Firm News
Schulte Represents WMLP Secured Lenders in Acquisition of Kemmerer Mine in Westmoreland Bankruptcy Cases
June 21, 2019
On June 21, 2019, Kemmerer Operations LLC, an entity established by the secured lenders (“WMLP Secured Lenders”) to Westmoreland Resource Partners LP and its subsidiaries (“WMLP Debtors”), acquired the Kemmerer coal mine and certain other assets out of the WMLP Debtors’ Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases in exchange for a $300-million credit bid. Westmoreland Coal Company and certain of its affiliates, including the WMLP Debtors, had filed for Chapter 11 protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas on October 9, 2018. The WMLP Secured Lenders agreed, as part of the Kemmerer sale, to fund the payment of certain claims and wind-down costs enabling the WMLP Debtors to confirm their Chapter 11 plan and emerge from bankruptcy. The Schulte team worked with the WMLP Secured Lenders to, among other things, put new management and operations in place and facilitate the successful acquisition of the assets.
The Schulte team representing the WMLP Secured Lenders in connection with the Westmoreland Chapter 11 cases, including the WMLP Secured Lenders’ acquisition of the Kemmerer mine and the other assets, was led by business reorganization partner Kristine Manoukian. The team also included business reorganization associate Kelly (Bucky) Knight; employment & employee benefits partners Ronald Richman and Ian Levin and special counsel Scott Gold; litigation partner Peter White and special counsel Jason Mitchell; tax partner Dan Kusnetz; environmental special counsel Theodore Keyes; and former Schulte lawyers Andrew Fadale, Marc Friess, Richard Presutti, Lucy Kweskin, Christian Bonser and Sarah Sullivan.
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Alerts
On June 28, 2024, the US Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking that would amend existing anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism (“AML/CFT”) program[1] regulations to require that financial institutions establish, implement and maintain effective, risk-based and reasonably designed AML/CFT programs with certain minimum components, including a mandatory risk assessment process (hereinafter, “Proposed Rule”).[2] For purposes of the Proposed Rule, “financial institutions” include: banks; broker dealers; mutual funds; futures commission merchants (“FCMs”) and introducing brokers in commodities (“IB-Cs”); insurance companies; money services businesses (“MSBs”); casinos and card clubs; dealers in precious metals, precious stones or jewels; operators of credit card systems; loan or finance companies; and housing government sponsored enterprises.[3] In addition to establishing minimum risk assessment requirements for these AML/CFT programs, the Proposed Rule would require that financial institutions document each component of their AML/CFT programs and make this documentation available to FinCEN or its designee, which can include the appropriate agency to which FinCEN has delegated examination authority,[4] or the appropriate SRO.[5] The Proposed Rule would also require that these AML/CFT programs be approved and overseen by the financial institution’s board of directors or, if the financial institution does not have a board of directors, an equivalent governing body.
Alerts
On June 28, 2024, the US Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking that would amend existing anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism (“AML/CFT”) program[1] regulations to require that financial institutions establish, implement and maintain effective, risk-based and reasonably designed AML/CFT programs with certain minimum components, including a mandatory risk assessment process (hereinafter, “Proposed Rule”).[2] For purposes of the Proposed Rule, “financial institutions” include: banks; broker dealers; mutual funds; futures commission merchants (“FCMs”) and introducing brokers in commodities (“IB-Cs”); insurance companies; money services businesses (“MSBs”); casinos and card clubs; dealers in precious metals, precious stones or jewels; operators of credit card systems; loan or finance companies; and housing government sponsored enterprises.[3] In addition to establishing minimum risk assessment requirements for these AML/CFT programs, the Proposed Rule would require that financial institutions document each component of their AML/CFT programs and make this documentation available to FinCEN or its designee, which can include the appropriate agency to which FinCEN has delegated examination authority,[4] or the appropriate SRO.[5] The Proposed Rule would also require that these AML/CFT programs be approved and overseen by the financial institution’s board of directors or, if the financial institution does not have a board of directors, an equivalent governing body.