International Bankruptcy, Restructuring, True Crime and Appeals - Court Audio Recording Podcast

For more information about the bankruptcy cases see https://cases.stretto.com/SVM/(Bankruptcy Case Numbers and Bankruptcy Debtor Names):26-10966Searles Valley Minerals Inc.26-10967Trona Railway Company LLC26-10968Searles Domestic Water Company LLC

Per BioXcel's press release:BioXcel Therapeutics Enters Into Asset Sale Agreement with Teva PharmaceuticalsAug 28, 2026  PDF VersionBioXcel Therapeutics intends to complete a court-supervised sale transaction, in an effort to maximize value for all stakeholdersTeva Pharmaceuticals to serve as “stalking horse” bidder in a court-supervised 363 auction processBioXcel Therapeutics has secured a commitment for debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing to support ongoing operationsNEW HAVEN, Conn., Aug. 28, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BioXcel Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: BTAI) (“BioXcel Therapeutics” or the “Company”), a biopharmaceutical company built on artificial intelligence (“AI”) to develop transformative medicines in neuroscience, today announced that it has entered into an asset sale agreement with Teva Pharmaceuticals International GmbH (“Teva”), a subsidiary of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., for substantially all of the Company’s assets. This includes IGALMI® (dexmedetomidine) sublingual film and the related pending supplemental New Drug Application of BXCL501 for potential at-home (outpatient) use for the acute treatment of agitation associated with schizophrenia or bipolar I or II disorder in adults. Concurrent with the execution of the asset sale agreement, BioXcel Therapeutics and its subsidiaries, OnkosXcel Therapeutics, LLC and OnkosXcel Employee Holdings, LLC, have commenced voluntary Chapter 11 proceedings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (the “Court”) to facilitate a court-supervised sale process, which is expected to include the auction of substantially all of the Company’s assets.To anchor the sale process, Teva will serve as the sole “stalking horse bidder” for the sale of the assets contemplated by the asset sale agreement. A stalking horse asset sale agreement establishes a strong baseline offer and is intended to help maximize value for all stakeholders through the Chapter 11 auction process.“Following a comprehensive review of strategic alternatives, we believe this option provides a clear framework to pursue a value-maximizing transaction” said Vimal Mehta, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of BioXcel Therapeutics. “Our priority is to execute a disciplined and efficient sale process while supporting all of our stakeholders and continuing to support the sNDA with a PDUFA date of November 14, 2026. We are pleased to have a signed agreement with a leading pharmaceutical company to serve as stalking horse bidder in the process, underscoring the strategic interest in our assets and in IGALMI®....”For the rest of the BioXcel press release see: https://ir.bioxceltherapeutics.com/news-releases/news-release-details/bioxcel-therapeutics-enters-asset-sale-agreement-tevaFor more information about the BioXcel bankruptcy/sale including the bankruptcy petitions and information about company assets and liabilities see: https://cases.stretto.com/bioxcel/ Typically, in situations such as these, there is a proposed buyer referred to as a stalking horse, and there is also an opportunity for other parties to come forward and bid on the assets.

This is the audio of the U.S. bankruptcy court hearing held 8/14, which was filed on the court's docket of bankruptcy proceedings on PACER.gov.

This is the argument to the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, released to the court's website June 8, 2026.The argument opens with an interesting discussion of standing that the Supreme Court might consider on appeal.Status as of today, August 25, 2026, is the US Supreme Court has entered a stay, allowing construction to continue for now.https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/08/supreme-court-allows-white-house-ballroom-construction-to-continue-for-now/

