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Bankruptcy Code Fraudulent Transfers Trustees

Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP

Supreme Court Resolves Section 544 Sovereign Immunity Question

We have previously blogged about the Tenth Circuit’s decision in United States v. Miller, a case that concerns the relationship between section 544(b)(1) and section 106(a)(1) of the Bankruptcy Code. As we explained in our...more

Ballard Spahr LLP

Supreme Court: No Strong-Arming the Federal Government With State-Law Fraudulent Transfer Claims

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Recently, in the case United States v. Miller, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the sovereign immunity waiver provision in the Bankruptcy Code is jurisdictional only and does not waive the federal government’s sovereign...more

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP

Taking Apart Section 544(b): Supreme Court Clarifies Scope of Sovereign Immunity in Avoidance Actions

On March 26, 2025, the Supreme Court held in an 8‑to‑1 decision authored by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson that Section 106(a) of the Bankruptcy Code waives the federal government’s sovereign immunity with respect to...more

DLA Piper

Impactful Rulings and Cases Shaping Bankruptcy Law: 2024 Restructuring Recap

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The restructuring landscape in 2024 demonstrated dynamic shifts, with courts across jurisdictions issuing pivotal rulings that helped reshape bankruptcy law....more

DLA Piper

Second Circuit Rules Bankruptcy Code’s “Safe Harbor” Provision Preempts State Law Fraudulent Transfer Claims

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On September 19, 2024, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a summary order in which it held that the “safe harbor” provision of Section 546(e) of the Bankruptcy Code preempted a bankruptcy trustee’s state...more

DLA Piper

Ninth Circuit Authorizes Trustees to Avoid Intentional Fraudulent Transfers Without Need to Demonstrate Creditor Harm

DLA Piper on

In a case of first impression in the Ninth Circuit, the US Court of Appeals recently handed bankruptcy trustees a significant power by ruling in The Lovering Tubbs Trust v. Hoffman (In re O’Gorman) that a trustee can avoid...more

Gray Reed

Fraud in the Oil Patch the Modern Way

Gray Reed on

Once upon a time a good way to commit oil patch theft was to back a truck up to the tank battery in the middle of the night, fill ‘er up, and drive off into the darkness. In re: Black Elk Energy Offshore Operations LLC shows...more

Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP

Seventh Circuit Addresses Scope of Section 546(e)

We have previously blogged about the section 546(e) defense to a trustee’s avoidance powers under the Bankruptcy Code. A trustee has broad powers to set aside certain transfers made by debtors before bankruptcy. See 11 U.S.C....more

Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP

Citing Knowledge of Irregularities in Purported Ponzi Scheme, Bankruptcy Court Deems Pre-Bankruptcy Transfers Fraudulent

Publicly, Diamond Finance Co. (“Diamond”) provided car loans to individuals with less-than-stellar credit. While Diamond did have “some actual business,” its purpose “quickly became a front to lure unsuspecting investors.”...more

Dorsey & Whitney LLP

Fifth Circuit Holds Avoidance Actions Can Be Sold

Dorsey & Whitney LLP on

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

Jones Day

Business Restructuring Review Vol. 23 No. 1 | January-February 2024

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One year ago, we wrote that 2022 would be remembered in the corporate bankruptcy world for the “crypto winter” that descended in November 2022 with the spectacular collapse of FTX Trading Ltd., Alameda Research, and...more

Jones Day

Second Circuit Adopts "Transfer-by-Transfer" Approach to Bankruptcy Code's Safe Harbor for Securities Contracts Payments

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The scope of the Bankruptcy Code's "safe harbor" shielding certain securities, commodity, or forward-contract payments from avoidance as fraudulent transfers has long been a magnet for controversy, particularly after the U.S....more

Jones Day

New York Bankruptcy Court: Setoff and Unjust Enrichment Cannot Be Asserted as Affirmative Defenses in Bankruptcy Avoidance...

