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Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s brokerage wants court approval to set aside more money for creditors, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. In a Thursday bankruptcy court filing, brokerage trustee James W. Giddens said that he needs to create a reserve account for holders of secured and priority claims against the brokerage. Those claims, which include fees incurred during Lehman's bankruptcy and other claims, are currently estimated at about $624 million. If Giddens gets that approval, he said that he wants to turn his attention to paying out more than $4 billion still owed to general unsecured creditors of the brokerage, a group that includes former employees and others.

A federal bankruptcy judge will consider a key report to Southern Montana Electric Generation and Transmission Cooperative’s reorganization plans during a hearing today, the Associated Press reported yesterday. The hearing by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Ralph Kirscher is one of two scheduled for this month that could resolve the wholesale electricity distributor’s financial problems after 2 ½ years in bankruptcy. The 210-page disclosure statement submitted in April details the Billings-based co-op’s business operations, bankruptcy filing and its reorganization plan. If Judge Kirscher approves the statement, the plan will go to a May 20 confirmation hearing in Billings.

James River Coal Co., the mining company that filed for bankruptcy last month, won court approval of $110 million in financing to fund business operations over the objection of its unsecured creditors, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Huennekens gave final approval of the financing yesterday at a court hearing. The company received interim approval to borrow as much as $80 million on April 9 from a syndicate of lenders including Cantor Fitzgerald Securities as administrative agent and Deutsche Bank AG as arranger.

Philip Falcone’s LightSquared Inc. won a judge’s approval to marginalize a $1 billion debt claim by Dish Network Corp. Chairman Charles Ergen, a key to the wireless broadband company’s ability to leave bankruptcy under a proposed reorganization plan, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Ergen’s claim will be put behind other creditors by an amount to be determined after further proceedings, Bankruptcy Judge Shelley Chapman said at a hearing yesterday as she prepared to rule on LightSquared’s plan to reorganize with $2.5 billion in financing backed by Fortress Investment Group LLC, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Melody Capital Advisors LLC. LightSquared accused Ergen of secretly snapping up debt in the company to hijack its reorganization and get its airwaves at a discount. The company said that, as a rival, Ergen was barred from owning the debt in the first place and his claim could be singled out for worse treatment than that of other creditors.

A Virginia investment firm is poised to purchase package-delivery company Noble Logistics Inc. out of bankruptcy after a Bankruptcy Judge Christopher S. Sontchi signed off on the $14.5 million deal on Tuesday, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Judge Sontchi approved the bid from an affiliate of Gladstone Investment Corp. for Houston-based Noble Logistics, said Gladstone lawyer Barry Seidel of the Dickstein Shapiro law firm. Noble Logistics looked for new owners after filing for bankruptcy in February, blaming tough industry competition and a "significant" legal bill after defending the way it employs its network of 1,230 delivery people.

A $100 million settlement between the owners of New England Compounding Center, the Massachusetts pharmacy connected to a deadly meningitis outbreak in 2012, and its controlling trustee was filed in bankruptcy court yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Under the settlement, the New England Compounding Center, its insurers and one of the company's affiliates will contribute more than $100 million to a compensation fund to be distributed to the pharmacy's creditors, including those who died or suffered significant injuries after receiving injections of tainted steroids traced to the pharmacy. The settlement, which had been expected, still requires approval from Judge Henry J. Boroff of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Boston before distributions can be made to victims. The trustee, Paul D. Moore, said he hopes to complete the process by the end of the year.

Bankruptcy Judge August B. Landis in the U.S. District Court of Nevada made a ruling from the bench yesterday to move TelexFree Inc.’s case to Massachusetts and temporarily suspend proceedings, the Boston Globe reported today. TelexFree filed for chapter 11 protection last month, 2,700 miles away from its main office in Massachusetts, just days before state and federal securities regulators brought civil fraud charges against the company’s principals. Federal agents raided TelexFree’s Marlborough office on April 15, two days after the bankruptcy filing, and regulators soon froze the company’s assets. Massachusetts Secretary of State William F. Galvin accused the company of luring $90 million from Massachusetts residents who signed up for TelexFree’s Internet phone service and opened investment accounts with the company on promises of large returns. The Securities and Exchange Commission said as much as $300 million may have been invested across the country. Federal authorities had urged the Las Vegas court to send the case to Massachusetts, alleging that TelexFree filed for bankruptcy protection in Las Vegas merely to evade regulators and victims in the Boston area.

In less than a week, Nortel Networks’ U.S., Canadian and European divisions will launch a courtroom contest over $7.3 billion in cash, a massive, innovative, cross-border six-week trial, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The case has been a bit of a mystery, according to the company’s creditors committee, as Nortel lawyers have decided to keep everything confidential until a later date. Nortel filed for bankruptcy protection in 2009, selling off its last operating divisions in 2010 and its patents in 2011. But while Nortel doesn’t have any business anywhere — not in the U.S., Canada, or Europe — in need of the protective shield of confidentiality, it does have secrets, lawyers told Justice Frank Newbould of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice at an April court session. Mostly those secrets are other companies’ secrets, according to the lawyers. Nortel is due to report on Thursday to Justice Newbould in Toronto and Judge Kevin Gross in Wilmington, Del., with pre-trial updates.

Women’s clothing retailer Coldwater Creek Inc. won bankruptcy court approval of an agreement with liquidators Hilco Merchant Resources LLC and Gordon Brothers Retail Partners LLC to run going-out-of-business sales at its more than 370 stores starting on May 8, Bloomberg News reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Brendan Linehan Shannon yesterday approved the store-closing deal after Hilco and Gordon won a 32-hour auction, pushed by another liquidator group to substantially improve the initial offer. Hilco and Gordon guarantee a 128 percent return on costs of Coldwater’s merchandise from the sales, based on a value of $90 million to $105 million, court papers show. The liquidators’ original stalking-horse offer guaranteed a recovery of 97 percent.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has announced the appointment of a new judge for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Arizona, the Associated Press reported on Sunday. Officials say Brenda Kay Martin received the oath of office on Thursday and will be based in Phoenix. Martin fills the judgeship vacated by George B. Nielsen Jr., who will continue to serve the court in a limited capacity as a recalled judge. The 49-year-old Martin has practiced law since 1990 and had been a partner in a Phoenix law firm since 2005.