Tracking the Bankruptcy Buzzards

Aloha Airlines filed for bankruptcy protection today for the second time in just over three years.

The state's No. 2 carrier filed for Chapter 11 reorganization with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Honolulu.

The airline said it hopes to protect the jobs of its 3,500 employees, honor all travel reservations and keep air cargo moving between the Islands.

In its filing, Aloha said it wasn't making enough money off inter-island routes because of "predatory pricing by Mesa Air Group's go! airline."

"In the highly competitive inter-island market, Aloha was forced to match go!'s below-cost fares at a time when the airline industry was facing unprecedented increases in the cost of jet fuel," the company said

"It is a travesty and a tragedy that the illegal actions of a competitor and other factors completely beyond our control have forced us to take this action," said David A. Banmiller, Aloha's president and CEO, in a statement.

"Through this filing, we hope to achieve a successful outcome that will protect the jobs of 3,500 dedicated employees who have made extraordinary sacrifices for Aloha, and to continue to earn the support of our loyal customers, business partners, vendors and financial backers."

Aloha said it will seek the court's approval to continue operating with financing from its principal working capital lender, General Motors Acceptance Corp.

Mark Dunkerley, president and CEO of Hawaiian Airlines, the state's No. 1 carrier, issued a written statement.

"The action taken by Aloha Airlines today reflects the difficult operating environment in Hawaii's airline industry," Dunkerley said. "It is extremely challenging and marked by high operating costs, record high fuel prices and a very competitive pricing structure."

"Fortunately at Hawaiian Airlines we have made many tough operating decisions in the past year and customers have responded positively. We know the local airline industry will continue to change and I'm confident that our employees are up to the challenge."

Gov. Linda Lingle issued a statement on the bankruptcy filing: "I am very concerned about the 3,500 employees who have sacrificed a lot over the years. I am hopeful that this action will allow Aloha Airlines to successfully emerge from reorganization as they have done in the past.

"The continued, uninterrupted service of the airline is in the best interest of the employees, Hawai'i residents and visitors and our state's economy. We will continue to monitor this situation and any potential impacts resulting from Aloha's filing today."

Current members of the Bankruptcy Mediation Panel are listed below. Applications for appointment to the panel will be accepted on a continuing basis.
Ryther L. Barbin, Esq. Louis L. C. Chang, Esq. Robert E. Chapman, Esq. Chuck C. Choi, Esq. Harrison P. Chung, Esq. Charles W. Crumpton, Esq. Nicholas C. Dreher, Esq. James N. Duca, Esq. Don Jeffrey Gelber, Esq. Steven Guttman, Esq. Owen H. Hellekson, Jr., Esq.	Simon Klevansky, Esq. Ronald K. Kotoshirodo, Esq. Colin K. Kurata, Esq. Remy Luria, Esq. Alan J. Ma, Esq. Michael F. Nauyokas, Esq. William J. Plum, Esq. Bradley Tamm, Esq. Susan Tius, Esq. James A. Wagner, Esq. Thomas J. Wong, Esq.
LBR 9019-2. ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION (a) Purpose and Scope. To facilitate the voluntary resolution of adversary proceedings and contested matters, the Bankruptcy Court is authorized to establish guidelines for court-sponsored Bankruptcy Alternative Dispute Resolution (“BDR”) procedures. This rule does not preclude parties from participating in the alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”) procedures implemented under LR 16.11 or in any other ADR process. (b) Program Administration. (1) Bankruptcy Mediation Committee. The court may establish a Bankruptcy Mediation Committee to formulate guidelines for BDR procedures and the selection, training and evaluation of individuals to serve on a Mediator Panel. (2) BDR Administrator. The court may appoint a BDR Administrator to administer the BDR program and to serve as liaison between the court and the Bankruptcy Mediation Committee. (3) Bankruptcy Mediator Panel. The BDR Administrator shall publish and maintain a list of qualified individuals approved by the court to serve as members of a Bankruptcy Mediator Panel. Individuals selected to serve on the panel may be required to provide a minimum amount of service without compensation. (c) Confidentiality. (1) Except as otherwise provided by this rule or applicable law, any and all communications made in connection with any mediation under this rule shall be subject to Rule 408 of the Federal Rules of Evidence. (2) Mediators and parties shall not communicate with the court about the substance of any position, offer or other matter in the mediation without the consent of all parties, unless such disclosure is required to enforce a settlement agreement or to provide evidence in an attorney disciplinary proceeding, but only to the extent required to accomplish that purpose. (d) Immunity of Mediators. All persons serving as mediators under this rule shall be deemed to be performing quasi-judicial functions and shall be entitled to all of the privileges, immunities and protections that the applicable law accords to persons serving in such capacity.
12/19/2002

