January 2024

Chen Family’s Garment District Condo Conversion in Bankruptcy

The saga of a Garment District conversion from factory to fancy condos has a new chapter: Chapter 11, that is.  

The Chen family has put the entity that owns 335 West 35th Street into bankruptcy as it seeks funding to complete the project, records show. It also put a Soho property it used as collateral into bankruptcy.

The family bought 335 West 35th Street, a vacant, 12-story building near Penn Station, for $50 million in 2016, planning to redevelop it. The plan was for condo units, to be sold for a collective $99 million, and space for the family foundation’s TF Chen Cultural Center.

Shanghai Commercial Bank agreed in 2017 to lend the Chens $34 million, consolidating earlier loans and setting a December 2021 maturation date. The first sign of trouble surfaced in 2021, when the developer sued a loan broker it had retained for failing to close on $82 million in new financing from a South Korean firm in 2020.

Interest rates were still low at the time, but the pandemic had brought international travel and capital markets to a virtual standstill.

The construction lender, Shanghai Commercial Bank, refinanced the condo project in November 2020 for $60.6 million. But

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January 18, 2024 by ATTORNEY

Here’s how to get your money back if a business shuts down or files bankruptcy

NORFOLK, Va. — Phillip Coe, an Army veteran, says he was looking forward to escaping the day-to-day by taking a trip to San Juan, Puerto Rico.

He booked the trip in 2019 with a travel agency that specifically helps military members and their families.

Coe says the final cost, including airfare and a hotel, came out to $1,137.65. However, before the 21-year Army veteran could make the trip, there was the pandemic and then he was diagnosed with cluster headaches, in addition to his leukemia.

“They call them suicide headaches and if you’ve ever had one, you know why,” he says. “Cluster headaches are very painful. They come on one side of your head, and you never know when you are going to get them. It just ruins your whole life.”

He shared a medical statement from his neurologist with me, which says

“Mr. Coe is an active patient at this facility’s neurology clinic due to a diagnosis of cluster headaches. Traveling at high altitudes affects cerebral blood flow and is known to trigger an attack of cluster headaches. Due to this condition, Mr. Coe was advised and will no longer be able to fly on any aircraft.”

Coe

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January 17, 2024 by ATTORNEY

Big Law Firms Accused of Hiding Bankruptcy Judge’s Romance (1)

A lawsuit alleging a former Texas bankruptcy judge improperly shielded a romantic relationship has been expanded to target his girlfriend, as well as law firms Kirkland & Ellis and Jackson Walker.

The amended complaint filed Thursday is part of the ongoing fallout of David R. Jones’ relationship with a former attorney at Jackson Walker, a Texas firm that regularly represented clients in Jones’ courtroom before he resigned in October.

Kirkland & Ellis, a behemoth in the restructuring community, and Jackson Walker filed “numerous misleading and dishonest federal court papers without disclosing the Jones-Freeman relationship,” plaintiff Michael Van Deelen alleged in an amended complaint filed Thursday in US District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Jackson Walker, which employed Freeman until December 2022, often served as local counsel to Kirkland & Ellis in large Chapter 11 cases.

The failure to disclose the relationship amounts to bankruptcy fraud, honest services fraud, mail and wire fraud, and obstruction of justice under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, Van Deelen said in the complaint.

“Debtors received favorable treatment and attorneys got rich in a bankruptcy system akin to shipping lettuce by rabbits,” the amended complaint said.

Van Deelen was a shareholder and

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January 14, 2024 by ATTORNEY

What you need to know

Key takeaways

  • To get student loans discharged, you’ll need to prove that they cause you “undue hardship.”

  • Borrowers can choose between Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy, but they must file a separate adversary proceeding for student loans.

  • The new processes established by the Department of Justice in 2022 has made it easier for borrowers to discharge student loans through bankruptcy.

Filing for student loan bankruptcy is never ideal, but sometimes, having debt discharged is the only way forward. This is especially true if you’ve been struggling financially and cannot repay your debts while still maintaining a minimal standard of living.

Many people believe it’s impossible to get student loans discharged in bankruptcy. That’s not the case — though you have to prove paying down the loans is causing you “undue hardship,” historically a complicated process.

The U.S. Department of Justice and Department of Education recently announced that the new guidelines for discharging student loans in bankruptcy have led to an increase in borrowers applying for and qualifying for debt relief.

How to file for student loan bankruptcy

Declaring bankruptcy on student loans is not easy. And it will affect more than just your college debt. Here are

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January 11, 2024 by ATTORNEY

Bankruptcy Attorney Advises Not to Borrow from Your Usual Bank

A bankruptcy lawyer offers advice about the process of dealing with debts, saying that “one of my rules is I will never borrow money from the bank where I bank at.”

The TikTok video, put up on Dec. 29, comes from Adrienne Hines, a bankruptcy attorney with the Sandusky, Ohio-based Kademenos, Wisehart, Hines, Dolyk & Wright Co. LPA firm. The video went up on Hines’ the Lady Like Lawyer (@theladylikelawyer) account, drawing more than 717,200 views since landing on the platform.

She clarifies her position by saying, “I will never borrow money from an institution that has eyes on my actual deposits and my financial activity. Because if I ever default, and I know nobody ever plans to, but sh*t happens, and if you ever can’t pay that bill, the problem with your banking institution is they know everything about you.”

She goes on to explain that they know your deposit history, your average tax returns, and other information that might work against you. “And so when you have a problem financially,” she points out, “the creditors who come after you the quickest are the ones who know the most about you.”

She also says, “The other issue is setoff.

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January 10, 2024 by ATTORNEY
January 2024
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