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The former maker of Broyhill, Lane and Thomasville furniture struck a deal to trim more than $340 million in pension liabilities, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. The former Furniture Brands International Inc., which last fall sold its assets to buyout firm KPS Capital Partners LP, on Friday filed papers seeking bankruptcy court approval of a deal that resolves issues with its underfunded pension plan and will allow the company to file a creditor-payment plan. The company, which now goes by FBI Wind Down Inc., sought chapter 11 protection in September to confront the issues surrounding its pension plan, which covers about 19,000 people and is underfunded by more than $270 million.

Dish Network Corp. Chairman Charles Ergen, the largest creditor of bankrupt wireless company LightSquared, is seeking permission to sue Phil Falcone, the investor whose Harbinger Capital fund controls LightSquared, Reuters reported on Friday. In a court filing on Friday, Ergen asked the judge overseeing LightSquared's chapter 11 case for permission to bring a lawsuit alleging Falcone mismanaged the company, focusing on preserving his own investment at the expense of other stakeholders. LightSquared, majority-owned by Harbinger, went bankrupt in 2012, when the Federal Communications Commission revoked its license to operate spectrum out of concern it could interfere with GPS systems. Ergen then acquired about $1 billion of the company's senior loan debt, giving him a controlling stake in LightSquared's capital structure.

Genco Shipping & Trading Ltd. will cut its debt by more than $1 billion by giving control of the company to its lenders in a deal that requires the dry bulk shipping company to file for bankruptcy, Reuters reported on Friday. Lenders backing a $1.06 billion credit facility would convert their debt into about 81.1 percent of company's stock, according to a regulatory filing from Thursday. Investors who hold $125 million of Genco convertible debt would receive 8.4 percent of the company. The remaining equity would be allocated to those investors funding a $100 million rights offering, while management would also get a 1.8 percent stake in the company.

The reorganization plan of Eastman Kodak Co., which became effective in September, created a trust to file lawsuits to generate cash for creditors, the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat & Chronicle reported on Saturday. To kick off the process, the creditors’ trust sent almost 1,000 demand letters in November telling former suppliers they would be sued unless they voluntarily gave back so-called preferences, payments received within 90 days of bankruptcy. The trustee followed with lawsuits in January. Thursday, the trust had the bankruptcy court in Manhattan approve procedures to forestall filings that would otherwise deluge the bankruptcy court with papers in the preference suits. The trust and the defendant will share the mediator’s costs. For suits with less than $25,000 at issue, the shared cost is $1,000. The price rises on a sliding scale until it reached $3,000 for alleged preferences over $500,000.

As part of the investigation into alleged criminal conduct that led to Dewey & LeBoeuf's bankruptcy, the law firm's former finance director quietly pleaded guilty to grand larceny in the second degree last month, according to documents unsealed yesterday, the New York Law Journal reported today. Francis Canellas is one of the seven former Dewey employees whose cases were sealed when criminal charges were announced by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office in early March against Dewey firm leaders. Canellas's plea and cooperation agreement were released except for two redacted paragraphs. In an exhibit attached to his Feb. 13 plea agreement, Canellas discussed how he worked with firm leaders, including former chairman Steven Davis, former executive director Stephen DiCarmine, former CFO Joel Sanders, former controller Thomas Mullikin and other insiders to make misleading statements to banks, investors or others.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. agreed to pay $5.15 billion to settle fraud claims from a 2006 acquisition, making it the largest environmental settlement won by the U.S. government, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The deal extracted a much heavier price than Anadarko had envisioned, but investors rejoiced at the resolution of a liability that could have run as high as $14 billion. The settlement spares Anadarko from further litigation involving Tronox Inc., a chemical maker once owned by a subsidiary of the company, and the U.S. Department of Justice. Tronox and federal prosecutors claimed that Kerr-McGee Corp. spun off its chemicals unit into Tronox just before being acquired by Anadarko. They alleged this move unfairly saddled Tronox with liabilities that ultimately bankrupted it in 2009 and allowed Anadarko to skirt environmental obligations.

The City of Tucson, Ariz., will get $5.5 million in a settlement with W.R. Grace & Co. after a 12 year legal battle, LegalNewsline reported yesterday. Grace & Co. allegedly used asbestos products when fireproofing several city buildings during construction. Grace & Co., a specialty chemicals and materials company employing 6,500 people worldwide, and 61 affiliates voluntarily filed a chapter 11 protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware in April 2001. The cases were consolidated for administration purposes, leaving Grace with the role of operating their businesses and managing their properties as debtors in possession. After 13 years, Grace & Co. emerged from bankruptcy protection in February when its reorganization plan became effective, establishing two independent trusts to compensate asbestos personal injury claimants and cleanup efforts. Tucson will receive the award as its share of the Grace & Co. federal bankruptcy settlement.

Aetna AET won a judicial ruling giving it access to filings made by asbestos claimants in the bankruptcy of gasket maker Garlock Sealing Technologies, opening a new front in the battle between plaintiff lawyers and companies that accuse them of double-dipping and fraud, Forbes.com reported on Friday. Bankruptcy Judge George R. Hodges on Thursday granted the motion of Aetna to examine Rule 2019 statements lawyers have filed in the Garlock bankruptcy. The statements require lawyers to identify clients with claims against the bankrupt company as well as the nature of those claims. Aetna is one of several insurers seeking asbestos claims information to try and recover medical expenses from customers who have been paid for the same costs through litigation. Judge Hodges denied similar requests from Ford, Volkswagen, and other companies that are seeking access to other sealed documents from a trial over Garlock’s asbestos liabilities. The judge deferred that request, saying it is already being considered by a federal court weighing an appeal by Legal Newsline, a publication funded by the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform.

The administrator of MF Global Holdings Ltd.'s bankruptcy plan on Friday sued the auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers for at least $1 billion over its advice on a $6.3 billion European sovereign debt investment that helped fuel the brokerage's rapid demise, Reuters reported on Friday. According to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, PwC committed professional malpractice by offering "flatly erroneous" advice concerning, and approval of, the off-balance-sheet accounting treatment for the debt by MF Global and its then-chief executive, Jon Corzine. The complaint said PwC knew that the investment would add significant risk to MF Global's already weak finances. It said that MF Global would not have taken on the exposure, which allowed it to book immediate revenue, had it received sound advice.

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law will be holding a hearing today at 4 p.m. ET titled "Exploring Chapter 11 Reform: Corporate and Financial Institution Insolvencies; Treatment of Derivatives." ABI members Prof. Michelle Harner, the official reporter for ABI's Commission to Study the Reform of Chapter 11, Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Sontchi (S.D.N.Y.) and Jane Vris of Millstein & Co. (New York) are among the witnesses set to testify at the hearing. For more information, please click here: http://judiciary.house.gov/index.cfm/hearings?ID=94D02F41-1832-4385-B16…