It's been almost 10 years since Sukamto Sia, the high-rolling former Honolulu bank owner and real estate dealer, filed a $300 million personal bankruptcy case — and it still hasn't been resolved.

Sia's case is not the oldest bankruptcy pending in Hawai'i. A computer search of court dockets showed that there are 22 open cases filed between 1992 and 2000, involving hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid debts.

Several of the bankruptcies generated financial and social shockwaves when they were filed. Sia's case was notable because of his flamboyant lifestyle and the related financial collapse of the Bank of Honolulu.

As they drag out there is "less money ... to pay creditors," bankruptcy attorney Dawn Smith said. "Usually there are administrative expenses that have to be paid to attorneys, accountants, appraisers and so forth."

Those expenditures can result in recovery of money owed to the bankrupt estate and later distributed to creditors, but Smith noted that for creditors "waiting years and years for payment means they've lost the use of that money and interest it could have been earning."

The oldest active case is the 1992 Hamakua Sugar bankruptcy, in which one of the largest sugar plantations in Hawai'i closed its doors, throwing some 700 employees out of work and idling cultivation of some 35,000 acres of land on the Big Island. The bankruptcy case was first closed in 1999 but reopened in 2004 to deal with a $36,000 fuel rebate apparently owed to the bankrupt estate. That collection issue is unresolved.

According to paperwork filed when the case was reopened, even if the money is collected, it won't come close to paying all the bills in the case.

"The total amount of unpaid administrative (expenses) in this case is $1.2 million," the Office of the U.S. Trustee reported. "There are over 1,200 administrative claimants comprised of government agencies, former employees, landlords, professionals, and others."

The sisters were convicted in 2002 of federal money-laundering and tax charges connected to Marlene Lindsey's bankruptcy case. The bankruptcy remains open while Lokelani Lindsey, who once collected $1 million per year from the Bishop Estate and was one of the most powerful and controversial women in Hawai'i, makes $300 monthly restitution payments to her sister's bankrupt estate.

As of July 31, she had managed to pay $5,000 of the $35,000 she was ordered to repay in 2002.

Other cases include that of Mahalo Air, the startup interisland air carrier that launched service here in 1993 and shut its doors with a 1997 bankruptcy filing that is still active.

The financial failure of Gray Line Hawaii Ltd., the state's third-largest tour bus company, which shut its doors in 1997, is also generating paperwork in Bankruptcy Court.

In the Sia case, a lot has happened to the Indonesian-born businessman since he filed the bankruptcy action in 1998, listing among his debts tens of millions of dollars owed to gambling casinos in Las Vegas, London and Asia.

He was convicted in 2002 of bank and bankruptcy fraud related to the financial collapse and federal takeover of the Bank of Honolulu. He served three years in federal prison and was deported and forbidden ever to return to the United States.

Just a few months ago, he married Kelly Randall, who was his co-defendant in the fraud case, in a lavish wedding at the Hotel de Paris in Monaco.

