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The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating a Los Angeles money manager over accusations of improper trading practices, the New York Times DealBook blog reported yesterday. The news of the investigation of Peter J. Eichler Jr., the money manager, came as his firm, Aletheia Research and Management, filed for chapter 11 protection on Sunday after a wave of client withdrawals amid weak performance and regulatory issues. Aletheia, which at its peak managed about $8 billion, has drawn attention for its role in a number of shareholder fights, including a prominent battle with Barnes & Noble that it waged alongside the billionaire investor Ronald W. Burkle. The firm primarily manages stock portfolios for pension funds, foundations and wealthy families. Its strong investment performance -- Aletheia's flagship growth strategy has substantially outperformed the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index over the lpast decade -- has attracted marquee clients including Michigan's state pension fund and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, Mo. The brokerage units of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have also invested clients' money in Aletheia's funds.

Bondholders who have gone unpaid by struggling Ampal-American Israel Corp. have turned to a judge for help in taking control of the company's stalled bankruptcy case, which they said is unfairly protecting Israeli billionaire Yosef A. Maiman from losing his controlling ownership in the energy and transportation holding company, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported today. The unsecured creditors' committee, most of whom are bondholders, wants Bankruptcy Judge Stuart M. Bernstein to let the committee's attorneys put together a plan to get the company out of chapter 11 bankruptcy protection---a plan that they say company executives have failed to make progress on since the case was filed on Aug. 29.

Bankrupt AMR Corp., parent of American Airlines, has agreed with its pilots' union on language for a new labor deal to be voted on by union members, Reuters reported on Friday. AMR has been in talks with the Allied Pilots Association (APA) as it tries to reduce labor costs and emerge from bankruptcy. The APA's board on Friday presented a "counter-proposal" to offers from AMR management, which the company accepted. The contract must be ratified by the union's roughly 7,500 pilots, who rejected a previous labor proposal in August. AMR has already reached new collective bargaining agreements with unions representing its flight attendants and ground workers.

Hostess Brands Inc., the bankrupt maker of Twinkies and Wonder Bread, said that it will have to liquidate itself and lay off most of its workforce in case of a widespread strike, Reuters reported on Friday. Members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union said that its members at some Hostess bakeries have gone on strike in response to court-approved pay cuts. The company, which employs 18,300 people, said that it will focus on selling its assets to the highest bidders if more workers choose to go on strike at other locations in the coming days.

Metex Manufacturing Corp., formerly known as Kentile Floors Inc., filed for bankruptcy protection for the second time since 1992 to cope with asbestos product-liability claims, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. The company, which manages two industrial facilities in New Jersey, listed assets and debt of more than $100 million each in chapter 11 documents filed on Friday. Metex faces about about 6,000 active asbestos claims tied to Kentile, according to court papers.

U.S. District Judge Harold Baer on Thursday ruled that Eastman Kodak Co. executives did not mislead investors about the photography pioneer's deteriorating financial health in the year prior to its bankruptcy, Reuters reported on Friday. Judge Baer dismissed a shareholder lawsuit against Chief Executive Antonio Perez and three former Kodak executives. The Rochester, N.Y.-based company was not a defendant because it is in chapter 11. Shareholders led by Bret Jones, who claimed to have lost $720,384 by investing in Kodak stock, accused the company of making false and misleading statements that suggested optimism it would become profitable, maintain sufficient liquidity, and sell a digital patent portfolio once thought to be worth as much as $3 billion.

Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross has granted Nassau Broadcasting Corp. an extension to file a creditor-repayment plan as it awaits regulatory approval to sell its radio stations, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported today. Judge Gross on Wednesday extended the company's exclusive right to file a creditor-payment plan through Nov. 30. Nassau has said that it needs the extension to complete the sale of its assets.

Krones AG, a German maker of packaging and bottling machines, will pay $125 million to settle a U.S. criminal probe and related civil litigation over its role in a $685 million fraud at Le-Nature's Inc, a bottled water company that went bankrupt in 2006, Reuters reported yesterday. The U.S. Department of Justice said Krone's U.S. unit, Krones Inc, will pay $15 million and enter a non-prosecution agreement to resolve the criminal probe. The Franklin, Wisconsin-based unit will also pay $110 million to enable fraud victims and Le-Nature's creditors to recover some of their losses.

A123 Systems Inc., the bankrupt maker of electric-car batteries that received a $249.1 million federal grant, won permission to sell its assets at a Dec. 6 auction where bidders will include Johnson Controls Inc. and Wanxiang Group Co., Bloomberg news reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey approved bidding procedures at a hearing yesterday overruling the U.S. Trustee’s objection to a $2.5 million breakup fee Johnson Controls will get if it is not the winner. Johnson Controls also would get $3 million for expenses. The proposed protections for Johnson Controls will "enhance the process," not chill it, Judge Carey said. He scheduled a Dec. 11 hearing to approve the sale.

The U.S. Trustee Program has announced that its proposals requiring extensive disclosure related to law firm fee requests would apply only to very large chapter 11 bankruptcies, the New York Law Journal reported today. In narrowing the scope of cases to which the proposals would apply­—to those with $50 million or more in assets and $50 million or more in liabilities as opposed to cases with a combined $50 million in assets and liabilities—the agency was responding to intense criticism from firms calling "burdensome" and "ethically unacceptable" the agency's new recommendations for attorneys' fee applications. The trustee program has modified proposals for disclosure of rates in non-bankruptcy practices, and said that it would continue to seek budgets and staffing plans, either by consent of the parties or court order. Unchanged from the originally proposed guidelines, firms would still have to submit in their fee applications the number of rate increases since the inception of the case and disclose the effect of any rate increases on the total compensation a firm is seeking.