%1

Citigroup Inc. has settled a lawsuit against Barclays Plc in which it sought to recover more than $141 million for providing foreign exchange services to a unit of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. during the 2008 financial crisis, Reuters reported yesterday. In a letter filed yesterday with the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the banks said that they had reached an agreement in principle to resolve the case. Terms were not disclosed as U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield dismissed the lawsuit without prejudice and gave Citigroup 30 days to refile if warranted. The case related to Citigroup's role in the Continuous Linked Settlement system, which was designed to ensure that foreign exchange trades are completed. Citigroup said that it sought to stop settling trades for Lehman's brokerage unit on Sept. 17, 2008, two days after Lehman filed the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history, because it was incurring large losses. It said that because Barclays was then buying Lehman's U.S. broker-dealer business, the British bank urged it to continue the services, and would cover its losses from Sept. 17 to 19. Citigroup had said Barclays failed to honor this indemnity, causing it to lose $580 million. It later reduced this sum to $90.8 million, and sued for the lowered amount plus interest and legal fees.

Exide Technologies Inc. and its creditors are vying for the right to launch a probe into suspected metal price-fixing, with an eye toward collecting damages if it turns out the battery-maker was victimized, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Suspicions that warehouse owners and the London Metal Exchange conspired to inflate metals prices (and warehouse rents) by stockpiling the commodities in “shadow warehouses” surfaced last year, triggering questions from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Department of Justice as well as a wave of lawsuits. If proven, the claims of anticompetitive behavior could mean money for Exide, a lead-acid battery maker that filed for chapter 11 protection in June 2013. The chapter 11 case is Exide’s second in less than a dozen years, and the company is under pressure to produce a restructuring plan that will win the approval of its creditors and the court. The chance to collect damages due to alleged anticompetitive behavior would be a valuable asset to put on the table in plan negotiations, according to court papers filed by Exide’s unsecured creditors' committee.

Edison Mission Energy will emerge from bankruptcy liability-free under a settlement that gives its parent, Edison International, a net benefit of $200 million, Chief Executive Officer Ted Craver of Edison International said, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The settlement “reduces risk and allows investors to focus more on the core Edison International investment thesis,” Craver said yesterday. The settlement, which needs bankruptcy court approval, was announced today in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Edison Mission, which filed for bankruptcy in December 2012, is seeking to emerge by selling its business to NRG Energy Inc. for $2.64 billion.

Freedom Industries is asking the bankruptcy court to speed up the hearing process and give approval to hire experts and environmental consultants to look into details of the Jan. 9 chemical spill, the Charleston (W.Va.) Daily Mail reported yesterday. Freedom wants experts and consultants to assist in remediation of the site, help preserve evidence and help in the defense against lawsuit allegations. The filing also explained Freedom's insurance policies, which will pay for parts of the remediation process. In Saturday's bankruptcy court filing, Freedom requests the hearing on this motion to take place at 10 a.m. on Friday — the same time the court will hear other bankruptcy motions, including the final hearing on Freedom's financial motion.

Creditors of defunct law firm Dreier LLP — including victims of its founder's investment fraud — may start voting on a payment plan under which they'd recover 13 cents or less for each dollar of the more than $375 million owed, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Stuart M. Bernstein on Thursday authorized Dreier LLP's creditors to begin voting on the payment plan more than five years after law firm founder Marc Dreier was arrested in December 2008 for running a multimillion-dollar investment fraud. Dreier, who pleaded guilty to fraud and other charges and is now serving a 20-year prison sentence, used his law firm's funds to pay investors who purchased $700 million worth of what ultimately turned out to be bogus promissory notes. Creditors will have through April 7 to cast their votes on the plan, court papers show. Judge Bernstein will consider approving the plan at an April 24 hearing.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. settled a $1.2 billion claim with Freddie Mac, freeing up millions of dollars which will be available for distribution to the bank's creditors, Reuters reported yesterday. Under the settlement, Lehman will make a one-time cash payment of $767 million to Freddie Mac, Lehman said in a court filing on Wednesday. The dispute stems from two loans extended to Lehman by Freddie Mac in the months before the bank filed for bankruptcy. Lehman was scheduled to repay the loan on Sept. 15, 2008, the day it filed for the biggest-ever bankruptcy. Lehman had set aside $1.2 billion to cover the claim as a general unsecured claim, but Freddie Mac argued that the claim should get priority status.

Tronox Inc. creditors say Anadarko Petroleum Corp. should pay $20.8 billion for its improper spinoff of the company, far more than what Anadarko has suggested it owes, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. In a Wednesday court filing, a trust representing Tronox creditors said Anadarko owes the "high end" of the range given by a judge, who in December found Anadarko liable for between $5 billion and $14.5 billion in environmental cleanup due to its spinoff of Tronox. That figure was subject to the calculation of how much Anadarko is owed as a creditor in Tronox's bankruptcy.

Federal securities regulators say that public policy concerns are driving their newly launched bid to block Edison Mission Energy's plan to exit bankruptcy via a sale to NRG Energy Inc., Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday filed papers asking a Chicago bankruptcy judge not to approve Edison Mission's chapter 11 reorganization plan, which the judge is slated to take up next week. The SEC says Edison Mission's plan violates bankruptcy laws by proposing to sell the company's operations, free it from its debts and issue new shares in the left-behind company to creditors.

A federal judge yesterday allowed a lawsuit to move forward that seeks to hold former MF Global Holdings Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Jon Corzine and other executives responsible for the brokerage's collapse, Reuters reported yesterday. U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero said that it was reasonable to infer someone "did something wrong to set in motion such an extraordinary chain of events causing such extensive harm to so many people and interests." But the judge also called the litigation "wasteful and rancorous" and chastised the parties for failing to come together to resolve the matter "in a just and efficient way." Judge Marrero also chided lawyers for the customers for filing claims that "fly in the face of clear precedent." He dismissed parts of the lawsuit, including claims pending against accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is objecting to the sale of clinical laboratory operator MedLab, saying it violates regulations that protect patients' privacy, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. The federal agency said that the bankruptcy court shouldn't approve a sale that allows MedLab to provide customer lists as part of the sale of its assets, as is outlined in one potential deal.