Alert 10.15.24
Lenders Beware: The Ponzi Scheme Presumption Can Trap an Unwitting Lender
A recent Ninth Circuit Court decision highlights a risk for lenders caught up in a Ponzi scheme.
Jon Doolittle focuses on all aspects of insolvency, restructuring and workouts, representing creditors and debtors in bankruptcies and state courts, out-of-court-restructurings, and in complex business disputes.
Jon has substantial experience representing secured parties in Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) Article Nine sales and non-judicial foreclosures, as well as receivers and trustees liquidating real estate and other business property in state and federal courts.
He also represents financial institutions and other businesses in complex business disputes in federal and state courts across the country.
Representative Experience
- Representing various aircraft counterparties and other creditors in the chapter 11 bankruptcies of Avianca Holdings S.A. and Grupo Aeromexico, S.A.B. de C.V. (Mexico’s second-largest airline) pending in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York after the Coronavirus pandemic grounded flights around the world.
- Served as lead counsel in many distressed asset sales in and out of court, including operating businesses and commercial real estate.
- Resolved challenges to the validity of secured claims under the UCC, including litigating perfection disputes related to asset-based lending facilities, equipment financing transactions, real estate backed loans, consignment agreements and security interests in certified securities.
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- Represented Rockley Photonics Holdings Limited, a global leader in photonics-based health monitoring and communications solutions, in connection with the negotiation and implementation of its prepackaged chapter 11 plan to go private and restructure its business through transactions that eliminated more than $120 million of secured debt and generated additional funding from existing secured noteholders of approximately $35 million.
- Served as lead counsel in over 40 bench trials in bankruptcy, state and federal district courts, as well as in over 20 bankruptcy appeals.
- Lead counsel in the distressed asset sale of a wood truss manufacturing facility with assets in two states.
- Served as West Coast counsel for one of the largest equipment finance companies in the country to recover equipment and enforce deficiency claims in state, federal district, and bankruptcy courts in the Western United States.
- Represented the trustee in the distressed sale of a railroad with operations in three states and Canada as part of a successful chapter 11 reorganization plan.
- Advised the debtor in the distressed sale of a for profit psychiatric hospital with operations in two states as part of a successful chapter 11 reorganization plan.
- Served as lead counsel defending the owner of a project to construct one of the largest biomass electric generating plants in Hawaii in lawsuits brought by the former general contractor and many other creditors, and negotiated a global settlement that allowed the owner to retain the project and continue development.
- Served as lead trial counsel for a large financial institution in defending more than 35 bankruptcy adversary proceedings brought by debtors in courts throughout the United States.
- Advised national health insurer on hundreds of account receivable turnover demands from provider factor finance creditors throughout the country.
Professional Highlights
- Recognized by Best Lawyers (published by BL Rankings LLC) as the “Lawyer of the Year” for Litigation Bankruptcy – San Francisco (2014, 2016 and 2018); and The Best Lawyers in America for work in Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights/Insolvency and Reorganization Law (2006 – 2025); Litigation – Bankruptcy (2011 – 2025).
- Recognized in Chambers USA for Corporate M&A: Bankruptcy – Maine (2007 – 2011).
- Recognized by New England Super Lawyers for Bankruptcy and Creditor/Debtor Rights.
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- Speaking Engagements
- Speaker on “Ten Things Creditors Need to Know After Receiving Notice of a Bankruptcy Filing,” Pillsbury CLE California Marathon, January 11, 2022
- Speaker on “Distressed Real Estate: Mezzanine Loan Enforcement and Bankruptcy Issues,” Pillsbury CLE California Marathon webinar, January 11, 2021
- Speaker on “Commercial Foreclosures,” Swimming Lesson Videocast Series: Surviving and Navigating the Choppy Waters of Distressed Real Estate, December 4, 2020
- Blog Posts
- “Pandemic Does Not Satisfy Lease’s Casualty Clause Court Finds,” Pillsbury’s Gravel2Gavel, April 1, 2021
Education
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J.D., University of Maine School of Law, 1993
A.B., Middlebury College, 1987
Admissions
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California
Maine
Courts
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U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California
U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
U.S. District Court for the District of Maine
U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California
U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of California
U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California
U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maine
All State Courts of Maine