Texas GOP Vote

Imagine you have been working for a company for many years as a faithful employee. You have diligently put away money into the company's 401k program and invested in company stock. The company goes through a merger and you are issued new stock in the new company. Now that company goes bankrupt through no fault of yours and you find yourself being sued for the value of your stock at the time of the merger.  Does that make you feel secure in your investment portfolio?

This is exactly what is happening to many of the shareholders of the Chicago Tribune and LyondellBasell.

Creditors of the City of Stockton, California probably wish that Judge Christopher Klein's ruling that the city can proceed into bankruptcy over their objections was an April Fools joke, but it just isn't so. Monday, April 1, Judge Klein accepted the bankruptcy application of Stockton after creditors walked away from negotiations.

It is good to see a bankruptcy judge who won't let creditors walk all over him, unlike Judge Robert Gerber who let creditors in the General Motors bankruptcy case make a fool of him by hiding a $367 million payment to GM Canada. Because of this, Gerber is having to revisit this case and the entire GM bankruptcy could come unraveled.   Read more »

Hearings are nothing new in bankruptcy courts, or any other courts for that matter, but a hearing held this month in Judge Robert Gerber's court in the Southern District of New York could have a dramatic impact on the troubled General Motors (GM) bankruptcy.  In "Bankruptcy Courts Part 7 - General Motors Revisited by Judge Robert Gerber... Oops", I reported about an error made during the rushed 44 day bankruptcy

Is it Girls or Bankruptcy Judges that have Gone Wild?

Researching everything going on in relation to the bankruptcy series I have been writing can be pretty dry. However, recently on Bankruptcy Law Review, I came across something that is both interesting and revealing at the same time. It seems the company behind Girls Gone Wild (GGW) has been forced into the bankruptcy courts. The Chapter 11 case was filed in the Central District of California bankruptcy courts in Los Angeles.

In this series of articles, we have addressed cases involving Delphi employees being stripped of their pensions without representation, General Motors being swept through the bankruptcy process in 44 days leaving an undocumented, perhaps illegal, transfer of funds in its wake, and collective bargaining agreements being treated differently depending on which unions were involved in both the Delphi and Hostess bankruptcies. These cases appear to demonstrate unequal protection under the law and the

Is 44 days too fast to move a bankruptcy the size of General Motors (GM) through the courts system without missing something major?  Apparently so, as Judge Robert Gerber, in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) Bankruptcy Court, is now having to revisit this case because of some potentially damaging issues involving the Canadian subsidiary of GM and alleged improper transfer of assets to hedge funds. I have previously reported on the GM bankruptcy and spoke with Judge Gerber about the Canadian lock-up funds in San Diego last year.   Read more »

As part of my ongoing series on Chapter 11 bankruptcy processes and U.S. Bankruptcy Courts, I took the opportunity to visit the American Bankruptcy Institute's (ABI) Winter Leadership Conference to see if there was any change in the works. Looking historically at Bankruptcy in our judicial system, it seems we go through major changes about every forty years. The last time this was done was in 1978. For the past two years, the ABI has been conducting a series of Bankruptcy Commission hearings to study necessary reforms for Chapter 11 that are expected to be implemented by 2018.   Read more »

During my investigation series, "A Lawless Presidency", I interviewed Ohio Congressman Mike Turner (R) about the Delphi bankruptcy case. Turner said the "entire process was a miscarriage of justice." After investigating this case further, it is clear why he said that. As you will see below, what happened to the Delphi Salaried Retirees during this bankruptcy process was unfair is unquestionable. But was it a consistent application of the law?

A staple food group icon of an overweight America now becomes an example of what is wrong in our business system and bankruptcy processes. In an announcement last Friday, November 16th, Hostess CEO Gregory Rayburn, said "We deeply regret the necessity of today's decision [to shutdown Hostess' entire business], but we do not have the financial resources to weather an extended nationwide strike."  So how exactly was the money spent after the 2004 restructuring by private equity firm Ripplewood Holdings?  Was it well directed toward rebuilding the company's business?  The decision to force Irving, Texas based Hostess and their entire brand line of products out of business will mean the end of 18,500 jobs and two billion Twinkies.  But who walked away with the dough?

BREAKING NEWS UPDATE:  According to the Houston Business Journal at 2:50 p.m. today, Hostess Brands, Inc. and the BCTGMI Union have entered into a confidential mediation stopping the planned shutdown of the company.   Read more »

My investigation into the Delphi Salaried Pension Scandal, one of the “not optimal” results of the bankruptcies of General Motors and auto parts manufacturer Delphi, turned out to be the tip of an iceberg of a system that is abusing American citizens while it serves a President bent on redistributing wealth.  After my investigation in Washington, D.C. and my visit to the Southern District of New York Bankruptcy Courts in New York City, I learned there would be a conference of our nation’s bankruptcy judges in San Diego. What I learned there was very eye opening.

The conference was the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges.  The conference also included a hearing of the American Bankruptcy Institute’s Bankruptcy Reform Commission.