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Private equity firm KKR & Co. LP said on Friday that its special situations fund would lead an investment of more than $680 million in Preferred Sands, keeping one of North America's largest producers of sand for oil and gas producers in business, Reuters reported on Saturday. Headquartered in Radnor, Pa., privately held Preferred Sands produces and distributes frac sand and proppant materials used predominantly in oil and gas shale drilling. Its network of mines have the capacity to produce more than 9 billion pounds of sand every year. Preferred Sands tapped restructuring advisors last September after it failed to make timely payments on its bank loans, according to Moody's Investors Service Inc. The ratings service has attributed the company's woes to competition in the frac sand industry, its lack of high-quality sand reserves, and a less developed logistical network relative to its major rivals. KKR said that it had agreed to refinance the company through equity and debt of more than $680 million. A new first lien credit facility has been underwritten by KKR's capital markets arm and investment bank Jefferies Group LLC.

An official responsible for the assets of Mt. Gox told creditors he would consider returning the bitcoin that remains with the defunct exchange without converting it into regular currencies, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. Some of those who had deposits with what was once the world's largest bitcoin exchange welcomed the possibility of keeping the virtual currency unconverted, avoiding a potential drop in its value. However, they also expressed their frustration with a bankruptcy process that they say is taking place with little transparency. The next meeting, including an update on the bankruptcy process, will be held in November.

A North Carolina federal judge has struck down a bankruptcy court ruling that sealed evidence and testimony about gasket-maker Garlock Sealing Technologies' liability for asbestos injuries, Reuters reported yesterday. The "public and press have a co-extensive right to view and consider documents tendered" in court, said U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn, who reversed the sealing order and sent it back to the bankruptcy court for further consideration. Garlock, a subsidiary of EnPro Industries Inc., filed for chapter 11 in June 2010 as it faced personal injury claims related to its asbestos-lined gaskets used in industrial applications. Lawyers for plaintiffs argued that the figure should be more than $1 billion, but Garlock said that its liability was much lower and that the estimate was based on past settlements that were inflated by manipulated evidence and fraud. The case is Legal Newsline v. Garlock Sealing Technologies, U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, No. 13-464.

A planned auction of bitcoins.com, a domain name owned by the chief executive of Mt. Gox, has been postponed after a U.S. court order temporarily blocked the company that operated the exchange from selling assets, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. A district court in Washington state issued the injunction, which will expire in 14 days, against web-hosting company Tibanne in response to a request from Seattle-based CoinLab, which has filed a suit in the U.S. against Mt. Gox. The international legal dispute that has erupted over the remnants of Mt. Gox reflects the escalating tug of war among interested parties over how the Japanese company's assets — much of which are denominated in a virtual currency — should be divided up. Mt. Gox collapsed in February, claiming it had lost 850,000 bitcoins due to hacking attacks. Most of the assets, worth $500 million, belong to creditors, and the exchange is in Japanese liquidation proceedings under the supervision of a court-appointed trustee.

Two former Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP executives have settled a civil suit brought by the defunct firm's bankruptcy trustee to recover nearly $22 million, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. No details of the settlement — reached with Dewey's ex-chief financial officer, Joel Sanders, and former executive director, Stephen DiCarmine — were immediately available, but a one-paragraph order from Hon. Martin Glenn simply said, "The court has been informed that the parties have settled this matter." Dewey filed for chapter 11 protection in May 2012 after mounting debts and months of partner losses left the firm unable to continue operating. The bulk of Dewey's creditor-repayment plan relies on a $70.4 million settlement struck in 2012 with 475 former Dewey partners, who agreed to pay the bankruptcy estate in exchange for a release from most Dewey-related liability.

The Adelphia Recovery Trust (ART) has filed a motion in bankruptcy court seeking approval to extend the term of the ART through Dec. 31, 2016, PRNewswire reported yesterday. Adelphia's reorganization plan established an initial termination date of Feb. 14, 2012, and was eventually extended to Dec. 31, 2014, with the bankruptcy court's approval. Although the trust has resolved several causes of action and distributed $275 million to date to interest-holders, the FPL cause of action has not been and is not likely to be resolved by Dec. 31, 2014, when the ART's term expires.

Nortel Networks Corp.’s defunct U.S. unit agreed to pay bondholders as much as $1 billion to cover interest that investors claim has accrued since the former telecommunications giant filed for bankruptcy in 2009, Bloomberg reported today. The company said in a court filing yesterday that it settled a dispute with the bondholders over how much interest they can collect on $3.93 billion in debt issued in 2006-07. The agreement was announced the day before the judge overseeing the U.S. unit’s bankruptcy was scheduled to hear arguments on whether any interest should be paid and, if so, at what rate. Settling the dispute “will streamline” remaining court battles, including a fight over how to share about $7 billion in cash among creditors in the U.S., Canada and Europe, according to the filing. The case is Nortel Networks Inc., 09-bk-10138, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).

A group of pension and trust funds for local electrical workers has filed petitions to force companies affiliated with Truland Group into bankruptcy amid reports that the Reston,Va.-based electrical contractor is winding down operations, The Washington Post reported yesterday. The petitions filed on Tuesday ask the judge to begin chapter 7 proceedings against various Truland affiliates. Truland Group has been run by the Truland family since its founding in 1909 and has provided electrical construction services on major Washington, D.C.-area projects such as national parks, Arena Stage and the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center. It has also worked on projects in the government sector, including for the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI. According to the company’s website, it is the 10th-largest electrical contractor in the U.S.

The company at the center of a chemical spill into West Virginia’s largest water supply was back in bankruptcy court on Tuesday, The Associated Press reported yesterday. Freedom Industries had a hearing yesterday morning in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Charleston, W.Va., that involves a $2.9 million settlement with Freedom’s insurer. Lawyers for Freedom Industries and the businesses and people who sued Freedom reached a tentative settlement, according to documents filed on Friday in Charleston federal court. The settlement would use $2.9 million in insurance money for public projects, potentially including long-term health monitoring. A board would determine exactly how to spend the money. The agreement would settle 24 lawsuits against Freedom. Many businesses sued to recoup profits they lost while shuttered for days. A January tap-water ban affected 300,000 people.

For-profit school company BioHealth College Inc., which operates four Bryman College campuses in California, has filed for chapter 11 protection, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. A bankruptcy filing usually results in the U.S. Department of Education revoking the school’s status as an institution that can accept federal student financial aid dollars, without which most colleges cannot survive. BioHealth College acquired Everest College campuses in San Jose, San Francisco, Hayward and Los Angeles in January 2013 from Corinthian Colleges — a for-profit college operator with more than 100 schools that is now in the process of winding down its own operations — and changed the schools’ names to Bryman. Prior to this, BioHealth operated a for-profit medical-training school in San Jose. According to court filings, BioHealth has fewer than $50,000 in assets and between $1 million and $10 million in liabilities.