A few friends from Honolulu attended the July nuptials, including state Senate vice president Donna Mercado Kim and Waikiki's "Ambassador of Aloha," entertainer Danny Kaleikini, according to news accounts of the event.

Attempts to reach Kim, Kaleikini and Linda Wong, another Honolulu friend of Sia's who attended the Monaco wedding, were unsuccessful.

Sia and Randall could not be reached. Sia's local bankruptcy attorney, Noah Fiddler, did not return telephone calls for comment.

Sia still owes more than $200 million to creditors around the world. Randall owes more than $1 million because of a series of transfers of assets Sia made to her, according to documents in the case.

"I don't doubt there are still millions dollars out there which were never found," said Paul Alston, local attorney for an Asian bank owed more than $4 million.

The largest single creditor in the case is CommerzBank (Southeast Asia), which is owed some $41 million, according to case records.

According to accounts of the wedding published in two Singapore-based magazines, it was an exclusive and expensive affair.

Guido Giacometti, the court-appointed private trustee in charge of the Sia bankruptcy case, said he believes it will be closed in the next few months.

The Office of the U.S. Trustee, an arm of the Justice Department that oversees the administration of bankruptcy cases, stresses the need to close cases as quickly as possible, Giacometti said.

"We stay in close touch with the office," Giacometti said. "There are cases like this one which stretch out over years and I think the U.S. Trustee's office understands that."

He added: "This was a very complex case with international aspects and with connections to criminal proceedings. Next year it will be 10 years since the case was filed and I'm as anxious to close it as anyone else involved."

Carol Muranaka, assistant U.S. trustee in charge of the Hawai'i office, declined comment, referring questions to Steven Katzman, head of the U.S. Trustee's regional office in San Diego.

Katzman, who oversees bankruptcy administration in Southern California, Hawai'i, Guam and Saipan, was traveling and could not be reached for comment.

Apollo Advisors - Financial investment managers. 13th largest campaign contributor to Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), Al Gore's vice presidential running mate, and a client of lobbying firm Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld. Another of Akin, Gump's clients is Miller & Chavalier, a Washington, D.C.-based law firm which, together with PricewaterhouseCoopers, drafted the IRS settlement agreement for Hawaii's Kamehameha Schools.

Apollo Advisors has a number of other important connections with Kamehameha Schools: Along with National Housing Corp (which was involved in an alleged kick-back scheme with ousted Bishop Estate trustees Henry Peters and Richard Wong), Apollo and Trinity Investment Trust have financial interests in several estate-owned properties involving two alleged Yakuza-connected companies -- Azabu Building Company and Mitsui Trust.

Hyatt Corp. got court approval yesterday to buy its flagship Waikiki hotel for $445 million from bankrupt Azabu Buildings Co. Ltd.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Faris confirmed the sale of the Hyatt Regency Waikiki Resort & Spa to Hyatt, which has managed the property since it opened in 1974.

The sale includes the King's Village Shopping Center, which is owned by Azabu Buildings' wholly owned subsidiary, Azabu USA Corp. Azabu went into bankruptcy in February 2006.

Hyatt was the sole qualified bidder, having put down a $25 million deposit for the property as of the March 6 deadline for competing bids.

A second offer for $5.1 billion in cash or $9 billion in stock from Ade Ogunjobi, founder, chairman and CEO of TC Co./Toks Inc. was rejected by the court, which disqualified his bid because he couldn't post the required $25 million deposit.

Toks and Ogunjobi were sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in August 2003 for offering fraudulent promissory notes over the Internet in a bid to raise billions of dollars to acquire more than a dozen of the world's largest corporations, though the company had no assets, sales or revenue.

In December 2003, Toks, which said it had relocated to Honolulu from Los Angeles, submitted a motion and application to acquire Hawaiian Holdings Inc., parent company of Hawaiian Airlines, through an exchange tender offer for $1 billion in stock and assumption of all of the airline's debt.

An auction set for yesterday was called off because there were no other qualified bids.

