Exclusive – EFH Bankruptcy Fees Approach One-Half Billion-Dollars

Energy Future Holdings has paid its lawyers and financial advisers about $600,000 a day for each and every one of the 827 days – including weekends and holidays – since it filed for bankruptcy in April 2014. The Texas Lawbook reviewed 450 federal court records and discovered that more than 380 business lawyers and more than 240 financial advisers have billed EFH thousands and thousands of hours for work they’ve done on the bankruptcy – some of them charging as much as $1,400 an hour. As a result, the Dallas power company bankruptcy is now one of the five most expensive corporate restructurings in U.S. history.

August 4, 2016 Mark Curriden

Judge Houser: Sam Wyly Owes $1.1 Billion to IRS

A federal bankruptcy judge on Monday ordered Dallas entrepreneur and philanthropist Sam Wyly to pay the Internal Revenue Service $1.1 billion, which is less than half what the federal government originally demanded but it still one of the largest tax judgments ever against a single individual.

June 27, 2016 Mark Curriden

Texas Lawbook Exclusive: Law, Truth and Sam Wyly – The World of Bankruptcy according to Judge Barbara Houser

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Barbara Houser released her much anticipated decision last week in the billion-dollar bankruptcy case of Sam Wyly and his sister-in-law Dee. Legal experts say the legal opinion, which is 459-pages long, includes 181,504 words and 1,682 footnotes, masterfully tells the highly complex story of the Wyly brothers and the web of offshore accounts they created in the Isle of Man two decades ago. “This opinion shows that Judge Houser is a brilliant thinker and an excellent writer,” says Dallas bankruptcy lawyer Sid Scheinberg.

May 17, 2016 Mark Curriden

Judge: Wyly Bros. ‘Committed Tax Fraud’

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Barbara Houser, in a 425-page opinion, ruled late Tuesday that Dallas entrepreneurs Sam and Charles Wyly committed tax fraud when they created a series of offshore trusts in the Isle of Man in the 1990s to shield more than $1 billion for the family tax-free.

May 10, 2016 Mark Curriden

Bankruptcy Judge in Sabine Energy Upends ‘Running with the Land’ Covenants

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Shelley Chapman in Manhattan ruled Tuesday that Houston-based Sabine Oil & Gas Corp. can reject contracts with two companies that gather, treat and transport oil and natural gas as part of their Chapter 11 restructuring. The decision is a huge blow to midstream energy companies, as these contracts were previously viewed as untouchable in bankruptcy.

March 9, 2016 Houston Chronicle

Texas Business Bankruptcies Outlook: ‘The Carnage is Going to be Terrible’

Texas business bankruptcies jumped significantly in 2015, but lawyers and financial experts say last year’s increase is nothing compared to the tidal wave of corporate failures headed this way. Forty-eight oil and gas service companies and exploration and production companies filed for bankruptcy during the past 13 months, according to a report by Haynes and Boone. Eighteen prominent bankruptcy experts interviewed by The Texas Lawbook say they expect the number of oil and gas companies in Texas that file for bankruptcy in 2016 to double and that those bankruptcies will cause a domino effect that will spread to other business sectors. The Texas Lawbook provides an in-depth analysis.

February 16, 2016 Mark Curriden

Houston Natural Gas Storage Company Files for Bankruptcy

Ryckman Creek Resources and its parent, Peregrine Midstream Partners filed for Chapter 11 reorganization earlier this week, following experts’ projection of an uptick in bankruptcy filings by energy companies this year as oil prices remain low.

February 4, 2016 Natalie Posgate

Fuel Fix: Banks “Finally Found Religion” at $30 Oil, Lawyers See Wave of Bankruptcies

More than two dozen Texas bankruptcy attorneys predict a 30 percent increase in bankruptcy filings if oil prices remain low, according to a study by HSSK.

February 3, 2016 Houston Chronicle

Wyly Billion-dollar Bankruptcy Trial Concludes

A lawyer for Sam and Dee Wyly told U.S. Bankruptcy Chief Judge Barbara Houser that the tax evasion and tax fraud case brought by the Internal Revenue Service is nothing more than “a bunch of sound bites” and allegations that are not based on federal tax law.

January 28, 2016 Mark Curriden

BlueStone’s bid for Quicksilver Resources Approved in Bankruptcy Court

A federal bankruptcy judge Wednesday approved the sale of Quicksilver Resources’ U.S. assets to Tulsa-based Bluestone Natural Resources II for $245 million.

January 28, 2016 Mark Curriden

Updated – Fireworks Erupt in Wyly Bankruptcy Closing Arguments

U.S. Bankruptcy Chief Judge Barbara Houser told lawyers for Sam and Dee Wyly Wednesday that she has “a lot of heartburn” about some of the tax-free offshore trusts the Wylys established during the 1990s, which the judge said were created based on “flat out lies.”

January 27, 2016 Mark Curriden

IRS: Sam Wyly Considered Renouncing U.S. Citizenship

A lawyer for the Internal Revenue Service on Monday confronted Dallas entrepreneur Sam Wyly with emails and legal memos from 2004 apparently showing that he was interested in knowing the legal and financial ramifications if he renounced his U.S. citizenship. The Texas Lawbook has full coverage of the billion-dollar bankruptcy trial of Sam and Dee Wyly., which is now in its second week.

January 11, 2016 Mark Curriden