U.S. Supreme Court says bankruptcy law overrides tribal sovereignty

  • Justice Jackson ruled that bankruptcy law treats tribes the same as other governments
  • Tribe argued it was neither a “foreign” nor “domestic” government
  • Dispute centered on a tribe’s effort to collect an overdue $1,100 payday loan

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that U.S. bankruptcy protections override a Native American tribe’s sovereign immunity, stopping the tribe’s effort to collect on an overdue payday loan taken out by one of its members who subsequently filed for bankruptcy.

In an 8-1 opinion written by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the court ruled that U.S. bankruptcy law applies to all creditors and “abrogates the sovereign immunity of any and every government,” including tribes. Tribal governments are not entitled to an exception solely because the U.S. bankruptcy code does not specifically mention Indian tribes when describing how it applies to governments, Jackson wrote.

The Wisconsin-based Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians had petitioned the Supreme Court after an appeals court rejected its effort to collect on a high-interest $1,100 payday loan extended to Brian Coughlin, a member of the tribe. Coughlin had borrowed the money from the tribe-owned business Lendgreen in 2019, but he filed for Chapter

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June 24, 2023 by ATTORNEY

Rokit’s Defense Shield Tested as Bankruptcy Trustee Lawyers Up

Rokit’s Defense Shield Tested as Bankruptcy Trustee Lawyers Up
Rokit’s Defense Shield Tested as Bankruptcy Trustee Lawyers Up

The Rokit Group of Companies, the conflict-prone business conglomerate founded by billionaire John Paul DeJoria and his British partner, Jonathan Kendrick, may be reaching its legal event horizon in a series of court cases across the U.S.

Last week, the bankruptcy trustee managing the Chapter 7 case of a Rokit subsidiary received court approval to retain an outside law firm to “investigate potential litigation claims.”

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The move by trustee Peter Mastan comes as the creditors’ meeting in the bankruptcy of Able Events, previously known as Rokit Marketing Inc., was continued last week for the 10th consecutive time since last summer. It has now been rescheduled for mid-September.

Five years ago, Rokit put itself on the American sports map by entering into a series of high-profile, multimillion-dollar sponsorship deals with professional teams, including the NBA’s Houston Rockets, Formula 1’s Williams Racing, and the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders and Los Angeles Chargers.

But as Sportico has reported, each of these agreements prematurely collapsed after Rokit ceased making good on its payments. This pattern of delinquency extended to other of its business dealings as well: Last month, for example, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury ruled against a different

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June 23, 2023 by ATTORNEY

FTX bankruptcy will be ‘very expensive’ but there’s a reason: Auditor

Fees charged by the lawyers and the restructuring team working on the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX have topped $200 million in just over seven months, but an independent auditor argues it makes sense, given the mammoth task.

On June 20 the court-appointed fee examiner, Katherine Stadler, filed a 47-page report on the fees charged by the law firms in the roughly three months following FTX’s Nov. 11 bankruptcy and concluded they were not “wholly unreasonable in the moment.”

She remarked on the “largely unregulated financial system” in which FTX operates, adding the case was “remarkable” for the exchange’s “global scope, the complete absence of corporate records, and the non-existence of even the most basic corporate governance.”

Stadler confirmed the team working on FTX had “requested more than $200 million in fees” since its November bankruptcy, adding:

“Notwithstanding the relative scope of the known asset pool, these proceedings appear on

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June 21, 2023 by ATTORNEY

Zali Burrows loses appeal

Burrows has represented former Auburn mayor Salim Mehajer, murderer Bassam Hamzy and terrorist Hamdi Alqudsi, and briefed counsel on behalf of several clients held in immigration detention in human rights cases. She stood as a candidate for the Palmer United Party in the seat of Blaxland in the federal election of 2013.

She filed a separate claim in the NSW Supreme Court on October 20 last year to have the $130,000 order against her set aside, alleging that Macpherson Kelley Lawyers had acted fraudulently in obtaining the order.

In December, she applied to the Federal Circuit and Family Court for an extension to the bankruptcy notice until that matter could be heard. However, Judge Nicholas Manousaridis dismissed her application, finding that she had “no reasonable prospects” of setting aside the judgment debt on any of her fraud claims.

Burrows has since lodged an amended statement of claim in the Supreme Court, alleging Macpherson Kelley made false statements to the court in 2020 when obtaining the $130,000 costs order. Macpherson Kelley say in their defence that part of the evidence they provided to the court was factually wrong but claim this was immaterial to the outcome.

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June 18, 2023 by ATTORNEY

Judge in FTX bankruptcy rejects media challenge, says customer names can remain secret

DOVER, Del. — The names of individual customers of collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX Trading can be permanently shielded from public disclosure, a Delaware bankruptcy judge ruled Friday.

Following a two-day hearing, Judge John Dorsey rejected arguments from lawyers for several media outlets and for the U.S. bankruptcy trustee, which serves as a government watchdog in Chapter 11 reorganization cases, challenging FTX’s request to keep the names of customers and creditors secret.

Dorsey ruled that customer identities constitute a trade secret. He also said FTX customers need to be protected from bad actors who might target them by scouring the internet and the “dark web” for their personal information.

“It’s the customers that are the most important issue here,” he said. “I want to make sure that they are protected and they don’t fall victim to any types of scams that might be happening out there.”

Katie Townsend, an attorney for the media outlets, had argued that the press and the public have a “compelling and legitimate interest” in knowing the names of those affected by the stunning collapse of FTX.

“That collapse sent shock waves not just through the cryptocurrency industry, but the entire financial industry,” Townsend said. “And at

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June 17, 2023 by ATTORNEY
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