A fraudulent transfer is an attempt to avoid a debt by improperly transferring assets to a third party, or a transfer of assets for less than fair value made while the company is insolvent or will become insolvent as a result...more
Nelson Mullins reported on March 25 that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, in Matter of S. Coast Supply Co., 91 F.4th 376 (5th Cir. 2024), held that preference claims arising under 11 U.S.C. § 547 may be sold, reversing the...more
Joining the Eighth and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeals, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that a debtor or trustee can sell its avoidance actions to third-party, non-estate representatives. See Briar Capital...more
Two recent decisions in the Madoff bankruptcy cases illustrate that the legacy of Bernie Madoff will long survive the man himself. Bernie Madoff died on April 14, 2021, while incarcerated in the Federal Medical Center in...more
A bankruptcy trustee's ability to avoid and recover pre-bankruptcy preferential transfers is essential to preserving or augmenting the estate for the benefit of all stakeholders. In 2019, however, the Bankruptcy Code was...more
This is how Tribune ends: not with a bang, but a whimper. The 12-year litigation saga, rooted in the spectacular failure of the media and sports conglomerate’s 2007 leveraged buyout, reached an end in late February with a...more
AVOIDING POWERS - Fraudulent Transfers - Trustee may avoid transfer as actual fraudulent transfer only if ultimate decision-maker has fraudulent intent. Before entering into a two-step LBO transaction, the debtor formed...more
On August 26, 2021, the Third Circuit confirmed that a corporation remained on the hook for the pension withdrawal liability of its bankrupt subsidiary despite diluting its ownership interest in the subsidiary below 80%, to...more
Traditional avoidance actions under the Bankruptcy Code, i.e., preferences and fraudulent transfers, have laudable goals: (a) to provide equal treatment to creditors of an insolvent company and (b) to claw back otherwise...more
The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York recently added some weight to the majority rule on a hot-button issue for claims traders. In In re Firestar Diamond, Inc., 615 B.R. 161 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. 2020),...more
The impact of the internet on brick-and-mortar retail, compounded by the economic devastation of the COVID-19 crisis, has created an unpredictable environment for trade vendors and service providers amid an uptick in...more
The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina recently added some weight to the majority rule on an issue that has long divided bankruptcy and appellate courts. In In re Southern Produce Distributors,...more
The impact of COVID-19 is being felt at all levels of the economy and will work its way through bankruptcy courts for years to come. In these early days, many creditors who are themselves suffering are providing assistance...more
We have noodled on the impact that the Supreme Court’s decision in Merit Management Group, LP v. FTI Consulting, Inc., which held that the safe harbor provided in Section 546(e) of the Bankruptcy Code does not apply when the...more
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently held in In re Tribune Company Fraudulent Conveyance Litigation, No. 13-3992-cv (L) (2d Cir., Dec. 19, 2019) that Bankruptcy Code Section 546(e) barred claims seeking to avoid...more
In In re Tribune Co. Fraudulent Conveyance Litig., 2019 WL 1771786 (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 23, 2019), the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York denied a litigation trustee’s motion to amend a complaint seeking to...more
The ability of a bankruptcy trustee to avoid fraudulent or preferential transfers is a fundamental part of U.S. bankruptcy law. However, when an otherwise avoidable transfer by a U.S. entity takes place outside the U.S. to a...more
A recent decision from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has breathed new life into the Bankruptcy Code Section 546(e)’s securities transaction safe harbor for fraudulent conveyance actions. Judge...more
On February 25, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated the bankruptcy court’s dismissal of avoidance actions brought by Irving Picard, the trustee (Trustee) for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff...more
In its ruling in FTI Consulting, Inc. v. Sweeney (In re Centaur, LLC), the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware addressed the Supreme Court’s recent clarification of the scope of Bankruptcy Code Section...more
On August 20, 2018, the National Bankruptcy Conference (the "NBC") submitted a letter (the "Letter") to representatives of the House Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform and the House Committee on the Judiciary that proposed...more
A June 2018 Bankruptcy Court decision in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) held that foreign companies with no presence in the U.S. were subject to default judgments....more
On August 14, 2018, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit issued a decision holding that section 547(c)(4) of the Bankruptcy Code, which provides a defense to the avoidance of preferential transfers to...more
One of the commonly asserted defenses to preference avoidance actions is the “new value” defense set forth in 11 U.S.C. § 547(c)(4). One issue considered by courts is whether the “new value” must remain unpaid. In a recent...more
On April 3, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an order that, in light of its recent ruling in Merit Management Group LP v. FTI Consulting Inc., 138 S. Ct. 883, No. 16-784 (Feb. 27, 2018), the Court would defer consideration...more