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The owner of two Arizona dairy farms has filed for chapter 11 protection, accusing its lender of fraud and saying that the years following a historical drop in milk prices during the 2009 recession have been difficult for independent farms, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. D&E Dairy Farms LLC, which owns Rio Bravo Dairy and JDF Dairy, specifically blamed its need to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy on an aggressive lending approach in the wake of the recession by Farm Credit Services Southwest, an approach that included fraudulent misrepresentations, D&E alleges. Alongside its chapter 11 filing, D&E filed a lawsuit against Farm Credit Services Southwest, which is part of the Farm Credit System, over these allegations, requesting actual and punitive damages to be determined by a jury.

Robotics vehicle maker Seegrid Corp. has filed for chapter 11 protection after a battle over financing and control of the business left it unable to meet debt obligations, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported today. The Findlay company, founded in 2003 by two Carnegie Mellon University robotic scientists, Hans Moravec and Scott Friedman, has outstanding debt of more than $45 million, according to the filing. The company’s two largest shareholders — O’Hara grocer Giant Eagle and an investment group led by a former Seegrid CEO, Anthony Horbal — headed to court this summer to battle over its future, with both alleging the other was being uncooperative. According to the bankruptcy filing on Tuesday, Seegrid’s board on Sept. 18 approved a restructuring term sheet presented by Giant Eagle that laid out a plan for a prepackaged reorganization plan. The company expects to receive up to $3 million from Giant Eagle to act as bridge financing during the restructuring period. The grocer is also expected to provide additional post-reorganization financing that could give it an even larger share of Seegrid.

Ultura (Oceanside) Inc., a developer of water-treatment products, filed a chapter 11 petition on Oct. 20 in Delaware to sell its membrane business to pre-bankruptcy lender UAC Finance Inc. in exchange for about $25 million of debt, absent a better bid at auction, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. UAC, an affiliate of venture capital investor True North Venture Partners LP, bought the existing senior secured debt from Hercules Technology Growth Capital Inc. in August, according to court papers. If approved at a hearing today, UAC will allow immediate use of cash representing collateral for its secured claims. The lender will later provide a bankruptcy loan of about $2.3 million to fund the chapter 11 effort through a sale, according to court papers.

LDK Solar Co., the Chinese solar-cell maker that defaulted on its bonds this year, filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. to help carry out restructurings already under way in Hong Kong and the Cayman Islands, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Xinyu, China-based LDK filed for chapter 15 protection yesterday in Wilmington, Del., listing about $1.13 billion in debt and $510 million in assets as of May 31. Affiliates in the U.S., including LDK Solar Systems Inc., sought protection under chapter 11. “Since 2011, the group’s financial performance has significantly deteriorated,” in part due to overcapacity in the solar-cell market, Tammy Fu, a provisional liquidator for the company in Grand Cayman, said in a court filing. LDK is at least the fourth Chinese solar company in little more than a year that has sought bankruptcy or been forced to restructure its debt. Suntech Power Holdings Co., once the world’s largest solar-panel maker, and Zhejiang Topoint Photovoltaic Co. both filed under chapter 15 this year.

Military cargo mover National Air Cargo Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection on Friday, citing being hit with a multimillion-dollar legal judgment in an airplane leasing dispute just as the industry began to struggle due to slower business from the U.S. military, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. National Air Cargo executives said that chapter 11 protection will give them time to fix the New York company's "operations and financial performance" while they continue to appeal a $9.9 million award, according to court documents.

Texas tycoon Sam Wyly has filed for bankruptcy, saying that he does not have the assets to pay the nearly $300 million that U.S. regulators are demanding for his role in a fraudulent offshore scheme, Reuters reported yesterday. In documents filed with a U.S. bankruptcy court in Dallas on Sunday, Wyly said that he had between $100 million and $500 million of both assets and liabilities and cited the "massive costs" of fighting civil claims from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as the reason for seeking chapter 11 protection. Last month, U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin in New York ordered Wyly and the estate of his late brother Charles to pay damages of $187.7 million plus interest to the SEC after a jury found them liable for fraud in May. The SEC has since said that the total, including interest, should be $299.4 million, which is one of the largest awards ever sought from individual defendants in a U.S. court.

Pantech Co., a South Korean mobile-phone maker, has sought the protection of a U.S. court as part of its larger restructuring efforts abroad, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. The company filed for chapter 15 protection at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Atlanta on Thursday. In August, the company filed for the equivalent of chapter 11 in South Korea after months of trying to restructure its debt. Pantech listed 14 continuing lawsuits in the U.S., all related to patent disputes. Pantech relies on sales in South Korea for the majority of its 1.3 trillion won ($1.2 billion) in annual revenue, but it faces heavy competition and a saturated market. The company was also hit with government restrictions on excessive handset subsidies earlier this year, which resulted in penalties for South Korea’s three mobile carriers, including a 45-day ban on smartphone sales.

Chilean bus operator Inversiones Alsacia SA sought bankruptcy protection in a U.S. court, saying fare evasion and declining ridership have made it difficult to meet financial obligations, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The company, Santiago’s biggest bus operator, listed assets of as much as $500 million and debt of as much as $1 billion in a chapter 11 filing yesterday. Alsacia, which missed an August $39.6 million payment on notes due in 2018, filed in New York because it has assets in the city’s banks. Its filing included a proposed debt exchange that has creditor backing.

A Colorado wolf sanctuary filed for bankruptcy, blaming the devastation from the High Park wildfire that scorched roughly a third of the 162-acre property where its 30 wolves roam, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Sanctuary officials had to leave the nonprofit’s LaPorte, Colo., property for nearly a month after the fire broke out in June 2012, said W.O.L.F. Sanctuary (Wolves Offered Life & Friendship) executive director Shelley J. Coldiron. The fire—one of the worst in the state’s history—burned about 87,000 acres and destroyed more than 250 homes. The sanctuary lost several sheds and storage facilities to the blaze and is still fighting an insurer to pay for $60,000 to cover the damage.

Global Naps Inc. sought chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Tuesday, years after being placed into a receivership to satisfy a court loss to Verizon New England Inc., Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Bankruptcy court papers estimate assets of $10 million to $50 million and debts of $50 million to $100 million for the company, which was established as a competitive local exchange carrier. A federal appeals court ruling from last year involved a decade-plus of litigation between Global Naps and Verizon New England, which is listed in bankruptcy court papers as the top-ranking creditor, owed nearly $36 million.