Yesterday, in federal bankruptcy court, a couple, Mr. and Mrs. Moser, were accused of several counts of bankruptcy fraud based on incorrect schedules filed in their Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2005. The couple evidently did not list a valuable option to purchase real property and other valuables. “Authorities said they also failed to disclose $125,000 [...]

Bankruptcy filings continue to grow to 119,874 in August from the previous year. “Consumers continue to turn to bankruptcy as a shield from the sustained financial pressures of today’s economy,” said Samuel Gerdano, the executive director of the American Bankruptcy Institute. “As a result, we expect consumer filings to top 1.4 million this year.”
Our nation’s [...]

Bankruptcy Judges and Trustees are weighing in on mortgage companies’ and servicers’ tactics and strategies and the results are not pretty.  “This May, Judge Elizabeth Magner in Louisiana said her review of multiple cases involving Ocwen Loan Servicing had shown the servicer regularly acted in ‘bad faith.’ The judge said Ocwen had charged improper fees [...]

As you may know I enjoy this topic as it is one area where there are plenty of rules/laws in place but the actual events which occur in a bankruptcy sale often push the limits of the rules and they are always unpredictable.  (I even wrote a book on the topic of asset sales should [...]

“Lenny Dykstra, the former star center fielder for the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, court records show.
Dykstra, 46, has no more than $50,000 in assets and between $10 million and $50 million in liabilities, according to a petition filed Tuesday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the [...]

The attorney for some of the bond holders in Chrysler, Tom Lauria, (once a co-worker of mine) has pointedly stated that the White House has threatened his clients in order to get them to “go along” with the deal which the Treasury Dept. and in particular, the car czar panel (no one car czar was [...]

Here is a link to a pleading which was filed in the Chrysler reorganization case now pending in NYC.  It is filed by an Tom Lauria, who also worked at the Shank Irwin law firm in Dallas.  To provide a flavor of the pleading, which is an objection to the Debtor’s sale motion: 
 “Among other things, [...]

In the case of Torch Liquidating Trust v. Stockstill, 08-30404, 2/23/09, the dismissal of a complaint for breach of fiduciary duty was affirmed by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals where the plaintiffs alleged injury to the creditors and shareholders of the debtor corporations, but not to the corporations themselves.
Pursuant to the debtors’ confirmed Chapter [...]

Two stories today about troubles in the newspaper business. First, the venerable New York Times has had to mortgage its new building, which was completed last year. (Finished just at the top of the market it would appear.) “The New York Times Company plans to borrow up to $225 million against its mid-Manhattan [...]

Michael Vick, the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback, is serving a 23-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to federal dogfighting charges last year. “He was subsequently suspended indefinitely without pay and lost all his major sponsors, including Nike.” Vick filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Monday in the Eastern District of Virginia. The debt includes part of [...]