According to the bankruptcy court's ruling in this podcast, which was docketed by the bankruptcy court on the record of the FTX bankruptcy case, an FTX customer/claimant brought a motion seeking reconsideration of the disallowance of his claim. His claim had been disallowed by the bankruptcy court because of complications with his submission of documents to satisfy Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements. These requirements typically require submission of documentation in order for claims to be allowed, in other words eligible for payout. Sometimes customers/claimants need to also submit signed Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax forms.This can be burdensome for U.S. based customers/claimants, and especially burdensome for customers/claimants of foreign companies that file for bankruptcy in the United States that did not go through a KYC process or fill out tax forms when they opened accounts.People tend to think that, if their deposits and investments fail then they will be paid out in the ordinary course based on the information on file on apps through which they manage their accounts. Unfortunately this is not usually the case now typically. I am not sure but I think we would be pretty screwed if a bank or other institution holding deposit accounts failed - and I have applied to work for the FDIC because the government anticipates bank failure the FDIC will handle and I think I can help based on my bankruptcy experience.But perhaps in the future, in bankruptcy cases and in bank failure cases outside of bankruptcy, there will be technological and other improvements such that depositors and other claimants need not go through a process at all to prove up their claims and be paid out.For now, in bankruptcy cases, customers/claimants often find themselves either not submitting the KYC paperwork or trying to sell their claims to parties that are better able to cope with U.S. bankruptcy claims allowance/disallowance processes, including passing KYC requirements.From the FTX ruling it's not clear what the alleged defect was with the KYC documentation submitted by the customer/claimant, but the ruling explains that the customer/claimant was concerned to receive a request for more information than he had submitted, through the mechanism for submitting the documentation. The claimant expressed to the court that he thought the request for information was possibly part of a PHISHing attempt (a cybersecurity data breach that can result in identity theft).I am not clear what beyond a drivers license or other form of identification is needed to satisfy KYC in the FTX cases and whether the FTX customers/claimants had been KYC'd when opening accounts or thereafter.And I think I heard the court explain in the ruling, but I am not sure, that 47,000 - forty seven thousand - customer claims have been disallowed on the same basis as the claim at issue before the court in the ruling. In other words the claims will not be paid out.Can this possibly be correct? And how many FTX claims in total have been disallowed?This is not a perfect analogy but practically speaking - Imagine a scenario where, instead of plaintiffs bringing class actions for fraud perpetrated on them leading up to a bankruptcy filing such as FTX's, the defendant companies that committed the fraud against the customers, whose CEO is jailed for fraud, are protected from prosecution/litigation for fraud and are bringing class actions defensively to avoid paying out customers on claims that would not exist but for the fraud and collapse of FTX.For some context on claims allowance/disallowance processes in other bankruptcy cases, before FTX filed for bankruptcy relief in 2022... Twenty years ago or so, it became a practice in large bankruptcy cases that were not cases that followed frauds/fiascos like FTX, for the bankrupt companies' lawyers, to bring so called omnibus claims objections. The omnibus claims objection procedure is part of the claims allowance process, for large bankruptcy cases and enables bankrupt companies to more efficiently challenge claims on a common basis when there is a legitimate basis for a challenge affecting many claims.Generally speaking, even outside of bankruptcies following frauds, the claims allowance process reverses the bankruptcy rules that creditor claims (including customer claims) are presumptively valid and allowable. So the process is backwards substantively.And bankrupt companies can challenge claims on the basis of vague objections such as books and records objections, in other words challenging that the claim as filed by the customer/creditor is valid, on the basis the claim doesn't match the bankrupt companies' records. This can also be done with investor claims, which are a type of customer/creditor claim asserted in U.S. bankruptcy cases.Typically, If the creditor does nothing in response to an omnibus claims objection concerning the creditor claim (and that of many other customers) then the claim will be disallowed, by default. The bankruptcy court will treat the objection to the claim as unopposed and enter an order disallowing/expunging/excluding the claims from payment in the bankruptcy. The claims may be listed on a schedule with many other claims in the same situation - claims that will not be paid out.This is the default scenario, where a creditor who has timely notice of