Hyatt is required to increase its deposit to $44.5 million, or 10 percent of the sales price, three business days after confirmation of the transaction.

Hyatt is taking control of the hotel by purchasing the stock of Azabu Buildings.

Meanwhile, Azabu and the committee of unsecured creditors have filed a suit against Azabu's Japan-based lender Chuo Mitsui Trust & Banking Co. Ltd., Waikiki First Finance Corp. and Waikiki S.F. Corp.

Waikiki First and Waikiki S.F. -- both owned by Honolulu-based Trinity Investments -- hold the first and second mortgages on the hotel, which total $330 million.

Azabu and the creditors assert that the lender's claims and the mortgages should either be rejected or reduced in priority. Chuo Mitsui's claims total $192 million.

Paul Alston, attorney for Chuo Mitsui and the two mortgage lenders that Trinity acquired, said his clients deny there is any merit to the claims made by Azabu and the creditor's committee.

Hyatt's general manager, Michael Jokovich, didn't return calls for comment yesterday.

"The property has substantial strategic value to Hyatt so the bid price is fairly aggressive," said tourism consultant Joseph Toy of Hospitality Advisors LLC. "Given its strategic value to Hyatt they certainly are willing to pay that premium."

The Noticing Center, developed by BAE Systems Information Technology, automates and streamlines the bankruptcy noticing process for the Administrative Office of the US Courts (AOUSC), serving 88 Federal Bankruptcy court districts nationwide.

The Noticing Center reduces costs, processing time, and errors by integrating sophisticated software system technology, end-to-end centralized services, and high-volume distribution capabilities.

Each year, approximately 1.5 million individuals and businesses file bankruptcy. The courts have an obligation to notify creditors of bankruptcy case proceedings in a timely manner.

Prior to the inception of the Bankruptcy Noticing Center (BNC) contract in 1993, bankruptcy courts processed and disseminated notices from each site via a dispersed and costly federal processing system.

Today, under the BNC contract, one noticing center serves 98 percent of the US Federal Bankruptcy court system....

What international investment bank has consulted in the disappearance of every formerly major American steel company?

What investment bank set up the infamous United Airlines employee ownership plan of 1994 – which lost each employee’s every dollar of stock – and had “consulted,” altogether, seven major airlines into bankruptcy and/or liquidation?

What investment bank put together the mergers that created, and then advised, the monster Enron?

What investment bank has been the strategic advisor to each of the big auto supply companies with has gone into bankruptcy; has advised both GM/Ford and the UAW on the ongoing shutdowns of auto plants and jobs; and developed the strategic bankruptcy plan for Delphi Corp., the worst industrial outsourcing in U.S. corporate history?

And, in the case of the Delphi outsourcing plan, the crime was done by Felix Rohatyn personally.

But don’t get the idea that this is a project by one greedy individual. Rohatyn himself is simply the front-man for a tightly-knit network of private financier institutions – investment houses, commercial banks, and their allied law firms and consulting firms – that have systematically moved to shut down the entire industrial base of the United States over the past 30 years, and have now nearly succeeded in wiping it out altogether.

They have implemented globalization-through-fraud, taking advantage of a corrupt rewriting of America’s bankruptcy laws, which, in effect, hands life-or-death decision-making power over to this financial cartel, and a new generation of thieves they’ve created, like Delphi Chief Steve Miller, and “former” Rothschild agent Wilber Ross.

In effect, what has occured is a foreign take-down of the United States, led by an international Synarchist network which has always hated the United States, and set out to destroy the legacy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt as soon as his heart stopped beating in 1945....

Like an alQaeda of Wall Street, Felix Rohatyn’s investment banks and their network of partners have closed and destroyed more factories, firehouses, and police stations in the past 35 years than terrorists have ever dreamed of – while adopting the pose of Democratic Party funders, and friends and advisors to labor unions.

