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Frego & Associates, led by attorney James Frego, has filed for chapter 11 protection, blaming its financial problems on payments owed to Frego’s former firm, which has shut down, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Frego, based in Dearborn Heights, Mich., plans to continue filing about 100 chapter 7 or chapter 13 bankruptcy cases each month for clients while the firm’s leaders use bankruptcy to negotiate lower payments to be paid to the former law firm’s estate. The receiver who was put in charge of shutting down that old firm is eying customer payments that followed Frego to his new firm but originated in the old firm. He’s pushing Frego’s new law firm to pay about $220,000, according to court papers filed in U.S Bankruptcy Court in Detroit.

Bankruptcy Judge Ronald Pearson on Tuesday approved a loan of as much as $5 million to help Freedom Industries pay for cleaning up the spill site and other remediation expenses that are the result of the Jan. 9, 2014 chemical leak into the Elk River, WOWKTV.com reported yesterday. Freedom Industries' Chief Financial Officer, Terry Cline, testified during the hearing that he had spoken on Jan. 20 with Diversified Services, which is serving as a subcontractor on the cleanup and remediation process, that Freedom Industries will owe Diversified between $700,000 and $800,000. Cline said that Freedom Industries has paid $300,000 of that amount to date. Cline testified during the hearing that Freedom Industries needed to have the situation under control before he could do payroll for its 51 employees yesterday. He said that Freedom Industries had $6 million in accounts payable at the time of the chemical leak Jan. 9.

LightSquared Inc.’s plan to exit from bankruptcy may not be approved by the Federal Communications Commission by the end of the year, the agency said in a court filing, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The FCC said in a Jan. 17 filing that it is not in a position to confirm whether it will be able to complete the work required to approve the plan by Dec. 31. LightSquared, controlled by Philip Falcone’s Harbinger Capital Partners LLC, is seeking to exit bankruptcy through a plan supported by Fortress Investment Group LLC, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Melody Capital Advisors LLC. The FCC also said that it plans to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking to address the use of wireless spectrum by another federal stakeholder, a development that a Wells Fargo analyst, Marci Ryvicker, said amounts to “cold water” being thrown on the Fortress-supported plan, as it might take more than a year.

Jon Corzine lost his bid for dismissal of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trade Commission’s lawsuit over the 2011 collapse of MF Global Holdings Ltd., Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The requests of Corzine and former MF Global Assistant Treasurer Edith O’Brien to throw out the case are “without merit,” U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero said in a ruling filed Jan. 17 in Manhattan federal court. The agency alleged in its complaint that the executives violated the Commodity Exchange Act by illegally transferring funds from customer accounts. Judge Marrero said that it was too soon in the case to rule on whether the CFTC can prove its claims. “At this state of the proceedings, the court must accept the pleadings as true, and draw any reasonable inferences and resolve any ambiguities in favor of the opponent of a motion to dismiss,” Marrero wrote. MF Global, once touted by its senior officers and directors as having strong internal controls and liquidity levels, collapsed and filed for chapter 11 protection in October 2011 after making bad bets on European sovereign debt and getting margin calls.

New York law firm Proskauer Rose LLP is firing back at former client Overseas Shipholding Group, which is suing the firm for bad legal advice, saying the shipping company's own executives' "faulty" decision making and "imprudent" risk-taking led the company into bankruptcy, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Lawyers for Proskauer said in a court filing on Friday that the firm isn't responsible for OSG's restatement of a decade's worth of financial results because its incorrect legal advice was based on key information "furnished to Proskauer by OSG that OSG knew to be false."

Dots LLC, the 400-store clothing chain for young women, filed for bankruptcy protection, blaming prior management, the economy and leases that cost too much, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The company, founded 27 years ago outside Cleveland, has arranged to borrow $36 million to keep operating as it reorganizes under chapter 11 protection and implements a new merchandising strategy. In October, vendors began demanding Dots pay for new goods faster than the company could afford, “causing significant liquidity challenges,” Chief Executive Officer Lisa Rhodes said in a court affidavit filed yesterday. For the 12 months ending Jan. 31, the company had about $293.7 million in sales, Rhodes said. That’s down from $338.8 million in the previous 12 months and $346.2 million the year before that.

Dish Network Corp. said a plan to restructure LightSquared based on its now-withdrawn offer for the company's assets should be considered completely off the table despite the efforts of hedge funds to keep it alive, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Dish's filing in bankruptcy court on Thursday comes as LightSquared continues arguing at a trial that Dish Chairman Charles Ergen improperly bought LightSquared's bank debt — the same class of debt owned by the hedge funds — on behalf of Dish. As a LightSquared competitor, Dish is prohibited from buying that debt.

Plextronics, the venture-backed Pittsburgh company that is developing electronic inks designed for use in organic LED televisions and lighting applications, has filed chapter 11 protection, Optics.org reported yesterday. Despite the bankruptcy application, Plextronics said that it had filed a series of customary motions to ensure the continuation of normal operations during the process, and stressed that its “Plexcore” products would remain available. According to the company’s most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which dates from October 2013, Plextronics had been seeking to raise $5 million in debt-based securities. But at the time of that filing, only $572,000 had been raised. In its chapter 11 petition filed on Jan. 16, the company estimated that it had liabilities of between $10 million and $50 million.

A U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge ruled on Friday that a Chinese auto parts maker and a Hong Kong businessman will square off in an auction for Fisker Automotive, the defunct maker of a plug-in hybrid sports car, Reuters reported on Friday. The Feb. 12 auction will pit the U.S. unit of China's Wanxiang Group against Hybrid Tech Holdings, a company affiliated with investor Richard Li of Hong Kong. Hybrid has said its initial bid would be worth $55 million. Fisker's committee of unsecured creditors has said it hopes to find other potential buyers by the Feb. 7 bid deadline.

Bombarded by lawsuits and under federal investigation, the chemical company that spilled a dangerous solvent into a West Virginia river and fouled the drinking water of 300,000 people filed for chapter 11 protection Friday, the Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday. Freedom Industries Inc., owner of a storage tank that ruptured Jan. 9 and spilled 7,500 gallons of a coal-treatment foaming agent called MCHM into the Elk River, sought protection from creditors under a chapter 11 filing by its parent company, Chemstream Holdings Inc. of Pennsylvania. The spill prompted the governor to order residents of nine counties in the Charleston area not to use tap water for anything but flushing toilets. In court documents, Freedom Industries says a water line break brought on by frigid temperatures may have caused "an object piercing upwards" to punch a hole in the 35,000-gallon storage tank, allowing the chemical to flow down an embankment into the river. In the filing, Freedom estimates its total liabilities and total assets at between $1 million and $10 million each. The company was founded in 1992, but has existed in its current form only since Dec. 31, when it merged with three other companies under the Freedom Industries name.