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A bankruptcy judge in New Hampshire yesterday ordered the unsealing of papers spelling out, in detail, the reasons jilted Apple Inc. supplier GT Advanced Technologies Inc. filed for chapter 11 protection, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Apple sought to keep the information under wraps out of fear it will harm its reputation and its relationships with other suppliers. Over Apple’s protests, Judge Henry Boroff said that he would take another look at the challenged document, an affidavit signed by GT Advanced Chief Operating Officer Daniel Squiller and filed with the court. Next week, the judge said, he will issue an order unsealing Squiller’s statement. The Oct. 6 bankruptcy filing sent GT Advanced’s stock into a dive and bond prices tumbled, as shocked investors clamored for more information about what went wrong between the smartphone maker and the company it had set up in the business of producing sapphire material for smart screens. At a court hearing Thursday, Judge Boroff said that Bankruptcy Code protections against defamatory information don’t apply to Squiller’s characterizations of Apple’s behavior.

GT Advanced Technology Inc., which struck an agreement with erstwhile partner Apple Inc. last week that allowed it to proceed with its bankruptcy, said that the iPhone maker had threatened to seek damages of more than $1 billion against the company. Former stock market darling GT Advanced, once set to become the main supplier of scratch-resistant sapphire to Apple, surprised markets when it filed for chapter 11 earlier this month. It failed to meet performance targets set out in its supply agreement with Apple, setting the stage for its failure, according to court filings. GT Advanced said in a court filing late on Monday that it needed to settle with the iPhone maker to avert a costly legal battle it might not win. "The alternative to the settlement agreement would be months, if not years, of costly, time-consuming, and distracting litigation with Apple over a wide range of contested issues, the success of which GTAT could not guarantee," the company said in a court filing late on Monday.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/28/gt-advanced-tech-bankruptcy-a…

In related news, Dow Jones & Co. Inc., publisher of the Wall Street Journal, has asked a court to deny a request by Apple Inc. and GT Advanced Technology Inc. to keep under seal some documents relating to GT Advanced's bankruptcy. Dow Jones, owned by News Corp., said that keeping the documents under seal is an offense to constitutional principles of public access, according to the publisher's court filing yesterday. GT Advanced, which supplied sapphire material to Apple to make smartphone screens, filed for chapter 11 protection earlier this month under mysterious circumstances. GT refused to explain why it had imploded, citing confidentiality clauses in its Apple contracts.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/29/gt-advanced-tech-bankruptcy-d…

The U.S. and Securities Exchange Commission on Tuesday added more than a dozen relatives of Texas businessmen Sam and Charles Wyly to a long-running securities fraud lawsuit against the brothers to bolster its efforts to collect some $300 million, Reuters reported yesterday. The amended complaint filed in New York federal court included the relatives as "relief defendants," which means they are not accused of wrongdoing but can be subject to civil claims. The filing was expected, as the SEC and the relatives continue to dispute whether hundreds of millions of dollars held in offshore trusts should be subject to collection. U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin has said she will order the Wyly brothers' assets frozen at the SEC's request, including money previously transferred from the trusts to various relatives, despite objections from the family members.

A Delaware bankruptcy judge has scheduled a confirmation hearing in the Bondex International bankruptcy settlement agreement, LegalNewsline.com reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Peter J. Walsh filed an Oct. 20 order scheduling a hearing on confirmation of the proposed joint plan and approved related notice procedures for Dec. 10 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. In his order, Walsh approved the debtors’ disclosure statement, the solicitation and tabulation procedures, the certified plan solicitation directive and the ballots. On July 28, RPM International Inc. announced its agreement with the bankruptcy representatives of current and future claimants in order to resolve Bondex-related asbestos liability. According to the agreement, RPM would pay $797.5 million over four years and resolve all present and future asbestos personal injury claims related to its subsidiary Bondex.

New court filings show that the Backstreet Boys have settled their claims against their creator, Lou Pearlman, whose bankruptcy filing preceded the onetime music mogul’s arrest on fraud charges, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The pop singers said that Pearlman and his Trans Continental Records owed them roughly $3.5 million. Those claims had been challenged last year by a bankruptcy trustee on the grounds that they lacked the necessary proof to back them up. The fighting continued into this year when a bankruptcy judge ordered lawyers for the band and the trustee to work it out. Under the settlement, the Backstreet Boys will receive $99,000 on account of their claims. They’ll also get to take possession of a variety of recordings of their music as well as a “Star Trek Adventure” VHS tape.

The state of Washington's tobacco settlement authority says Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. owes it nearly $40 million for a terminated swap agreement tied to money Lehman invested for it, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. In a court filing on Tuesday, lawyers for the tobacco authority say that Lehman's expert witness's contention that Lehman is actually the one owed money is "absurd." In its own Tuesday court filing, Lehman says that the "forward curve" analysis used by its expert is standard in the industry. But lawyers for the Washington authority, which was created in 2002 to make decisions based on the bonds that are backed by the state's tobacco settlement fund, cite a report from its own expert that says Lehman owes $38.6 million.

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.

Texas tycoon Sam Wyly, who filed for bankruptcy this week, is trying to exhaust his fortune through exorbitant spending to impede the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's collection of a $198.1 million fraud claim against him, the regulator told a U.S. judge yesterday, Reuters reported. During a hearing in Dallas bankruptcy court, a lawyer for the SEC criticized Wyly's proposed budget as "staggering." Items include $32,000 a month for assistants to help him write his books and nearly $7,000 a month to support elderly friends and family members. A lawyer for Wyly, Josiah Daniel, said that the budget "reflects some substantial cuts." But U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Barbara Houser said Wyly should consider whether such expenses are "appropriate" given his bankruptcy filing. Wyly filed for chapter 11 protection on Sunday, saying he cannot afford the SEC's claim as well as a potential tax judgment from the Internal Revenue Service.

The losing bidder in a bankruptcy court auction for Atlantic City's former Revel Casino Hotel isn't ready to fold just yet, as an attorney for Florida developer Glenn Straub has filed an appeal in bankruptcy court to try and stop the sale of the Revel to Brookfield Asset Management, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported today. Revel's management chose Brookfield as the winner with a $110 million bid earlier in October. But Straub claimed that the auction was rife with improprieties. "We believe this entire auction was done improperly, from start to finish,” said Straub's attorney Stuart Moskovitz. Among the developer's main complaints was that Revel improperly accepted a bid from Brookfield after a specified deadline. He also claims that Revel's attorneys reneged on an agreement to share information with him on competing bids, and that the casino unjustly held six hours of closed-door meetings on what was supposed to be the first day of bidding.

Energy Future Holdings squared off against creditors in court on Friday as the bankrupt Texas power company sought approval to begin a multibillion dollar auction of its interest in Oncor, a power transmission business, Reuters reported on Friday. The company anticipates an auction in February, and sources told Reuters that potential bidders include NextEra Energy Inc. of Juno Beach, Fla., Hunt Consolidated Inc. of Dallas and Houston-based Centerpoint Energy Inc. Energy Future is not selling Oncor, but the right to own an 80 percent stake in Oncor, which operates the largest network of power lines in Texas and is closely watched by regulators. Creditors opposed the structure of the proposed auction because they said that it would lock the company into a reorganization that would provide billions of dollars of tax benefits for one group of senior lenders.