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In a 2021 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit revived nearly 100 lawsuits seeking to recover fraudulent transfers made as part of the Madoff Ponzi scheme. In one of the latest chapters in that resurrected...more

Jones Day

Delaware Bankruptcy Court Imputes Officer's Fraudulent Intent to Corporation in Avoidance Litigation

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A powerful tool afforded to a bankruptcy trustee or a chapter 11 debtor-in-possession ("DIP") is the power to recover pre-bankruptcy transfers that are avoidable under federal bankruptcy law (or sometimes state law) because...more

Goodwin

Complicit Defendants Lose, Sovereign Agency Wins in Eternal Madoff Litigation

Goodwin on

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

Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP

Tenth Circuit Holds that Sovereign Immunity Does Not Limit Section 544 Claim

Section 544(b)(1) of the Bankruptcy Code enables a trustee to step into the shoes of a creditor and avoid a transfer “of an interest of the debtor in property” that an unsecured creditor could avoid under applicable state...more

Jenner & Block

April 2023 - Recent Developments in Bankruptcy Law

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AUTOMATIC STAY - 1.1 Covered Activities 1.1.a Court denies injunction against actions involving debtors’ affiliates. Shortly after filing their chapter 11 cases, the debtors in possession sought, in the alternative,...more

King & Spalding

Bankruptcy Court Partially Dismisses Fraudulent Transfer Claims Against Sponsor-Lender

King & Spalding on

On August 3, 2022, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware partially dismissed fraudulent transfer claims asserted by the chapter 7 trustee for Bayou Steel against Black Diamond Capital Management (and...more

Freeman Law

Can Trustees Avoid Transfers Made Pursuant to Divorce Decrees or Other Agreements Incident to Divorce?

Freeman Law on

This issue arose in a case I am currently working on, and the short answer is yes, and divorce lawyers would be served well by becoming familiar with this possibility.  Situations where this might arise can vary...more

Kelley Drye & Warren LLP

Ten Years Gone – Delaware Bankruptcy Judge Rejects Effort to Extend Lookback Period for Avoidance of Pre-Bankruptcy Transfers

A recent decision by Delaware Bankruptcy Judge John Dorsey will limit the ability of bankruptcy trustees to expand the lookback period for avoiding pre-bankruptcy transfers beyond the four years provided under most state law...more

Fox Rothschild LLP

Not all Forced-Sale Mortgage Foreclosures are Exempt from Avoidance as Fraudulent Transfers Under Section 548 – a Case Study...

Fox Rothschild LLP on

The United States Supreme Court held in BFP v. Resolution Trust, that properties sold at “force-sale” mortgage foreclosure sales properly conducted pursuant to a state’s foreclosure statute are presumed to have been sold for...more

Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP

One Bankruptcy Court’s Analysis of a Motion to Dismiss Avoidance Claims: The Analytical Framework

A federal judge recently allowed a trustee’s preferential transfer claim against a law firm to proceed but dismissed a constructive fraudulent transfer claim. The decision highlights the pleading standards and analytical...more

Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP

“Diminishing” Returns: A Pre-Petition Change of Life Insurance Beneficiary is Not Subject to Avoidance as a Fraudulent Transfer

Does a debtor’s pre-petition change of the beneficiary of a life insurance policy constitute a “transfer” of an interest of the debtor in property? Not according to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of North...more

Lowenstein Sandler LLP

Bankruptcy Ruling Highlights Longer Lookback Trend

Projections suggest over 1 million bankruptcy petitions will be filed in 2021. In preparing for those filings, counsel routinely evaluate the prospective creditor pool to determine, inter alia, the types of creditors, claim...more

Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP

Delaware Bankruptcy Court Issues Decision on Whether a Debtor Can Be a “Financial Participant”

We have blogged previously about section 546(e), the Bankruptcy Code’s safe harbor for certain transfers otherwise subject to avoidance as preferences or fraudulent transfers. See 11 U.S.C. § 546(e). Among the transfers...more

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