Bankruptcy & Restructuring 2023 saw Hughes Hubbard guide clients from industries as varied as auto parts, cryptocurrency and mining, and continued our work on the historic Lehman Brothers liquidation.
Gemini Navigates Fallout from “Crypto Winter”
Hughes Hubbard represented Gemini Trust Company – the cryptocurrency trading platform founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss – as it navigated the bankruptcy of Genesis Global Capital. Gemini is agent to over 232,000 of Gemini users that had lent nearly $1 billion of digital assets to Genesis before it declared bankruptcy in January of 2023. The firm piloted Gemini to a deal with Genesis and other creditors that results in the return of all assets in kind to Gemini’s users who have been denied access to their funds since November 2022. The digital assets had a value of approximately $2.18 billion when returned, representing a overall recovery rate of 232%. The team at Hughes Hubbard includes Anson B. Frelinghuysen, Dustin P. Smith, Erin E. Diers, Jeff Margolin, Carl Mills, Elizabeth A. Beitler, Libby Ro, and J. Scott Sanders II.
Stanadyne and Pure Power’s Section 363 Asset Sale
Hughes Hubbard advised Stanadyne, and its subsidiary Pure Power, on their section 363 asset sale to S-PPT Acquisition Company, an entity formed by Cerberus, which was the prepetition agent and secured lender. The sale was conducted in the context of Stanadyne’s and Pure Power’s Chapter 11 cases, in which Hughes Hubbard serves as the debtors’ lead Chapter 11 counsel.
Continuing Distributions to Beneficiaries of Historic LBI Liquidation
Hughes Hubbard continues to represent Christopher K. Kiplok as Trust Administrator for the Lehman Brothers Inc. (LBI) Liquidating Trust on behalf of certain creditors who decided to become trust beneficiaries rather than “cashing out” at a higher rate of return as part of the historic conclusion of the LBI proceeding. This is the first grantor trust implemented in a liquidation proceeding.
As counsel to the Trust Administrator, Hughes Hubbard continues to administer LBI’s contingent long-horizon assets, including antitrust and securities class action claims arising from financial crisis era litigation. As a result of Hughes Hubbard’s efforts, the Trust Administrator made distributions of approximately $21 million to Trust beneficiaries in January 2023.
Chapter 11 Financial Restructuring for AgileThought
Hughes Hubbard was lead debtors' counsel to publicly traded digital services provider AgileThought and 30 of its affiliates in all aspects of their Chapter 11 proceedings.
MTI Subsidiaries’ Chapter 11
Two subsidiaries of Minerals Technologies Inc. filed for Chapter 11 protection in Texas to address and comprehensively resolve liabilities associated with talc. Hughes Hubbard represented MTI and its non-debtor affiliates in the cases.
Talc-Related Chapter 11 for Imerys Subsidiaries
Hughes Hubbard is representing Imerys S.A., a French multibillion-dollar mining company, in connection with the 2019 Chapter 11 filing by its three indirect subsidiaries to address their historic talc-related liabilities in the U.S.
Defense of AAKB
Hughes Hubbard represented AAKB Investments in its defense of a fraudulent transfer claim arising out of AAKB’s receipt of more than $7.8 million in merger proceeds following a go-private transaction of Constellation Healthcare Technologies.