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Five former Madoff colleagues face sentencing beginning Dec. 8 for using a web of fake account documents, phony regulatory filings and bogus computer programs to keep the scheme afloat for decades, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The three men and two women who joined Madoff’s New York-based investment advisory firm as early as the 1960s have been free on bail since a federal jury in March found them guilty of securities fraud and related counts. It was a total victory for prosecutors in the first criminal trial over the scam. U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain, who oversaw the five-month trial in Manhattan, will hand down sentences over a week-long period. She repeatedly delayed the hearings as lawyers squabbled over details of the case, including how much money the former staffers should be ordered to forfeit.

Womenswear retailer Deb Stores Holding LLC joined clothing chains including Loehmann’s Inc. and Coldwater Creek Inc. in filing for bankruptcy, saying a shortage of capital left it with “old, tired stores,” Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The Philadelphia-based operator of Deb Shops sought chapter 11 protection yesterday with plans to close some stores and sell inventory if it can’t find a buyer for the business. The company specializes in juniors “fast fashion” and offers moderately priced clothing, accessories and shoes for young women. As of Sept. 30, it had 295 locations, according to court filings. The company said that it has been working jointly with Gordon Brothers Retail Partners and Hilco Merchant Resources on an agreement to liquidate merchandise and that it will seek approval to designate the venture as the stalking-horse bidder in a court-supervised auction.

Bankruptcy Judge Mary F. Walrath has approved a $106 million debtor-in-financing package that allows Durham, N.C.-based Reichhold Inc. to continue its resin and coatings plant operations in Durham, the Triangle Business Journal reported yesterday. The judge, however, also granted permission to sell many of the chemical company's assets through a sale scheduled for Jan. 6. Reichhold Holdings US Inc., the U.S.-based branch of the Reichhold Group, filed for chapter 11 protection in September. Reichhold affiliates outside of the U.S. are not included in the bankruptcy petitions. The petition, filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, listed more than $500 million in debt that the company owed and less than $500 million in assets.

Seneca BioEnergy LLC filed for chapter 11 protection with debts totaling more than $1 million, including $9,400 owed to the town of Romulus, N.Y., $4,700 to the local school district and $47,000 owed to the IRS for payroll taxes, the Rochester, N.Y., Democrat & Chronicle reported today. The company has been awarded — though not actually received — substantial pots of public money in recent years, including $7 million from the state. However, the company said that receiving those public dollars revolves around finding outside investors as well — which Seneca BioEnergy is still trying to do. According to the company, it plans on operating during the bankruptcy while restructuring to pay its debts.

Howrey LLP 's bankruptcy trustee has reconciled with the defunct law firm's former Washington, D.C., landlord and a group of ex-partners, two of the final hurdles standing in the way of repaying Howrey's debts, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. The landlord deal, which caps Warner Investments LP's highest-priority claim at $4.5 million, "removes one of the largest impediments to the trustee's ability to work towards and propose a confirmable chapter 11 plan in this case," trustee Allan Diamond said in settlement papers filed in bankruptcy court on Wednesday.

A judge approved private-equity fund manager Z Capital Partners’ purchase of the Canyon Ranch Hotel & Spa in Miami Beach, which a Lehman Brothers affiliate put into bankruptcy protection earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Shelley C. Chapman last week approved the $21.6 million sale to Z Capital, a deal that a disgruntled group of Canyon Ranch condo owners who wanted to buy the property had fought in court. However, Z Capital and another group of Canyon Ranch condo owners that already supported the deal have reportedly reached a compromise with the disgruntled group that satisfies their objections. Details of the compromise weren’t disclosed.

Maine's shuttered Great Northern Paper Co. is selling its assets for $5.4 million to Los Angeles-based Hackman Capital Partners, an investment firm that focuses on the purchase and sale of industrial real estate and equipment, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported yesterday. Since its September bankruptcy filing, Great Northern has said that it hoped to find a buyer to restart its mill operations, which current owner Cate Street Capital halted earlier this year.

Unsecured creditors of the YMCA of Metropolitan Milwaukee could recover as much as 90 cents on the dollar under the nonprofit's restructuring plan, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. The Milwaukee YMCA will use the proceeds from the sale of several of its fitness facilities, among other assets, to repay debts that topped $29 million as of its chapter 11 filing in June, according to the chapter 11 reorganization plan filed on Sunday in bankruptcy court.

The U.S. Trustee Program (USTP) announced yesterday that the independent auditor appointed under a nationwide settlement between the USTP and Citigroup Inc. (Citi) to protect the personal information of nearly 150,000 consumers in 85 jurisdictions has filed his final report, bringing the settlement to a successful conclusion. Under the settlement, Citi agreed to redact proofs of claim filed in bankruptcy cases nationwide in which the personal information of consumer debtors and third parties, including Social Security numbers and birthdates, had not been properly redacted by Citi as required by the bankruptcy rules. Also under the settlement, Citi agreed to notify all affected consumers and offer them one year of free credit monitoring and to change its internal practices and procedures so the redaction error does not recur. The settlement called for the appointment of a privacy expert to serve as independent auditor to review and certify the accuracy of the remediation process.

The House of Representatives passed a bill yesterday that would allow for banks to voluntarily begin bankruptcy, MarketWatch.com reported yesterday. The bill, known as “The Financial Institutional Bankruptcy Act of 2014,” allows financial institutions to voluntarily begin the process of bankruptcy, or, in some cases, allows the Federal Reserve to begin the process. The bill was passed with bipartisan support, and was co-sponsored by Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), and Ranking Member John Conyers (D-Mich.). The bill uses a “single point of entry” approach to enable a holding company to go into bankruptcy while permitting subsidiaries to stay out of the process. The law builds on attempts to prevent taxpayer bailouts of financial institutions like the ones in 2008. Under the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, there is a provision for an administratively-driven resolution process.