Washington Mutual demanda a la FDIC por 17 billones US$ + daños

http://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/markets/newsfeeditem.aspx?id=148573656431572

Le puede salir el tiro por la culata al estilo examiner, y más conciendo a esta juez que le gusta que le unten bien.

Saludos

By Peg Brickley

WILMINGTON, Del. (Dow Jones)--Shareholders of Washington Mutual Inc. (WAMUQ) say the holding company at the heart of the largest banking collapse in U.S. history ran a "profoundly flawed" bankruptcy case, one that means a $7 billion payday for "powerful creditors" at the expense of others.

The Seattle company that once owned Washington Mutual Bank, or WaMu, "bent over backward to assist major hedge fund investors, while brushing aside" competing claims to the fortune collected in bankruptcy coffers, shareholder attorneys contend.

Washington Mutual toppled into bankruptcy in September 2008 after losing its prized thrift, WaMu, to regulatory seizure. The Chapter 11 plan incorporates a settlement of the holding company's liabilities over the loss of the thrift, a pact that divides up billions in cash and ownership of a smaller, reorganized Washington Mutual.

Having failed to win confirmation of its Chapter 11 plan earlier this year, Washington Mutual is back in court pushing for approval of a bankruptcy outcome that it says is the product of hard, fair bargaining over what went wrong at WaMu. After binging on subprime home loans, WaMu was seized by regulators who said the thrift was a threat to the stability of the shaken financial system.

Wednesday marked the start of a three-day contest over Washington Mutual's plan in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., before Judge Mary Walrath, who rejected the plan once.

Washington Mutual's renewed bid to confirm its Chapter 11 plan, pay creditors and skate out from under a cloud of questions about its role in WaMu's collapse is taking place under the shadow of a new cloud: suspicions some of the largest hedge funds in the country profited unfairly from inside knowledge gained at the bankruptcy bargaining table.

The four named in court documents are Appaloosa Management LP, Centerbridge Partners LP, Owl Creek Asset Management LP and Aurelius Capital Management. They have filed detailed and repeated denials of allegations that they transgressed the rules against insider trading while they sat at the Chapter 11 plan bargaining table with Washington Mutual.

Maxi: El EC ya ha dicho en la sección 10 de su objeción que tienen las pruebas que tanto Aurelius como Centerbridge cometieron Insider Trading.

Esperemos que llegue el momento de la verdad...no se de donde sacas esa conclusión porque el artículo no dice nada sobre tu opinión.

¿has visto alguna vez a un culpable declararse culpable en un caso de Insider Trading de esta magnitud? estamos hablando de ir a la carcel.

In court filings, shareholders say Washington Mutual allowed the hedge funds to "engineer a plan that would effectively assign them ownership of billions of dollars in tax attributes completely under the radar of the court." They also accused the company of granting the hedge funds "tacit authorization of insider trading."

On Wednesday, shareholder attorney Edgar Sargent revealed that the equity stake holders had asked for permission to knock down claims for payment by two of the hedge funds, Aurelius and Centerbridge. He's with Susman Godfrey, the firm representing the official committee of equity stakeholders in Washington Mutual's case.

With aggregate holdings topping $2 billion, the four hedge funds insist they did not profit unfairly. Sophisticated participants in mega-bankruptcy cases, they say they played by the rules that require a strict division between trading and plan negotiating activities.

There was some trading in Washington Mutual's debt, however, that trading was not aided by material inside information, the hedge funds say.

"Aurelius puts a high premium on preserving its sterling reputation," lawyers for the hedge fund headed by attorney Mark Brodsky wrote. The hedge fund has "scrupulously, indeed compulsively, complied with the law in connection with its trading in these cases," Aurelius said in court filings.

Lawyers for Centerbridge called the equity committee allegations "absurd." Claims the hedge funds dominated the Chapter 11 plan negotiations in the massive bankruptcy case are a "fanciful, far-fetched fiction," Centerbridge contends.

The official creditors committee backs the hedge funds. A crucial body in the case, the official committee said in court filings it found nothing amiss in the hedge fund trading during Washington Mutual's Chapter 11 case. In its filing, the creditors committee said the equity committee's claims of improper conduct are "completely inappropriate and should be rejected for what they are...desperate attempts to torpedo" Washington Mutual's Chapter 11 plan.