a claims objection, might reasonably assume creditors with larger claims will come forward. But the creditor doesn't consider those larger claimants may be dealing with the bankrupt company via arriving at one off deals reflected in stipulations and orders presented to the court, concerning the extent to which claims will be allowed and paid out.If the creditor does not default - and timely or untimely responds to the omnibus claims objection - which will typically necessitate hiring counsel, then the hearings on the customer claim are likely to be adjourned because the bankrupt company controls the agenda for hearings presented to the court. In other words, the claimant is not going to win and have a claim eligible for payout, even if the claimant responds to the claim objection.If the bankrupt company doesn't want to confront an issue that can be raised by other customers, which is a recurring scenario in bankruptcy cases, then the bankrupt company can adjourn hearings on a claim for months.In the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy case in the United States, filed in 2018, I represented foreign nationals who entrusted Lehman Brothers investment vehicles with funds before Lehman Brothers collapsed, then these individuals had to deal with the claims allowance process for customers/creditors/investors trying to collect on Lehman Brothers guarantees in the U.S.Few if any people would have invested in the Lehman Brothers feeder funds soliciting money overseas, without the Lehman Brothers guarantee probably, but when it came time to pay out on the Lehman Brothers guarantees - Lehman Brothers did not pay out in its chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, filed in New York. Lehman Brothers brought waves of omnibus claims objections challenging claims, hundreds of them.The bankruptcy judge presiding over the Lehman Brothers case at the time, who was the judge who had dealt with the nightmare of the case since the case filing in 2008, ruled that objections of one claimant would apply to all claimants, in effect giving us class action type status, recognizing the common issues (being defrauded into investing into a Lehman Brothers feeder fund with specious documentation causing it to be unclear what level of priority the claims should receive in an unthinkable bankruptcy scenario where Lehman Brothers, which had guaranteed payout to investors itself bankrupted then challenged the payout obligations).After the bankruptcy judge presiding over the Lehman Brothers case helped the parties procedurally and substantively with instructions for how the trial/hearing on the claims would proceed, the lawyers for the bankrupt company caused an adjournment of the hearing on our claims "sine die" - which means an adjournment of the trial on the claims without date/indefinitely.The bankrupt companies kept the claims off the bankruptcy court's agenda while the judge who wanted a trial on the merits was the bankruptcy judge presiding over the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy.After the judge retired from the bench and another judge took over the case, Lehman Brothers found a way to avoid trial on the claims again and make sure they wouldn't be paid. I remember the substitute judge, who has since retired, telling the Lehman Brothers' lawyers, who she saw in court repeatedly over the course of the year, how great it was to work with them and she wished happy holidays as it was year end. I have the transcript somewhere and look at it every few years, missing appearing before the judge who initially presided over the Lehman Brothers case then retired into private practice where he does great dispute resolution work including mediation.The omnibus claims objection process for disallowing claims was extraordinary in the Lehman Brothers case which was in New York, but the case was abnormally large with a lot of foreign investment and resulting bankruptcy claims.Over time, the disallowance process via omnibus claims objections has become normal in some cases in Delaware like FTX and, in that context, perpetuates bankrupt companies' representations their bankruptcy plans are paying creditors decently high percentages on their claims, when really the percentages would be low if the claims in the claims pool were allowed and paid out.I do not know the circumstances of the claimant in FTX whose rights were impacted by the FTX ruling in this episode of the podcast, or how much crypto or money he lost, or how much he stands to gain if his claim is allowed, or whether he transferred his claim or continues to hold. I commend him on coming forward to a court of justice to defend his rights. He can proceed further and appeal if he thinks it worthwhile or do what the other claimants do and deal with the loss, unfair as it seems to be following the fraudulent collapse of FTX and good faith customer attempts to comply with the claims process including KYC requirements.An interesting question is can the many other FTX claimants whose claims have been disallowed due to alleged failure to satisfy KYC requirements appeal join in an appeal or will they too hear that their objections are untimely and will not be paid out?Thoughts on how FTX claimants can be helped are welcome on the YouTube channel accompanying this audio stream, when I post the FTX hearing there later today.www.youtube.com/@the-comi

