DETROIT: ‘ HISTORIC BANKRUPTCY HEARING ENDS NOW WHO PAYS WHAT TO WHOM ‘

#AceNewsServices – DETROIT – October 29 – The historic hearings on whether Detroit will exit the nation’s largest-ever municipal bankruptcy came to a quick end Monday after closing arguments, which were abbreviated by settlements with major creditors.

Moving the city closer to self-rule and something of a sense of normalcy, Judge Steven Rhodes said he would reveal his decision at 2 p.m. Nov. 7 after a fast-paced bankruptcy that defied predictions of drawn-out battles that could have stretched for years.

“We think we made our case and we met our burden,” Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr said outside court after closing arguments from city lawyers, attorneys for creditors and even individuals who object to the plan.

Rhodes pressured Detroit’s bankruptcy attorneys to justify better treatment for pensioners than financial creditors, making for an unexpectedly dramatic exchange.

In a discussion of the complicated math underpinning the city’s financial projections, Rhodes noted that pensioners could eventually get all their pension cuts restored if the city’s pension investments perform well over the next several years.

“Tell me why that isn’t a 100% recovery,” Rhodes asked Detroit bankruptcy lawyer Bruce Bennett.

“The math gets a little tricky here,” Bennett responded.

The exchange underscores the importance of the unfair discrimination issue in Detroit’s bankruptcy. Although all major creditors have struck settlements, bond insurers Syncora and Financial Guaranty Insurance Co. (FGIC) argued earlier in the case that pensioners were getting extraordinarily favorable treatment.

Civilian retirees are getting a 4.5% cut to their monthly checks, the elimination of cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) increases and a claw back of excessive annuity payments. Police and fire pensioners are getting a reduction in COLA from 2.25% to 1%.

Retirees voted to accept the cuts, as well as a 90% reduction in their health care benefits.

Still, Judge Rhodes must approve the plan after an exhaustive trial that lasted nearly two months. During the proceeding, Rhodes heard testimony from dozens of witnesses and examined hundreds of exhibits documenting the city’s plan to slash more than $7 billion in unsecured liabilities and reinvest $1.4 billion over 10 years in basic services.

Bennett said the largely amicable plan is “very remarkable” after a tumultuous negotiation period with retirees, insurers, bondholders and unions.

Source: 

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‘ Detroit’s Bankruptcy Hearing Resumes ‘

#AceFinanceNews – DETROIT – September 29 – Testimony is to resume this morning in the hearings on Detroit’s bid to get out of bankruptcy, and the federal judge overseeing the case is expected to rule on a request that he order Detroit’s water department to enact a six-month pause in shutting off service over unpaid bills.

‘ Detroit Water Shut-Off Notice’

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes also is likely to hear updates from city lawyers about the agreement reached last week to keep emergency manager Kevyn Orr on the job until the bankruptcy exit strategy is approved, yet restore power to run city government to Mayor Mike Duggan and the City Council.

During a meeting of the city’s financial advisory board on Friday, Orr outlined the arrangement that will keep him in charge of shepherding Detroit through the final stages of its bankruptcy.

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#AceFinanceNews KIEV March 27 #ANS2014

#AceFinanceNews – KIEV – March 27

#ANS2014

Ukraine is standing on the verge of the economic and financial bankruptcy, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the acting prime minister of Ukraine, said at a parliamentary session on Thursday.

#afn2014, #arseniy-yatsenyuk, #bankruptcy, #kiev, #ukraine

` Mt Gox the largest ` Bitcoin Exchange ‘ files for ` Bankruptcy ‘ amid rumours of Hacking ‘

#AceFinanceNews says that `Tokyo‘s Mt Gox Bitcoin Exchange has filed for `Bankruptcy‘ amid missing currency‘.

Published time: March 02, 2014 11:54

 

Reuters/Jim Urquhart

Mt Gox, once the world’s largest bitcoin exchange, filed for bankruptcy in a Tokyo district court on Friday, the company’s lawyer citing ‘outstanding debts of $63.2 million, after mysteriously going offline on Monday.

Investors may have lost all of their virtual coins, as the exchange’s computer system was exposed to fraudulent transactions and technical failures.

A leaked internal Mt Gox “crisis strategy” document suggesting that the exchange site had been hacked and hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of the cryptocurrency stolen began to circulate online.

Technical glitches in February forced the trading platform to halt deposits, causing the already volatile crypto-currency to plunge 20 percent. On Friday it was listed at $565.07 on Winkdex, a New York-based bitcoin value index.

Mt Gox once claimed to host nearly 80 percent of all bitcoin transactions worldwide, and was the primary source cited for bitcoin prices.

Mark Karpeles (2nd L), chief executive of Mt. Gox, attends a news conference at the Tokyo District Court in Tokyo February 28, 2014. (Reuters/Yuya Shino)

After it the site crashed on Monday, the value of bitcoin fell to $440, a 3-month low after the currency reached highs above $1000 at the end of November.

On Monday, Mark Karpeles, the chief executive of the now defunct exchange, resigned Mt Gox from the board of the Bitcoin Foundation ‘effective immediately’.

Karpeles remained mum after the site went offline, but on Friday told a press conference that Mt Gox wants to file a criminal probe into the hacking.

Screenshot from www.mtgox.com

 Bit-coin, an alternative to traditional currencies, isn’t backed by any official government or central bank, which makes recovering losses difficult.

Central banks across the globe have begun to crackdown on the cryptocurrency, instructing financial institutions not to accept bit-coins because they have no legal status or monetary-backing, like state-backed currencies.

Courtesy of: RT   

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• Tokyo’s Mt Gox bitcoin exchange files for bankruptcy amid missing currency – RT

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