In re Stillwater Asset Backed Offshore Fund Ltd.

485 B.R. 498, 2013 WL 175272, 2013 Bankr. LEXIS 226, 57 Bankr. Ct. Dec. (CRR) 127
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, S.D. New York
DecidedJanuary 17, 2013
DocketNo. 12-14140 (ALG)
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 485 B.R. 498 (In re Stillwater Asset Backed Offshore Fund Ltd.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Stillwater Asset Backed Offshore Fund Ltd., 485 B.R. 498, 2013 WL 175272, 2013 Bankr. LEXIS 226, 57 Bankr. Ct. Dec. (CRR) 127 (N.Y. 2013).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION

ALLAN L. GROPPER, Bankruptcy Judge.

On October 3, 2012, Eden Rock Finance Master Limited, fik/a Fortis Prime Fund Solutions Custodial Services (Ire) Ltd. re KBC as G1 (ERFF) (“ERFML”), Eden Rock Unleveraged Finance Master Limited f/k/a Fortis Prime Fund Solutions Custodial Services (Ire) Ltd. re KBC as G1 (“ERUFML”, and together with ERFML, the “Eden Rock Petitioners”), ARP Structural Alpha Fund, f/k/a Fortis (Isle of Man) Nominees Limited a/c 80 000 323 (“ARPSAF”), and ARP Private Finance Fund, f/k/a Fortis (Isle of Man) Nominees Limited a/c 80 000 357 (“ARPPFF”, together with ARPSAF, the “Absolute Petitioners”, and collectively with the Eden Rock Petitioners, the “Petitioning Creditors”) filed an involuntary Chapter 11 case against Stillwater Asset Backed Offshore Fund Ltd. (“Stillwater” or the “Alleged Debtor”). On November 7, 2012, the Petitioning Creditors filed an emergency motion, pursuant to § 303(g) of the Bankruptcy Code, seeking the immediate appointment of a trustee to manage the Alleged Debtor pending the entry of an order for relief. A hearing was conducted on October 12, 2012. The motion was denied on the ground, among others, that the Alleged Debtor had not had any ongoing business or operations for several years, and there was no showing of the need for extraordinary relief. An order was entered on October 30, 2012, denying the motion for the appointment of a trustee but confirming that no action out of the ordinary course would be taken by current management without notice to the Petitioners.

The Alleged Debtor thereafter contested the involuntary petition, seeking an order, pursuant to 11 U.S.C. §§ 105(a), 303, and 305, (i) dismissing the petition, (ii) imposing sanctions against the Petitioning Creditors, and (iii) scheduling a damages hearing and directing the Petitioning Creditors to post a bond pending such hearing. The Petitioning Creditors oppose this relief, and both parties have filed voluminous papers in support of their positions. An evidentiary hearing on the matter was conducted on December 18, 2012. Two other creditors, who go by the name Cannonball and Cannonball II, claim to be similarly situated, and purport to be funds holding in excess of $8.2 million of redemption claims, have filed a joinder to the opposition to the dismissal motion and state that they support the involuntary petition.

FACTS

The following facts were either stipulated by the parties or appear from the record of the hearing held on December 18, 2012, and the documents admitted into evidence.

Stillwater and the Petitioning Creditors’ Investments and Redemptions

Stillwater was organized under the laws of the Cayman Islands as an offshore “exempted” investment company. It was originally formed to invest in securities and financial instruments, with a primary focus on loan participations consisting of [501]*501the following: loans secured by residential and commercial properties; loans to law firms working on a contingency fee basis, secured by an interest in the potential recovery; insurance premium financial loans; and miscellaneous loans, including corporate loans.

All of Stillwater’s investments were in the form of participation interests in assets held by another fund, Stillwater Asset Backed Fund LP (the “Onshore Fund”), a Delaware limited partnership also managed by Stillwater Capital Partners, Inc. (the “Asset Manager”). The Asset Manager made all management decisions for both Stillwater and the Onshore Fund; its principals are Jack Doueck and Richard Rudy. Stillwater’s participation interests in the investments made by the Onshore Fund were documented in a series of substantially identical Master Loan Participation Agreements (the “Master Loan Participation Agreements”) between Stillwater and the Onshore Fund. All of the investments were illiquid and most required active management and/or additional capital to maintain value.

The Eden Rock Petitioners invested more than $24 million with the Alleged Debtor and the Absolute Petitioners invested more that $9 million. In connection with their investments, the Petitioning Creditors received copies of a Confidential Private Placement Memorandum (the “PPM”), amended as of May 2005, and Stillwater’s Memorandum and Articles of Association, amended and restated by Special Resolution dated 10 June 2005 (the “Articles”).

Like many other funds, particularly those that invested in real estate, Stillwa-ter was hard hit by the financial collapse in 2008. Starting in June 2008, the Petitioning Creditors, along with many other investors, redeemed all of their investments in Stillwater (the “Redemptions”). The Petitioning Creditors’ redemptions aggregated $35,934,811.74, divided among them as follows: $23,009,320 to ERFML; $3,603,080 to ERUFML; $5,433,318.26 to ARPSAL; and $3,899,093.48 to ARPPFF. Stillwater does not dispute that after redemption, the Petitioning Creditors became creditors of the Alleged Debtor in the amount of the redemptions and that, absent payment by Stillwater, either in cash or in kind, the Petitioning Creditors would be creditors of Stillwater with standing to commence an involuntary bankruptcy case.

The Alleged Payment to the Petitioning Creditors

Stillwater was unable to pay cash to the Petitioning Creditors or many other investors who redeemed their shares in the aftermath of the financial crisis. On December 18, 2009, Stillwater issued to each of the Petitioning Creditors documents, each entitled Assignment and Participation Certificate (the “Certificates”) and Share Transfer Forms (the “Share Transfer Forms”) on account of the Redemptions.1 It is Stillwater’s position that this constituted a distribution in kind (“DIK”) to the Petitioning Creditors of their proportionate interest in the participations that Still-water, in turn, owned in the Onshore Fund’s investments. It is uncontested that the Certificates and the Share Transfer Forms were the only documents issued by Stillwater in connection with the DIK. It is uncontested that the Onshore Fund [502]*502never executed or issued any documents in connection with the DIK, and the record does not disclose that the Onshore Fund has ever recognized any rights that any of the Petitioning Creditors may have had under the Master Loan Participation Agreements.

Notwithstanding the alleged “distribution in kind” to the Petitioning Creditors, about a month later, on January 20, 2010, Stillwater entered into an “asset purchase agreement” with another fund named Ger-ova Financial Group Ltd. (“Gerova”), a Bermuda corporation. Stillwater sold all of its assets to or merged into Gerova (the “Gerova Transaction”) but its creditors received no cash or other property in return (except that a substantial fee was paid to the Asset Manager). The purpose of this transaction, according to the Alleged Debt- or, was to provide liquidity to Stillwater’s investors in the form of restricted Gerova stock that would convert, over a six-month period, to unrestricted common shares of Gerova tradable on a public exchange.

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Bluebook (online)
485 B.R. 498, 2013 WL 175272, 2013 Bankr. LEXIS 226, 57 Bankr. Ct. Dec. (CRR) 127, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-stillwater-asset-backed-offshore-fund-ltd-nysb-2013.