Ever since taking control of New York City in 1974 and shrinking its municipal services by 25-40%, and taking hold of its unions’ pension funds to pay out to its bank creditors, Felix Rohatyn has claimed that this looting job was a model for all of industrial America. ... With partners and proteges pulled out of the socialist labor movement and made into bankers, this leading synarchist fascist has made Lazard and his own Rohatyn Associates bank, the top deindustrializers of America...

Overall results: Aerospace employment in the United States fell from a peak of 900,000 during the late 1980s to 550,000 now, a 40% drop; 60 million square feet of aerospace/defense capacity was shut down from 1990-97 alone, and its machinery sold off at auctions.

During the 198s, there were about 20 prime military contractors, and more than 130,000 scientists and engineers working on aerospace redearch and development, according to the Aerospace Industries Association. With the end of the Cold War as the pretext, there took place a drastic downsizing of both the high-technology, machine-tool-rich defense/aerospace industry and U.S. military forces, initiated by Dick Cheney, when he was Secretary of Defense from 1989 through January 1993.

Today, there are only five major prime military contractors, and only about 30,000 scientists and engineers working on aerospace R&D.

In the mid-1990s, the downsizing and dismantling of the defense/aerospace sector was led by the little-known Joshua Gotbaum, a protege of Frlix Rohatyn at Lazard Freres, and the son of New York City labor leader Victor Gotbaum, himself a close collaborator with Rohatyn in the razing of New York City public services in the 1970s under “Big MAC” – the bankers’ Municipal Assistance Corporation.

During 1975-82, Rohatyn, with the indispensable cooperation of the senior Gotbaum, brutally cut vital public services – fire, police, hospitals., and transit – by 15% to 40%, driving out much of the city’s poorer population in the process. As a reward for his father’s collaboration, Joshua Gotbaum was made a banker by Lazard Freres in 1981. By 1990 he was a general partner, and was entrusted to serve as the Managing Director of Lazard’s London office from 1989-92.

In 1994, Joshua Gotbaum was suddenly named to a newly created Pentagon position, assistant Secretary of Defense for Economic Security, with a 260-person staff and considerable powers. At a time when defense expenditures were being slashed, Gotbaum applied pressure to shut down aerospace factories. During the 1990s, more that 250,000 aerospace production workers were axed, and more than one-third of the aerospace sector was liquidated in the process of “consolidation.” With it, went much of the industry’s irreplaceable advanced machine-tool capacity....

Closely related to the aerospace industry, is the commercial airline sector, whose destruction was also crafted and facilitated by Lazaard Freres and Joshua Gotbaum.

Listen to the description in the Jan 7, 2004 Honolulu Star-Bulletin: “Gotbaum was an investment banker with Lazaard Freres & Co., in New York and London, providing advice to airlines on mergers, acquisitions, bankruptcies, and restructuring. He consulted with Eastern, Braniff, Pan American, British Airways and Air France.”

This is quite a record: Eastern, Braniff, and Pan American each went bankrupt and was eventually liquidated.

In addition, in 2003 Gotbaum was appointed the operating Trustee for Hawaiian Airlines, after it filed for reorganization under Chapter 11. His was an extremely rare position; normally, the existing management continues to operate a company (as “debtor-in-possession”) in a Chapter 11. Hawaiian was not bankrupt; its reason for filing bankruptcy was to force concessions from its employee unions and to renegotiate it aircraft leases with Boeing. The head of the Air Lines Pilots Association correctly called it a “sham bankruptcy.”

The outcome, for which Gotbaum demanded almost $10 million in fees, was that 2) creditors got paid in full (very unusual); 2) shareholders saw their stock actually increase in value, instead of being wiped out, as is normal; 3) employees made concessions and give-backs in wages, benefits, and work-rules; and 4) pilots had their pensions frozen and revamped.