Shareholders will see no recovery if the plan is ultimately confirmed. Creditors will reap the benefit of a settlement with WaMu's new owner, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM), and with regulators over the collapse of WaMu. That pact forms the core of Washington Mutual's Chapter 11 plan.

No lo habia leido... debe ser su manera de usar la PR a su favor como siempre. No subestimes el poder de los accionistas que igual terminan dando una grata sorpresa. Yo no creo que Susman haga un bluff y ponga en juego en un tema tan delicado como es IT su gran reputación asumiendo una serie de cuestiones. Si dicen que tienen las pruebas es porque las deben tener. Creo que Aurelius está de los nervios. Ojalá no nos den la puñalada.

Ya sabes... el papel lo soporta todo y más si es para favorecer a los chorizos.

Eso te pasa por siempre leer los foros pumperianos y no las fuentes originales y las mociones completas, nunca aprenderas mrsimpson... espero que no cancelen a la equidad pero yo si soy culpable y se que el EC tiene pruebas, no hago estas declaraciones que han hecho los hedge.

Esto va a ser como el examiner, otra gran cagada de Susman por no saberlo llevar y llegar a un acuerdo para salir de esta corrupta bk. Sigo pensando que algo muy malo no funciona en el EC todos parecen untados y actúan en esta comedia de juicio.

Saludos

Yo si las haría... ante la duda siempre declarate inocente. Lo enseñan en las academias del crimen. Caso OJ Simpson.

De tanto pensar mal algun día puede que aciertes pero por lo que nos toca que sea en otra BK :)

Insider trading claims hang over WaMu confirmation
July 13, 2011 14:00 ET
Thomson Reuters News Washington Mutual Inc
WAMUQ
© Copyright 2011, Thomson Reuters
Page 1
* Shareholders accuse WaMu of allowing insider trading
* Funds accused of gaining millions in illegal profits
* Court may hear insider-trading allegations on Thursday
By Tom Hals
WILMINGTON, Del., July 13 (Reuters) - Washington Mutual Inc allowed four hedge funds to hijack its bankruptcy and tacitly
approved of their trading on inside information, according to the bank's shareholders.
The accusation of insider trading hung over Washington Mutual on Wednesday as it began its attempts in court to end its
bankruptcy and distribute $7 billion to creditors.
The official committee of shareholders asked the Delaware Bankruptcy Court for permission to pursue litigation against the
hedge funds -- Owl Creek Asset Management LP, Appaloosa Management LP, Centerbridge Partners LP and Aurelius
Capital Management LP -- with the goal of knocking them out of the line for repayment.
In the most inflammatory of scores of objections, shareholders accused WaMu of assisting in the hedge funds' "gross
abuse" of the bankruptcy to profit from trading the company's securities.
"The debtors fostered these hedge funds' ability to generate tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains
through illegal trading," the shareholders said in a filing on Tuesday.
A Washington Mutual spokesman declined to comment.
The hedge funds have said in court documents that they are owed about $2 billion for their holdings in company securities.
They denied the insider-trading allegations in court-filed responses to the allegations.
WaMu has said common shareholders will get nothing from the bankruptcy. The shareholders could change that by getting
the judge to strike down the hedge funds' claims.
The judge, Mary Walrath, put off ruling on what evidence the shareholders could present on the insider-trading question
until she hears the allegations in court. That will probably not happen until Thursday or Friday.
Washington Mutual has been in bankruptcy since September 2008, when regulators seized its savings and loan and sold it
to JPMorgan Chase & Co for $1.88 billion in the biggest bank failure in U.S. history.
The bankruptcy plan is based on a "global settlement agreement" struck last year between warring parties. The deal divided
$10 billion in disputed assets, providing $7 billion to the company, while other recipients agreed to support its bankruptcy
plan.
Shareholders accused the funds of directing the settlement talks while trading the securities that stood to benefit from the
deal.
Much of Wednesday's hearing before an overflow crowd consisted of expert views on the value of the tax breaks that the
reorganized company will own.
Washington Mutual plans to emerge from bankruptcy as a small mortgage reinsurance business that it says is worth around
$160 million. Shareholders have argued the business may be worth billions more because of the potentially valuable tax
breaks.