Grede v. Fcstone, LLC

584 B.R. 238
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Illinois
DecidedJanuary 23, 2018
DocketNo. 09 C 136; No. 09 C 101; No. 09 C 115; No. 09 C 120; No. 09 C 127; No. 09 C 130; No. 09 C 135; No. 09 C 137; No. 09 C 138
StatusPublished

This text of 584 B.R. 238 (Grede v. Fcstone, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Grede v. Fcstone, LLC, 584 B.R. 238 (illinoised 2018).

Opinion

REBECCA R. PALLMEYER, United States District Judge

These nine cases all arise from the decade-old bankruptcy of Sentinel Management Group, Inc. The facts surrounding Sentinel's collapse have been described in more than a dozen published opinions dating back to 2010. In short, Sentinel's managers failed to segregate client funds and securities in violation of federal law, regulations, and customer agreements. Instead, Sentinel pledged its clients' funds as collateral for loans from the Bank of New York ("BONY"), which Sentinel used to purchase even more securities on its own "house" account for the benefit of corporate insiders. When the financial markets began to crumble in the summer of 2007, Sentinel was unable to both repay the BONY loan and return its clients' money to them. Sentinel declared bankruptcy on August 17, 2007.

The Defendants are all financial institutions and former Sentinel clients assigned to its "SEG 1" customer group (collectively, "the SEG 1 Defendants"). The SEG 1 Defendants consist of FCStone, LLC (Case No. 09-cv-136); Penson Financial Futures, Inc. and Penson Futures f/k/a Penson GHCO (together, No. 09-cv-101); IFX Markets, Inc. and IPGL, Ltd. (together, No. 09-cv-115); Farr Financial, Inc. (No. 09-cv-120); Cadent Financial Services (No. 09-cv-127); Country Hedging, Inc. (No. 09-cv-130); Velocity Futures, LP (No. 09-cv-135); American National Trading Corp. (No. 09-cv-137); ABN AMRO Clearing Chicago LLC f/k/a Fortis Clearing *241Americas, LLC (No. 09-cv-138).1 Plaintiff Frederick J. Grede, is the Liquidation Trustee administering Sentinel's remaining assets. Soon after his appointment, the Trustee filed essentially identical five-count complaints against all of the SEG 1 Defendants seeking: the avoidance and recovery of various post-petition transfers under 11 U.S.C. § 549 (Count I); the avoidance and recovery of preferential pre-petition transfers under 11 U.S.C. § 547 (Count II); a declaratory judgment as to the ownership of reserve funds ("the Property of the Estate Reserves" or "the Reserves") held by the Trustee under the confirmed bankruptcy plan ("the Plan") (Count III); unjust enrichment (Count IV); and reduction or disallowance of claims (Count V).2 (See Second Amended Complaint in Grede v. FCStone, LLC , No. 09-cv-136 [99] ("FCStone Complaint"), 26-31.) All the SEG 1 Defendants raised the same core defenses in opposition to these claims.

In light of the identical claims and common factual and legal issues, then-presiding Judge Zagel decided to proceed with the SEG 1 litigation on a test-case basis. The parties selected Grede v. FCStone, LLC , No. 09-cv-136, as a test case for all the SEG 1 cases. After multiple appeals and reversals by the Seventh Circuit, all five counts in the Second Amended Complaint [99] have been resolved in FCStone's favor. It now falls on this court to enter judgment as to all the SEG 1 Defendants pursuant to the Seventh Circuit's recent decision in Grede v. FCStone, LLC , 867 F.3d 767 (7th Cir. 2017) (" FCStone II ").

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The outcome of the test case has swung wildly with each new decision. At a bench trial, Judge Zagel originally found in favor of the Trustee on Counts I, II, III, and V-dismissing only the Trustee's unjust enrichment claim in count IV as preempted by federal bankruptcy law. Grede v. FCStone, LLC , 485 B.R. 854, 888-890 (N.D. Ill. 2013). Defendant FCStone appealed, *242and the Seventh Circuit reversed the judgments in favor of the Trustee. Grede v. FCStone, LLC , 746 F.3d 244, 260 (7th Cir. 2014) (" FCStone I "). The panel found that the post- and pre-petition transfers underlying Counts I and II, respectively, fell within "safe harbors" in the Bankruptcy Code and were not subject to avoidance. Id. at 251. This decision had the further effect of rendering Count V (seeking disallowance of certain claims) moot. Absent any avoidable transfers to FCStone, the Trustee no longer had any legal grounds to disallow FCStone's claims against the estate under 11 U.S.C. § 502(d). See Grede v. FCStone, LLC , 556 B.R. 357, 366 (N.D. Ill. 2016) (" FCStone Remand "); 11 U.S.C. § 502(d) (directing courts to disallow any claim by an entity that received and failed to return an avoidable preference).

The first appeal did not specifically address the appropriate disposition of the Reserves, the subject of Count III. See FCStone II , 867 F.3d at 774 (discussing the scope of FCStone I ). The Reserves had been created by the approved Plan and involved four separate pots of money: one for each of customer SEGs 1, 2, and 3, and another for disputed claims arising under Section 7.20(b) of the Plan ("the Section 7.20(b) Disputed Claims Reserve"). FCStone Remand , 556 B.R. at 363. The Reserves are the focus of an ongoing dispute over whether certain funds are properly considered the property of the estate, or instead customer property held in trust for the benefit of specific clients. The Trustee alleged that the Reserve funds were property of the estate, and thus owed to all Sentinel's creditors on a pro rata basis. FCStone II , 867 F.3d at 779. The SEG 1 Defendants countered that the Reserves were comprised of funds protected by statutory trusts in favor of each of the SEG 1 Defendants and should only be distributed pro rata among themselves.

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Bluebook (online)
584 B.R. 238, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/grede-v-fcstone-llc-illinoised-2018.