That’s only part of the picture. Overall, there were at least nine airlines to which Lazard and Gotbaum were consultants. Seven of the nine ended up in bankruptcy, most of which included “restructuring” consulting by Lazard....

As the saying goes, a rising tide lifts all boats. For the past few years, the relatively strong economy and low interest rate environment has been buoying companies that may not have survived in rougher waters. But as the tide turns on the economy, can these companies keep their heads above water?

According to Forbes, this country is facing a bankruptcy boom. It says many companies have used the current easy money environment not to repair fundamental problems in their businesses, but to simply pay creditors.

"A lot of people aren't fixing the problems they have with their businesses," Ingrid Bagby, a partner with law firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, tells Forbes. "They're just fixing their liquidity problems."

Lenders have not done their due diligence, says Forbes. They haven’t investigated how the money will be used, leading to a rising risk of bankruptcies and a lot of bad debt on their hands.

And it’s not chump change. Forbes points to a private equity investor who procured a $10 million investment for one of the companies in his portfolio. The hedge fund doling out the money never sent a representative to a due diligence meeting. When asked why, the hedge fund responded, "For a $10 million investment, it’s not worth sending someone."

Forbes points to unsustainably low default rates. According to Moody’s the current default rate for speculative grade bonds is 1.8 percent, well below the historical average of 5 percent. But many experts say that statistic will reverse quickly, with estimates averaging in the 2.5 percent to 3 percent range. Some even say the default rate could explode to around 7 percent or 8 percent.

"The default rates seem unsustainably low, at the same time the volume of potential candidates has never been higher," Mark Sunshine, CFO of financial services firm First Capital, tells Forbes.

"I think when [a correction] comes, and it is coming, it's going to be a big one," warns Jay Goffman, a partner in the corporate restructuring department at law firm Skadden Arps.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Friday it was important to make sure hedge fund liquidity and borrowing were closely monitored, but said they were making a helpful contribution to financial markets.

Anyone filing or related to someone filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy is a potential victim. Several basic characteristics will tell you if you are a potential victim. They are:

> Lack of experience and knowledge with bankruptcy rules and the judicial system

That means any law abiding citizen not educated in bankruptcy law is a potential victim for the Chapter 7 trustees and attorneys colluding with them to perpetrate fraud, embezzlement and extortion under color and claim of official right.

Some attorneys have intentionally misled their clients in these matters, setting them up for charges of fraud filed by the Chapter 7 trustees. In addition, some cases demonstrate that the non filing spouse is charged with false charges and coerced into agreeing to a "settlement."

> Working class: Fraud restricts victims by robbing them of their money. Since victims are already in desperate financial straits when counseling with an attorney on bankruptcy, they automatically qualify as someone that cannot afford legal fees to challenge false charges, neither filing fees nor legal fees to appeal unlawful decisions.

> Pro Se, that is, filing your bankruptcy without using an attorney, or representing yourself after your attorney abandons you. Bankruptcy trustees and bankruptcy judges appear to take pleasure in denigrating and humiliating their victims by suggesting they are too stupid to understand the law.

> Self-employed. As long as you are able to make money, the trustees will find a way of making you agree to give them monthly payments for significant periods of time, although there is no guarantee that business will support the payments to the trustee in addition to living and business expenses.

Perpetrators of financial confidence crimes committed under color of official right operate to convince their victims that:

> There is something of benefit for the victim to receive in exchange for submitting to the extortion scheme. (Such as, giving the trustee $5,000 to drop false charges is less than having to pay $25,000 of debts declared in the bankruptcy.)

> There is reason for the victim to fear not being able to recover from the acts they are threatened with unless they submit to the extortion scheme, (such as imprisonment on false charges; not having their bankruptcy discharge granted; being slandered and humiliated in court by a hostile witness).

> The perpetrators have influence and control over the Judge and justice personnel so that they will win the case, regardless of the law and evidence. (...Therefore, victims cannot, and will not receive justice.)