hearing on emergency motion to stay pending appeal

discussing QVC's bank accounts including the QVC Chinese bank account(s)

Bankruptcy proceedings of Seales Domestic Water Company, Trona Railway and Searles Valley Minerals.The Searles Valley Minerals bankruptcy petition lists, as equity security holders of the debtors, Karnavati Holdings, Inc. and Searles Valley Minerals Inc.

This is the official court audio, posted by the Court of Appeals on November 5, 2025. I am reposting today because the Court of Appeals has handed down a ruling today affirming the criminal conviction. Below are my thoughts from the day of the argument on appeal, and I continue to hope there can be an amicable resolution among the parties:—The appellate argument is in the appeal of Sam Bankman-Fried’s criminal conviction which proceeded, before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The argument was scheduled for 20 minutes or so and went beyond an hour. The bench was a hot bench, with the judges on the panel prepared to ask a lot of questions.Maybe the case will be resolved consensually?The appellant’s side, SBF’s counsel, argued to the appellate judges that more evidence of advice of counsel would have changed the jury’s decision to convict. The judges were skeptical.But the appellee, the government, had a hard time justifying the forfeiture order against Sam Bankman-Fried, which was part of his punishment.There is a disconnect between the presentation of massive losses in the record of the criminal trial relative to representations of customers being paid in full in the FTX bankruptcy. This was discussed at some length during the argument today. I am not sure it is correct that the FTX customers who are to receive (the low) cash value of Crypto as of 11/11/2022 (the FTX bankruptcy filing date, on Veterans Day, during Crypto Winter) are expected to receive the current value of the Crypto or more in the future. So maybe a fact check of the FTX bankruptcy plan would be helpful.More generally, how well the FTX bankruptcy is going/supposed to have gone in terms of paying customers in full seems to undermine at least the forfeiture order. It is not unusual that there is interplay between a criminal case and a bankruptcy case/appeal, proceeding on separate tracks but inter-related factually.I think there could possibly be a motion for new trial at the district court level regardless of the outcome of the appeal, based on the ability to seek a new trial where there is newly discovered evidence… where the interests of Justice require, etc. even where there was a lot of evidence at trial, evidence in support of a jury verdict.The appellate argument today raises questions like how much does acting on advice of counsel count? Is a person who has lawyers acting more in good faith than a person who doesn’t have lawyers? Like can a person hire lawyers to set up a business or help as it grows and be excused from criminal responsibility? If so - to what extent? One view expressed during the oral argument today was that it may depend on whether the lawyers know what the client was up to, but that is not something that would usually come into evidence at trial because of privilege issues.This was a fascinating argument. I don’t know if it is what SBF wanted to be represented to the court. Is this how he was told his case would be presented? Or does he have the same problem again, where the FTX bankruptcy case was allegedly described to him as planned a certain way, but then the case went another way and he was arrested and blamed for the collapse of FTX.Wasn’t he told that a bankruptcy would help liquidity, to monetize FTX assets so that customers could be paid? And then he handed over control of the company, which he laments. The pressure must have been very great, with the other FTX executives blaming him and a bankruptcy presented as a way to stabilize FTX’s business and avoid customer losses… and lawyers telling him what to do.I am concerned for pressure SBF is under from lawyers - BECAUSE he does rely on advice of counsel, now as he must - and his emotional health and well being must be under so much pressure.With potential for the SBF case to be heard by the US Supreme Court or a retrial or a pardon, the stakes are high. And with billions at stake in the forfeiture order, based on losses at time of trial that have been reduced, there seems a lot of room for compromise and come to an agreement that resolves the appeal.

opening with a presentation by the QVC bankruptcy case financiers

continuing questioning of Mr Meltzer

continuing questioning of Mr Meltzer

hearsay tale presented to the US bankruptcy court in Delaware of alleged happenings in Mexico, in support of proposed retention of Mexican counsel over objections

BTM

hearing on approval of sealed proposed settlement agreement between Saks and its largest landlord Simon Property Group to resolve litigation

It sounds like a court battle is planned in the QVC bankruptcy, in which "vulture investors" that allegedly bought stakes in QVC when it was already financially distressed will put on evidence towards trying to propose a different plan for QVC to exit bankruptcy under which they are paid more than the smooth sail out of bankruptcy the company lawyers would prefer. This kind of contentious litigation will likely be concerning to QVC suppliers, insurers and other interested parties - at a minimum because it is costly and preparation for hearings such as the upcoming distracts bankrupt companies' management. Maybe that is why the planning hearing is so vague as to what is going on, avoiding references to QVC or the Home Shopping Network? I don't know. This hearing seemed exceptionally vague. And I thought I heard a reference to an objection deadline of tomorrow but I am not sure. I think things may be possibly be moving too quickly for there to be time for parties to come forward and be heard in the case. More information about the QVC bankruptcy is available here including points of contact if people have questions about what is going on in the bankruptcy and deadlines: https://restructuring.ra.kroll.com/QVC/

For the agenda for the hearing, see the amended agenda filed the day of the hearing, docket number 35618 here:https://restructuring.ra.kroll.com/ftx/Home-DocketInfoThe court's ruling granting the objection to the claim gets into the FTX fraud, how people lost savings, some their families' life savings due to the FTX fraud for which Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted following trial by jury, and sentenced to a 25 year sentence. SBF has appealed his criminal conviction via counsel, seeking a new trial before a new judge.I believe Melamed is typically pronounced Me-LAH-med, not as it is pronounced by the court. The New York City based federal courts tend to do a better job with Jewish surnames than the Delaware federal courts. FTX's bankruptcy proceedings are ongoing in Delaware. SBF is imprisoned in California.MATTERS GOING FORWARD at this May 14, per the amended court agenda:FTX Recovery Trust’s Objection to Proofs of Claim Filed by ELD Capital LLC [D.I. 34251, filed on January 2, 2026] Status: The Court will issue a bench ruling on the objection at the hearing.FTX Recovery Trust’s Motion to Enforce Prior Orders that Preclude Seth Melamed from Asserting New Claims in Arbitration [D.I. 35243, filed on April 2, 2026] Objection Deadline: April 9, 2026 at 4:00 p.m. (ET); extended to April 20, 2026 for Seth Melamed. 

emergency motion