sapphire glass for iPhones, CFO.com reported. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said GT knew by late April 2014 that it had failed to meet quantity, quality, and delivery standards under the contract, resulting in Apple withholding the final $139 million installment payment and giving it the right to accelerate repayment of the $306 million previously advanced to GT. But in August 2014, CEO Thomas Gutierrez told analysts in an earnings call that GT expected to receive the final payment by the end of October 2014. Weeks later, the company filed for chapter 11 protection. The contract had been a major coup for GT, representing what the SEC called a game-changing event that was “material to GT’s revenue and reported liabilities and how its stock was valued.” As part of a settlement of civil securities fraud charges, Gutierrez agreed to pay $140,000 in civil penalties, disgorgement and prejudgment interest.

Former Billionaire Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications Ltd. will fall back into bankruptcy as an appeals court allowed the beleaguered company’s request to enter the process in an attempt to sell assets, Bloomberg News reported. The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal allowed RCom to withdraw its appeal against insolvency proceedings initiated last year and lifted interim orders that temporarily halted the bankruptcy case. The moratorium on recovery of dues from RCom will continue. Yesterday’s order allowing RCom to be sent back to bankruptcy court is in accordance with the company’s plans, disclosed to the stock exchanges in February, to seek to sell its telecommunications assets and airwave licenses through the insolvency process. Anil Ambani’s older sibling and Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. had earlier offered to purchase RCom’s assets in a 173 billion rupee ($2.5 billion) deal, which would have helped partly pay off lenders. The deal fell through after encountering regulatory hurdles.

Bankruptcy Judge Robert D. Drain has issued a temporary restraining order against Charter Communications and its subsidiary Spectrum, saying the cable giant can not use scare tactics to woo customers of Windstream, which filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in late February, the Lexington (Ky.) Herald Leader reported. Judge Drain issued the order on Tuesday to stop the company from targeting Windstream customers in several states, including Kentucky, with advertisements that imply Windstream will go out of business. The advertisements sent by Charter include the phrases “Windstream’s future is unknown, but Spectrum is here to stay” and “Windstream customers, don’t risk losing your TV and internet service.” Lawyers for Windstream said the company’s chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York did not mean the company will go out of business. “Despite this reality, Charter commenced a scare-tactic campaign to mislead, deceive and confuse consumers,” Windstream’s lawyers argued in court documents. “Charter disseminated false advertisements directly targeting Windstream’s strongest customer base in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio, Nebraska and North Carolina.”

Sprint Corp. has touted adding new wireless connections for six straight quarters. What it didn’t say until now is that many of those gains were free lines or existing customers that switched services, the Wall Street Journal reported. With its proposed merger with T-Mobile US Inc. under pressure, the wireless carrier told regulators this week that its performance isn’t as strong as it appears and it will struggle to operate as a stand-alone company. The recent gains in so-called postpaid connections — a closely watched measure of monthly accounts not paid in advance — were driven by free lines given to existing Sprint customers, the company disclosed in a regulatory filing dated Monday. The tally also includes tablet connections and customers switching their phones from Sprint’s prepaid services.

Communications software company Avaya Holdings Corp. is preparing to run a sale process for the company following unsolicited interest from potential buyers, Bloomberg News reported. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Avaya is working with an investment bank to run an auction after receiving inquiries from private equity and other firms. Potential bidders are understood to include private equity firms Apollo Global Management LLC, Permira Holdings and Searchlight Capital Partners. Bids are expected at the end of April and the firms may look to make joint offers. Avaya, which also provides desktop equipment and services, exited bankruptcy protection in December 2017 and began trading publicly, almost a year after being placed in chapter 11 by its private equity owners TPG and Silver Lake. The two private equity firms had taken the company private in 2007 in a deal valued at more than $8 billion.

U.S. radio company iHeartMedia Inc. today filed for an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission to list its Class ‘A’ common shares, as it nears bankruptcy exit, Reuters reported. The company did not disclose the number of shares it was offering, or set a price range, but said it will have two classes of shares. It just set a placeholder amount of $100 million to indicate the size of the IPO, although that can change. Last March, the company collapsed into bankruptcy after it took a debt in 2008 to finance a nearly $18 billion buyout of Clear Channel Communications Inc., the world’s largest billboard company. In January, iHeartMedia said that its reorganization plan, which includes separation from Clear Channel, was confirmed by the bankruptcy court. It added it will emerge from chapter 11 through a series of transactions, debt raising, and issuance of new class A and B shares. The company expects to use the net proceeds from its IPO to pay off its debt.

The founder and former chief executive of Jumio Inc. will pay $17.4 million to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charges that he defrauded investors in the mobile payments and identity verification start-up before it went bankrupt, Reuters reported. Daniel Mattes was accused of overstating the Palo Alto, California-based company’s revenue more than tenfold, making $14.6 million by selling his shares from April 2014 to February 2015, hiding the sales from Jumio directors, and falsely telling Jumio lawyers that the directors approved the sales. Mattes also told at least one investor he was not selling his shares because there was “lots of great stuff coming up” at the privately held company and “he’d be stupid to sell at this point,” the SEC said. The SEC said Mattes agreed to disgorge $16.76 million including interest and pay a $640,000 civil penalty. Former Chief Financial Officer Chad Starkey will pay $421,000 to settle SEC charges related to Jumio’s financials and Mattes’ stock sales. Neither Mattes nor Starkey admitted or denied wrongdoing. Jumio filed for chapter 11 protection in March 2016, after restating its financials the prior September, and was bought by the venture capital company Centana Growth Partners. Airbnb, Coinbase and WeWork are among Jumio’s current clients.