Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Sherrod Brown recently introduced the Medical Bankruptcy Fairness Act, which would allow consumer debtors to discharge student loans based on either economic loss caused by the COVID-19 pandemic or substantial medical debt within the three years before filing for bankruptcy, reports Forbes. [Forbes; July 24, 2020] Bloomberg reports that creditors of Ebony Media Holdings LLC have placed the company into involuntary bankruptcy in an effort to take over the company.…

Reporting from Reuters discusses how large firms that have filed for bankruptcy relief since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic have awarded bonuses to executives shortly before filing for bankruptcy. Of the 40 large firms investigated, Reuters found that approximately one-third awarded bonuses to executives within the month before filing for bankruptcy. [Reuters; July 17, 2020] Bloomberg reports that California Resources Corp., a prominent drilling company that filed for bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy…

Mayer Brown partners Tom Kiriakos and Sean Scott and associates Tyler Ferguson and Alexander Berk discussed a recent bench ruling from the United States Bankruptcy for the District of Delaware concerning shareholder blocking rights in an article available here.  …

British communications and satellite internet company OneWeb, which filed for bankruptcy earlier this year in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, has received a $1 billion bid to purchase the company out of bankruptcy, reports CNBC. If the sale is approved, the U.K government and Bharti Global, which are reportedly contributing $500 million each, would become the company’s new owners. OneWeb is expected to challenge SpaceX’s starlink network…

Various creditor constituencies in the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy case have requested access to financial information concerning foreign affiliates controlled by the Sackler family, reports the Wall Street Journal. The creditors contend that this information is critical in determining the creditors’ response to the current multi-billion dollar settlement offer being made by the Sackler family in connection with Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy case. [WSJ; July 2, 2020] NPC International, a nationwide franchisee of fast food restaurants…

Mayer Brown Partners Matthew O’Meara and Sean Scott discussed the impact of the recent news that a New York state court judge denied a preliminary injunction request filed in the Supreme Court of New York by a group of dissenting first-lien lenders, seeking to prevent a borrower, Serta Simmons, and certain first-lien consenting lenders from entering into a recapitalization transaction in an article available here.…

Mayer Brown partners Brian Trust, Sean Scott, and Aaron Gavant and associate Kyle Tum Suden discussed the evolving case law surrounding whether companies in bankruptcy are eligible to pursue funding pursuant to the SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program in an article available here. For a further discussion of this issue, see prior articles for Mayer Brown’s COVID-19 response blog available here and here.…