September 2023

Utah tour operator files for bankruptcy: What’s next for those owed money for canceled tours?

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SOUTH JORDAN — In April, KSL Investigators told you about a Utah-based travel company that abruptly canceled overseas tours of many viewers without offering refunds. Thousands of dollars were paid, which prompted many calls to Get Gephardt. Now, that company has filed for bankruptcy protection. So, what happens next?

“They won’t email us. They won’t call us back,” Lynette Clark told us about her communications with tour operator Latter Day Travel.

Clark paid about $6,000 for a tour she booked with Latter Day Travel, but six months before departure, she got an email saying they canceled her tour because of inflation and higher travel costs. No refund was offered. There was only the promise of credit if there are “travel opportunities in the future.”

“I hope that we can get our money back,” she said.

“It’s a lot of money for us,” Laurel Bjornberg said, when KSL Investigators spoke to her about a nearly identical cancellation email she received from the sister company, CruiseBuilder.

She said she paid $4,700 for her tour and, like Clark, got no refund.

“We paid for our trip, and then we have nothing,” she said.

KSL Investigators tried by

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September 16, 2023 by ATTORNEY

Ex-law firm partner pleads guilty to bankruptcy fraud
Signage is seen at the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan, New York City

Signage is seen at the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., August 24, 2020. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly Acquire Licensing Rights

Sept 12 (Reuters) – A former partner at three major law firms pleaded guilty on Tuesday to making false statements in U.S. bankruptcy court in an effort to keep his multi-million dollar house and luxury sports car, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

John Roesser, 52, a former international arbitration lawyer who practiced as a partner at law firms Alston & Bird, Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer and Dechert from 2013 to 2018, could face up to five years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of false oaths and claims in bankruptcy.

Roesser’s attorney, Mark Cohen of Cohen, Frankel & Ruggiero, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Prosecutors said Roesser made false statements in his own personal bankruptcy proceedings in an effort to hold onto his assets, including his house and an Aston Martin luxury sports car, despite owing more than $3 million in unpaid income taxes.

“The defendant — who used to be a lawyer and knew exactly what he was doing —

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September 15, 2023 by ATTORNEY

Job offer, $150,000 check for Madera hospital CEO was not a ‘bribe,’ lawyer tells judge

Addressing a federal judge, a lawyer representing a Modesto-based hospital management company stressed that his client back in May wasn’t trying to “bribe” a Central San Joaquin Valley hospital executive when they handed her a $150,000 check and a job offer amid negotiations.

Hamid Rafatjoo, a partner with Raines Feldman Littrell LLP and lawyer for American Advanced Management Inc., told U.S. Judge René Lastreto II over Zoom in court on Tuesday that his client wasn’t trying to gain competitive advantage in a bidding process to take over operations of bankrupt Madera Community Hospital.

“Obviously, there were better ways of handling that process,” Rafatjoo said, “but it didn’t come from a place of trying to bribe anyone.”

“My client did what it did,” he said, adding that the actions took place before he was retained.

A business law expert contacted by The Bee said there was nothing illegal about the offer, though it looks “irregular” and “awkward” and the circumstances suggest it should have been fully disclosed in bankruptcy court.

Rafatjoo also took the opportunity Tuesday to tell the judge that AAMI’s offer to take over operations of Madera Community Hospital was superior to the current proposed partner and that

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September 14, 2023 by ATTORNEY

Party City receives approval to exit bankruptcy

Abstract newspaper in a fluid shape, 3d rendering

By The Indianapolis Business Journal

INDIANAPOLIS — Party City on Wednesday received court approval to exit bankruptcy and emerge with a leaner balance sheet, avoiding the fate of retail peers who stumbled in Chapter 11 and ceased operations.

The New Jersey-based retailer is set to hand ownership of the company to lenders and reduce its debt load by some $1 billion, according to court papers. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David R. Jones on Wednesday said he would approve the company’s restructuring plan.

“This plan sets the company up for success going forward,” Ken Ziman, an attorney for the company, said during the hearing. “And most important, your honor, this is a plan that preserves thousands of jobs.”

As part of the Chapter 11 process, the company closed more than 60 stores across the country, but was able to keep the vast majority of its more than 700 stores open, according to court papers. “It wasn’t a wholesale exiting of lease locations,” said Ziman.

Party City has three stores in Indianapolis: at 8703 Hardegan St. on the south side 10537 E. Washington St. on the east side and 3622 Bethany Road on the

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September 10, 2023 by ATTORNEY

Party City to Emerge from Bankruptcy with Most Stores Intact

A bankruptcy judge in the Southern District of Texas has approved Party City’s plan to emerge from bankruptcy, multiple sources report. The plan, which will cancel $1 billion in company debt, will enable Party City to close just a “handful” of its nearly 800 stores and save thousands of jobs, Party City attorney Ken Ziman said at a court hearing in Houston, as reported by Reuters.

Ownership of the company will be turned over to the retailer’s current lenders, but the deal will wipe out individual shareholders. “The math is what the math is,” U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Jones told a shareholder who spoke up at the hearing per Reuters. “It’s one of those things where there simply is not an alternative.”

Under the plan, $1 billion in pre-petition debt will be converted into equity shares, and Party City will receive a new $562 million loan from its existing lenders. The company also will raise additional cash by selling $75 million in new equity shares.

Party City’s junior creditors, including unpaid trade vendors, will receive $3.5 million in cash plus Party City’s share of a $5.6 billion class action settlement related to credit card payment

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September 9, 2023 by ATTORNEY
September 2023
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