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Bankruptcy Battle Breaks Out Over Greenwich Village Dev Site

  • May 8, 2023

UPDATED April 27, 10:50 p.m.: George Filopoulos gave up on a Greenwich Village building, but the troubled loans left behind have triggered a bizarre legal fight over the property, which is now being offered for sale as a condominium development site.

The drama began when the longtime real estate investor’s LLC was notified in August 2020 that it had defaulted its $9.3 million first mortgage at 307-309 Sixth Avenue.

The LLC — in which Filopoulos says he owned a 10 percent interest in separate from his firm, Metrovest Equities — failed to repay the loan at its maturity date and lender Castellan Capital filed to foreclose.

The case laid quiet during the pandemic and in December of 2021 Castellan sold its loan, according to property records. Filopoulos then transferred its interest in the property in May 2022, according to an attorney for his firm. A court filing does not say who took control of the ownership LLC. Paperwork for the entity was signed by a person named William Schneider, who in November filed project plans for a seven-story, 39-unit building with ground-floor retail and community space.

The judge in the foreclosure case ruled in June that the LLC’s debt had grown to about $15 million, and a foreclosure sale was scheduled for Dec. 14.

But on the eve of the auction, another stakeholder went to bankruptcy court to prevent it from going through.

William Rainero, whose family sold Filopoulos’ LLC the property in 2017, said in court papers that he had provided the buyer a $5 million mortgage to close the $17 million deal. That loan is in the second position behind the one originated by Castellan.

Rainero argued in court papers that the new owner was conspiring to wipe him out by agreeing to hand the property back to

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Distressed Investors Appaloosa, Centerbridge Push for Big Payouts in SVB Bankruptcy

  • May 6, 2023

(Bloomberg) — Dying banks aren’t bad news to everybody. For some investors, they are a chance to make money.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Appaloosa Management, Centerbridge Partners and Silver Point Capital are among the titans of distressed debt investing pushing for big payouts in the bankruptcy case of the former owner of Silicon Valley Bank, new court papers show.

A group of eight firms holds more than $1.1 billion in senior notes and roughly $1.5 billion worth of preferred equity issued by SVB Financial Group, the holding company that went bust after a run on its bank earlier this year. By banding together and sharing the cost of attorneys and financial advisers, such groups can have enormous sway in major corporate bankruptcy cases.

Appaloosa holds $345 million worth of SVB debt, Silver Point $231.7 million and Centerbridge $199.8 million, according to the court filings. The other companies in the group are Citigroup’s distressed trading desk, Millennium Management, Citadel, Attestor and Redwood Capital Management.

Together, the group holds 35% of the $3.3 billion in senior notes SVB issued and 41% of the preferred stock. When such panels hold more than 34% of any class of debt, they often have veto power over any payout plan they oppose.

Distressed debt professionals rarely invest in the stock of bankrupt companies because shares are canceled in most Chapter 11 cases. In SVB, stock owners could get tax benefits from about $6.4 billion in net operating losses. Should SVB be reorganized and survive the bankruptcy case in some form, stockholders could use those losses to reduce their future federal income tax liabilities.

SVB filed for bankruptcy in March after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation placed its bank into receivership. Since then, a dispute has been simmering over whether SVB and its creditors can get back

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Judge in archdiocese bankruptcy case recuses himself over donations scandal | New Orleans

  • May 2, 2023

A federal judge overseeing a bankruptcy filing from the US’s second-oldest Roman Catholic archdiocese has recused himself from the case amid scrutiny of his donations to the church as well as his close professional relationship with an attorney representing archdiocesan affiliates in insurance disputes.

Greg Guidry, who was appointed to the judicial bench at New Orleans’s federal courthouse by the Donald Trump White House in 2019, issued an order after 8pm on Friday recusing himself from a role handling appeals in a contentious bankruptcy involving nearly 500 clergy sexual abuse victims.

It came a week after the Associated Press reported that he had donated tens of thousands of dollars to the archdiocese before consistently ruling in favor of New Orleans’s Catholic church during its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. And Guidry’s ruling came hours after the Guardian had joined the AP in asking questions about a lawyer who was involved in making those donations while his firm defended archdiocesan-related ministries – such as assisted living homes – and the church itself as an employer in medical malpractice lawsuits.

“I do not believe [recusal] is mandated, and no party has filed a motion to [recuse] me,” Guidry’s order read. “However, balancing my duty to decide the case with my duty to consider self-recusal if appropriate, I have decided to recuse myself from this matter in order to avoid any possible appearance of personal bias or prejudice.”

Guidry’s order on Friday marked a stark reversal of course from just a week earlier, when he told attorneys involved in the bankruptcy case that a federal judiciary committee on codes of conduct had approved his continuing to handle appeals related to the case despite his giving nearly $50,000 to New Orleans-area Catholic charities from leftover contributions he received after serving 10 years in the elected

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November 2023
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