Foreign Economic Industrial Bank Limited, "Vneshprombank" Ltd.
12/19/16 Recap:
Boring Bankruptcy Pro version: privately-held bank declared insolvent in Russia back in March files for Chapter 15 seeking 109 eligibility on the basis of a legal retainer held at Bank of America in New York and a lawsuit filed against the bank in the District Court for the Southern District of New York. The purpose of the filing is to leverage the "stay" and seek discovery of assets which may be located in the US.
Badass International Intrigue version: Wait, discovery of assets? What assets? Glad you asked. It appears that back in December 2015, the President and owner of the privately held bank, Ms. Larisa Markus was arrested on suspicion of "large scale" fraud after entering into lending agreements with affiliated companies with no intention to repay (see staggering debt number below). She apparently embezzled the funds with the assistance of her brother - who is on the run seeking asylum in Monaco - and parked the funds in New York-based LLCs which were then used to purchase condominium and cooperative apartments in New York City. No wonder (i) housing supply in NYC sucks and (ii) rents are too damn high. Clearly LLC regulations are warranted. And who the bloody hell was on those coop boards? PS. The missing funds are customer deposits and the bank currently only has RUB 3.3 billion to pay claims. 3.3/230 = no bueno. PPS. At least one of the properties has already been sold to a third-party. The proceeds? The whereabouts are unknown. Boom! Keri Russell is probably already gearing up for the adaptation.
Jurisdiction: S.D. of New York
Debt: RUB 230 billion
Company Professionals:
Legal: Blank Rome LLP (Rich Antonoff, Barry Seidel, Evan Zucker)
10/30/16 Recap: New Hampshire-based publicly-traded designer, manufacturer, and distributer of sporting equipment (including Bauer Hockey and Easton Baseball) files for Chapter 11 and CCAA to effectuate an asset sale to Sagard Capital Partnes and Fairfax Financial for $575mm.
Jurisdiction: D. of Delaware
Capital Structure: $200mm ABL, $330mm TL, publicly-traded equity.
Company Professionals:
Legal: Paul Weiss (Kelley Kornish, Alice Eaton, Claudia Tobler, Christopher Hopkins, Diane Meyers, Moses Silverman, Kevin) & (local) Young Conaway (Pauline Morgan, Sean Greecher, Justin Rucki, Shane Reil, Kenneth Listwak, Andrew Magaziner) & (Canadian counsel) Stikeman Elliott (Kathryn Esaw, Frank Selke, Maria Konyukhova, Peter Howard)
Financial Advisor: Alvarez & Marsal (Brian Fox, Jay Herriman, Brian Corio, Michael Stewart, Greg Karpel)
Investment Banker: Centerview Partners (Mark Puntus, Ryan Kielty, David Zubricki, Mike Klain)
Claims Agent: Prime Clerk (*click on company name for docket)
Other Parties in Interest:
Canadian Monitor: E&Y (Brian Denega, Jean-Daniel Breton, Marin Daigneault)
Legal: Allen & Overy (Ken Coleman) & (local) Buchanan Ingersoll (Kathleen Murphy, Mary Caloway) & (Canadian counsel) Thornton Grant (Robert Thornton, D.J. Miller, Rachel Bengino)
ABL DIP Agent: Bank of America
Legal: Choate Hall & Steward (John Ventola, Douglas Gooding, Jonathan Marshall) & (local) Richards Layton & Finger LLP (Mark Collins, John Knight, Brent Haywood)
TL DIP Agent: 9938982 Canada & Sagard Capital Partners
Legal: Kirkland & Ellis LLP (Christopher Marcus, George Klidonas) & (local) Klehr Harrison (Dominic Pacitti)
Financial Advisor: Rothschild Inc. (Neil Augustine)
First Lien Lenders Steering Committee:
Legal: Weil (Matthew Barr, Gabriel Morgan, David Cohen) & (local) Morris Nichols (Robert Dehney, Gregory Werkheiser) & (Canadian counsel) Goodmans (Joe Latham, Brendan O'Neill, Ryan Baulke)
Financial Advisor: FTI Consulting (Daniel Hugo)
Prepetition TL Agent
Legal: Davis Polk
Fairfax Financial
Legal: Shearman & Sterling (Fred Sosnick, Stephen Blank)
Unsecured Creditors' Committee
Legal: Blank Rome LLP (Stanley Tarr, Josef Mintz, Andrew Eckstein, Michael Schaedle) & (Canadian counsel) Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP (Ryan Jacobs, Hillary Fender, Monique Sassi, Natalie Levine, Shayne Kukulowicz)
Financial Advisor: Province Inc. (Paul Huygens, Victor Delaglio, Michael Winters, Sanjuro Kietlinski, Ricky Ng, Jim Dong)
Ad Hoc Equity Committee (MatlinPatterson Global Advisors LLC, Scoggin Capital Management LLC)
Legal: Brown Rudnick LLP (Robert Stark, Stephen Levine, Bennett Silverberg, Andrew Carty, James Stoll) & (local) Montgomery McCracken (Natalie Ramsey, Mark Fink, Davis Wright) & (Canadian counsel) McMillan LLP (Andrew Kent, Jeffrey Levine, Caitlin Fell, Stephen Brown-Okruhlik)
Financial Advisor: Houlihan Lokey Capital Inc. (Adam Dunayer, Justin Zammit, Sam Stringer, Corbon Heizer)
