BENGALURU/NEW DELHI :The insolvency of Indian education technology company Byju’s threatens to be the biggest upset in a celebrated startup sector, unleashing a long battle by thousands of panic-stricken employees to recover dues and protect their careers.

Once a darling of global investors, valued at $22 billion in 2022, Byju’s became popular by offering online training courses during the COVID-19 pandemic, but is now locked in a dispute with U.S. lenders seeking $1 billion in unpaid dues.

Reuters interviews with dozens of its employees, parents of students and a review of WhatsApp chats show a growing sense of desperation as people plan to take the offensive against the company whose board stands suspended with assets frozen.

“A lot of…

The sale of Blachford Lake Lodge through a year-long insolvency process is set to result in almost no repayment of any debt other than a partial payment to Prosper NWT.

Documentation filed this month by BDO, the company overseeing the insolvency process, shows that a sale of the lodge and associated assets raised $1.2 million after the spring 2023 collapse of Taiga Sports Fishing, the company owned by Mike Freeland that ran the lodge.

Among that revenue is the acquisition of the lodge late last year by Nunavut-based tour operator Arctic Kingdom.

The figures suggest the lodge sold for far less than the $3.9-million price tag it was briefly given before a realtor’s listing was taken down as the…

Jenny always dreamed of owning her own home. Her family had little money when she was growing up but she trained as an accountant and got a well-paid job, finally buying her own place in 2016.

“I worked really hard to get my career,” she said. “I did a lot of studying and I don’t come from an affluent background. Then I got my own house. When you’re younger you wish for those things and I did that.”

Two years later things started to unravel. A friend got into financial trouble and Jenny tried online slots. “I thought that if we could win some money, everything would be OK,” she said.

Jenny, 40, had grown up around horse racing and had never considered that gambling was anything other than an occasional bit of fun. But the…

TLDR:

• Sports betting has exploded since legalization in 2018, generating $120 billion in bets in 2023
• Studies show sports betting is negatively impacting personal finances, especially for lower-income households
• Gambling is associated with reduced investing, higher debt, and lower credit scores
• Young men and those in low-income areas are most affected financially by sports betting
• The industry faces potential regulation changes as its societal impacts become clearer

The rapid expansion of legal sports betting across the United States is reshaping the financial landscape for millions of Americans.

Since the Supreme Court overturned a federal ban in 2018, 38 states have legalized sports wagering, creating a booming industry that generated over…

Arrowood Indemnity, the runoff entity for Royal Indemnity and Royal Globe (Royal), was declared insolvent by the Delaware commissioner of insurance on November 6, 2023. 

This action was taken through the filing of a complaint for entry of a liquidation and injunction order with a bar date. The commissioner has suggested a bar date of January 15, 2025, which will be the last date claims against Arrowood will be allowed. Thousands of policyholders seeking insurance recovery may be affected.

Background

Arrowood Indemnity was approved to runoff claims against Royal by the Delaware insurance commissioner in 2007. In response to policyholder criticisms of the establishment of Arrowood, the commissioner required the appointment of a…

Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani addressed the media on Monday afternoon for the first time since the team fired his interpreter Ippei Mizuhara amid gambling allegations. 

“I am very sad and shocked that someone who I trusted has done this,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. 

He vehemently denied agreeing to pay off Mizuhara’s gambling debt and betting on baseball or any other sports. 

“I never bet on baseball or any sports or never have asked somebody to do it on my behalf,” Ohtani said. “I have never went through a bookmaker to bet on sports.”

Customers of a Perth bridal shop have been left scrambling to find another wedding dress, losing thousands of dollars in deposits, after the owner announced the store’s sudden closure.

The owner of North Perth boutique NOA Bridal announced to her brides on Tuesday she would “no longer be able to fulfil its obligation to deliver” their wedding dresses.

Elizabeth Lyndon-James sent an an email to customers saying she had gone “heavily” into debt and would be declaring bankruptcy.

“If there were anything left to give, I would,” she wrote.

“I have fought hard to keep the store running and to serve the brides who trusted us, going heavily into both company and personal debt.

“However, I have now reached a point where there are no…

Introduction

The Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 (CIGA or the Act) has introduced new procedures and measures to seek to rescue companies in financial distress as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic crisis.

CIGA came into force on June 26, 2020 after a speedy progression through Parliament, following the publication of the draft legislation in May. CIGA is part of the Government’s response to the COVID-19 crisis and introduces a number of “debtor friendly” measures to English restructuring and insolvency law, which up to now has been regarded as “creditor friendly”. The two new permanent restructuring procedures leave the current directors in office, with an opportunity to…

One of the problems is that our insolvency laws adopt a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach that makes little distinction between winding up a national transport company and dealing with a failed corner store business. This work must be paid for and while the former may well justify the attention of what is an experienced, and highly regulated, private profession, the latter, representing the bulk of insolvencies, will generally have limited or no assets to even fund the work required, let alone pay a dividend to creditors.

Such a market failure needs government intervention. In our view, a government liquidator is needed to handle…

Notably, the NCLAT had earlier closed insolvency proceedings against Byju’s after it accepted a settlement between the ed-tech firm and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

Before the Supreme Court, the BCCI’s counsel too urged the Court to stay the CoC’s operations.

“Let meeting of COC be deferred or stayed.. How can this 98 percent decide anything..?” argued Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, on behalf of the BCCI.

He reiterated that it would amount to allowing the appeal if the CoC process (and by extension the insolvency proceedings) are not stayed.

“Equities must be balanced,” he urged.

The Court, however, maintained that it would not pass any stay order against the CoC for now and that a decision would be taken after…