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Caesars Entertainment Corp. on Friday cited "substantial doubt" about the ability of the casino company's main operating unit to survive past next year without restructuring its debt, possibly through chapter 11 bankruptcy, Reuters reported on Friday. In a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the company said that its Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. unit currently has enough liquidity to survive, but would need additional funding by the fourth quarter of 2015 "absent a refinancing, amendment, private restructuring, or a reorganization under chapter 11." Earlier this week Bloomberg News reported that Caesars was nearing a deal with Elliott Management Corp. and Pacific Investment Management Co., investment funds that own a large amount of the gaming company's senior debt, to back a plan to put the operating unit into bankruptcy in January.

A long-secret trove of court filings that bankrupt gasket maker Garlock Sealing Technologies says illustrates a pattern of fraud in asbestos litigation is expected to be opened to public view this week, possibly as soon as today, Forbes.com reported on Friday. The files, Garlock says, will show how plaintiff lawyers withheld evidence their clients were exposed to multiple asbestos products in order to extract higher settlements and court verdicts from Garlock. In one case that generated a $37 million verdict in California, Garlock says, a lawyer with prominent Dallas asbestos firm Waters & Kraus flatly denied exposure to dangerous insulation that his client had already admitted, under penalty of perjury, in another proceeding. The records in racketeering lawsuits Garlock filed against several asbestos law firms are to be unsealed after a fierce battle by plaintiff lawyers to keep them secret. In January, Bankruptcy Judge George Hodges in Charlotte, North Carolina slashed Garlock’s estimated liability for asbestos exposure from $1.4 billion to $125 million after determining that the higher estimates were based upon court cases “infected by the manipulation of exposure evidence by plaintiffs and their lawyers.”

The bankrupt company that leaked a coal processing chemical into Charleston, W.V.’s Elk River in January could reduce the amount of contaminated material it needs to clean from its polluted storage site, the Associated Press reported today. Regulators with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection revealed an agreement in which Freedom Industries could enter a voluntary toxic cleanup program. Previous agreements required Freedom to remove all contaminated soil and groundwater from the polluted site. The new agreement leaves that option on the table, but also allows Freedom to apply for entry into WVDEP’s Land Restoration Voluntary Remediation Program. In bankruptcy filings, company officials have said the remediation program will be less expensive, lessening its burden for cleaning the site.

Three U.S. units of OW Bunker A/S, the Danish shipping-fuel supplier that went from a $1 billion valuation after its initial public offering in March to bankruptcy last week, sought creditor protection in Connecticut, Bloomberg News reported today. The subsidiaries filed chapter 11 petitions yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Bridgeport, Conn., listing assets of as much as $50 million against debt of as much as $100 million. The parent filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 7 in Denmark, blaming a $125 million internal fraud and risk management failures. OW Bunker, which eight months ago had Denmark’s second-biggest IPO since 2010, stunned investors after saying it would report to police two senior executives at its Singapore unit for alleged fraud. The Noerresundby-based company said it lost another $150 million on bad risk management.

One of the largest recycling companies in the Southeast, Memphis-based Recycle Solutions Inc., has filed for chapter 11 protection, the Memphis Business Journal reported today. Recycle Solutions, launched in 2001, reported debts of nearly $6.4 million and assets of more than $11.5 million in its voluntary petition filed on Nov. 4 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The filing comes after the company, hard hit by the recession, faces a $300,000 civil penalty by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality. On top of that, the company has a claim for an "unknown" amount against the town of Villa Rica, Georgia, where a dispute with the town has halted its operations.

Renault Winery Resort and Golf, the sprawling vineyard-golf resort-restaurant that straddles Egg Harbor City and Galloway Township, N.J., filed for chapter 11 protection yesterday, the Press of Atlantic City reported. Chief Operating Officer Dennis Del Vecchio said that the resort will remain open while it finds a stable financial footing in bankruptcy. The resort had been scheduled by Renault’s main creditor and mortgagee, OceanFirst Bank, for a sheriff’s sale auction in October that was adjourned until yesterday. The sale was canceled on account of the bankruptcy. Early this year the resort’s management said a New Jersey-based buyer had been found for the property, which was expanded under owner Joseph Milza, who bought the winery in 1977.
The 50-room Tuscany House hotel was added in 2001 and the 18-hole Vineyard Golf course in 2004.

Raleigh, N.C.-based surgical device developer Baxano Surgical filed for chapter 11 protection and will sell its product lines through a court-supervised auction process, the Triangle Business Journal reported today. Founded in 2000, Baxano designs and markets minimally invasive products to treat degenerative conditions of the spine affecting the lumbar region. Any sale of Baxano Surgical's products in connection with the bankruptcy case will be subject to bankruptcy court approval, and could be subject to antitrust approval.
Stevens & Lee. P.C. is serving as legal advisors, Houlihan Lokey is serving as investment banker and Tamarack Associates is serving as restructuring advisor to Baxano Surgical.

Trump Entertainment Resorts said yesterday that it will close the Taj Mahal on Dec. 12 if its main union doesn't drop an appeal of a court-ordered savings package, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. The union is appealing a bankruptcy court order that terminated the union contract, canceling health insurance and pension coverage. If the appeal isn't withdrawn by the end of the month, the casino said that it will close and 3,000 jobs will be lost.

The private equity owners of Hostess Brands LLC are planning to put the maker of Twinkies and Ding Dongs up for sale in early 2015, potentially valuing it at more than $1.7 billion, including debt, Reuters reported today. Apollo Global Management and C. Dean Metropoulos, which bought Hostess Brands out of bankruptcy for $410 million in 2013, have received inquiries from some potential buyers about selling the cake business. Hostess Brands is also having conversations with investment banks Rothschild, Credit Suisse Group AG and Perella Weinberg Partners about advisory roles they are likely to have in a potential sale. Hostess Brands currently has annual earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of around $170 million.

Kodak earlier this month filed a final tally of costs for its chapter 11 bankruptcy, as well as a motion asking the final closing of the case, the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle. That $245.2 million total is $2.1 million more than the $243.1 million worth of bills presented to the court in November 2013. Kodak semi-officially ended its bankruptcy in September 2013 when its reorganization plan took effect. That moment saw the company selling off its Personalized Imaging and Digital Imaging businesses to a British pension fund, cancel out all its existing stock, and issue new shares to an array of parties holding IOUs, from the financiers who helped pay for Kodak's bankruptcy to the legions of creditors left with unpaid bills when the company filed for protection. Since then, the Kodak General Unsecured Creditors Trust has been suing numerous firms that did business with Kodak before the bankruptcy, seeking to claw back some of the money Kodak spent in those pre-bankruptcy weeks to then divide it up among various unsecured creditors. The court also has continued to rule on cases where Kodak objected to some of the 7,000 claims and requests for payment that had been filed against it. And during all this time, Kodak has been paying out what it had been ordered to pay as part of its reorganization plan. According to the motion, Kodak has paid out some stock and stock warrants to holders of unsecured claims, and expects to do one final payout of yet more.