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David Boies spent much of the past month interrogating the architects of the 2008 Wall Street bailout, making the case that the U.S. cheated American International Group Inc. (AIG) shareholders of at least $25 billion partly for the benefit of an elite club of banks, Bloomberg reported today. This week, the government is set for its turn to respond to claims by Boies and his client, former AIG Chairman Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, describing the lawsuit as the ultimate case of biting the hand that feeds you. Boies represents Greenberg’s Starr International Co. in a trial challenging the government’s demand for AIG equity in consideration for an initial $85 billion loan. He has framed the rescue as a series of deals rigged by regulators in favor of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and other investment banks at the insurer’s expense. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and other banks borrowed tens of billions of dollars at rates of no more than 4 percent, while New York-based AIG was saddled with a 14 percent interest rate and was forced to surrender 80 percent of its equity.

Shareholders of GT Advanced Technologies are lobbying regulators to form a committee to vouch for their interests in the sapphire maker's bankruptcy, saying that they believe their shares may still have value, Reuters reported yesterday. GT Advanced, which supplied sapphire to Apple Inc., filed for chapter 11 protection this month under mysterious circumstances, sending shares plummeting. The case boggled the minds of market analysts when GT refused to explain why it had imploded, citing confidentiality clauses in its Apple contracts. While shareholders are typically wiped out in bankruptcy, GT Advanced stockholders believe their equity may not be worthless. Some are reaching out to the U.S. Department of Justice's bankruptcy regulator, the U.S. Trustee Program, asking it to form a committee in GT's bankruptcy to represent shareholder interests. According to a source close to the effort, law firm Brown Rudnick, which routinely represents creditors in big chapter 11 cases, is drafting a letter to the Trustee on behalf of a shareholder group requesting a committee.

L’Oreal SA, the world’s largest cosmetics maker, announced on Oct. 20 that it has an agreement to acquire recently reorganized beauty brand Carol’s Daughter through a U.S. unit, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Carol’s Daughter will continue to operate from its New York headquarters under its current leadership team, according to the L’Oreal statement. CD Stores LLC got bankruptcy court approval of its chapter 11 plan on Sept. 2. In bankruptcy, the company consolidated retail operations into two stores in Harlem and Brooklyn, New York. A 10 percent distribution was paid to creditors under the plan, according to a Sept. 15 closing report.

Ultura (Oceanside) Inc., a developer of water-treatment products, filed a chapter 11 petition on Oct. 20 in Delaware to sell its membrane business to pre-bankruptcy lender UAC Finance Inc. in exchange for about $25 million of debt, absent a better bid at auction, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. UAC, an affiliate of venture capital investor True North Venture Partners LP, bought the existing senior secured debt from Hercules Technology Growth Capital Inc. in August, according to court papers. If approved at a hearing today, UAC will allow immediate use of cash representing collateral for its secured claims. The lender will later provide a bankruptcy loan of about $2.3 million to fund the chapter 11 effort through a sale, according to court papers.

Robotics vehicle maker Seegrid Corp. has filed for chapter 11 protection after a battle over financing and control of the business left it unable to meet debt obligations, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported today. The Findlay company, founded in 2003 by two Carnegie Mellon University robotic scientists, Hans Moravec and Scott Friedman, has outstanding debt of more than $45 million, according to the filing. The company’s two largest shareholders — O’Hara grocer Giant Eagle and an investment group led by a former Seegrid CEO, Anthony Horbal — headed to court this summer to battle over its future, with both alleging the other was being uncooperative. According to the bankruptcy filing on Tuesday, Seegrid’s board on Sept. 18 approved a restructuring term sheet presented by Giant Eagle that laid out a plan for a prepackaged reorganization plan. The company expects to receive up to $3 million from Giant Eagle to act as bridge financing during the restructuring period. The grocer is also expected to provide additional post-reorganization financing that could give it an even larger share of Seegrid.

Attorneys have postponed a Delaware bankruptcy court hearing over Donald Trump’s fight to remove his name from a struggling New Jersey casino, the Associated Press reported yesterday. Trump is suing Trump Entertainment Resorts in New Jersey state court, demanding that the Trump name come off the Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City. The lawsuit claims that the company allowed the Taj and the Trump Plaza, which closed last month, to fall into disrepair, damaging the Trump brand. The lawsuit was automatically put on hold when Trump Entertainment, which is trying to keep the Taj open, sought bankruptcy protection last month. The company is fighting Trump’s request, saying it can’t afford the expense or distraction of the state lawsuit as it tries to save the Taj Mahal. A scheduled Thursday hearing was postponed Wednesday until Nov. 24.

Specialty Products Holding Corp. and Bondex International Inc. may emerge from bankruptcy reorganization by year-end if the court approves a chapter 11 plan at a confirmation hearing set for Dec. 10, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The two companies are units of Rust-Oleum maker RPM International Inc. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Peter J. Walsh signed an order on Oct. 20 approving the disclosure statement explaining the plan and allowing asbestos personal-injury claimants to vote. Supported by RPM, the asbestos personal-injury committee and the future claimants’ representative, the plan will implement a settlement providing almost $800 million to cover asbestos claims. The settlement was negotiated following a May 2013 ruling by a bankruptcy judge estimating the companies’ asbestos liabilities to be at $1.17 billion.

A federal judge is set to decide whether to close out the case of a legally troubled oil drilling company in Kentucky, the Associated Press reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Joan Lloyd will take up the case of Mammoth Resource Partners on Nov. 4 during a hearing in Louisville. The trustee for the company, Robert Leasure, filed documents saying that there is no workable plan to bring the company out of bankruptcy as a still-functioning business. Mammoth Resource Partners, based in Cave City, Ky., filed for bankruptcy protection in 2010. The company, owner Roger Cory and Kentucky regulators reached a settlement in 2007 requiring compliance with the law and imposing a $20,000 fine, of which $15,000 was suspended.

The unexpected bankruptcy filing of a defunct Massachusetts company raised the suspicion yesterday of a bankruptcy judge who said that he had "significant doubts" about the legality of the case, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Judge Brendan Shannon punted on the dismissal question Tuesday but ruled that a sale hearing, scheduled to take place today, connected to long-running litigation between Global Naps and Verizon New England Inc. could go forward. Absent Judge Shannon's ruling, the so-called automatic stay triggered by a bankruptcy filing would have prevented the hearing from taking place. Global Naps, a onetime local exchange carrier, has been under a court-appointed receiver's control since 2010 to ensure that it pays a $57.7 million judgment owed to Verizon New England from the lawsuit, which started as a fight over fees.

LDK Solar Co., the Chinese solar-cell maker that defaulted on its bonds this year, filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. to help carry out restructurings already under way in Hong Kong and the Cayman Islands, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Xinyu, China-based LDK filed for chapter 15 protection yesterday in Wilmington, Del., listing about $1.13 billion in debt and $510 million in assets as of May 31. Affiliates in the U.S., including LDK Solar Systems Inc., sought protection under chapter 11. “Since 2011, the group’s financial performance has significantly deteriorated,” in part due to overcapacity in the solar-cell market, Tammy Fu, a provisional liquidator for the company in Grand Cayman, said in a court filing. LDK is at least the fourth Chinese solar company in little more than a year that has sought bankruptcy or been forced to restructure its debt. Suntech Power Holdings Co., once the world’s largest solar-panel maker, and Zhejiang Topoint Photovoltaic Co. both filed under chapter 15 this year.