Vanderbilt Minerals Creditors Oppose Parent’s Liability Releases

Vanderbilt Minerals LLC’s junior creditors and the Justice Department’s bankruptcy watchdog opposed a settlement between the bankrupt industrial miner and its parent, R.T. Vanderbilt Holding Co., saying the claims being released are valuable to the estate.

The Vanderbilt family and RTV are attempting to secure liability releases without providing anything to the estate in a “sham” deal, an unsecured creditors’ committee said in a Wednesday filing in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of New York.

“This may be one of the most egregious examples of corporate effort to avoid liability for a known and foreseeable environmental liability ...