Chapter 15 and Cross-Border Insolvency

Insolvencies increasingly cross borders. A liquidation in the Cayman Islands, a bankruptcy in Brazil, or a court supervised winding up in Hong Kong routinely involves money, records, and defendants sitting in the United States. When a company collapses abroad and its value is here, the officeholder appointed to recover it arrives with no automatic authority in an American court. Chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code is how that changes.

Seiden Law represents foreign representatives, liquidators, trustees, and court appointed officials in Chapter 15 recognition proceedings and in the recovery work that follows. The orientation of the practice is recovery rather than reorganization. Most engagements begin the same way: money has moved to the United States, and a foreign officeholder needs the standing and the tools to reach it.

The firm represents foreign representatives and liquidators seeking recognition, creditors and investors in foreign insolvencies with U.S. exposure, parties opposing recognition or contesting the scope of relief granted, and U.S. entities responding to discovery and turnover demands from foreign estates.

Where the Firm’s Chapter 15 Practice Sits

The practice divides into three phases, and the firm is regularly engaged for all three or brought in for the last.

Recognition. Petitions for recognition of a foreign proceeding, the evidentiary showing on center of main interests, the distinction between main and nonmain recognition and what each is worth, provisional relief pending the recognition hearing, and contested recognition where a party in interest objects.

Discovery and information gathering. Examination of witnesses, production of records, and the information gathering relief available to a recognized foreign representative. For estates whose records were destroyed, withheld, or never properly kept, this is frequently the most valuable thing recognition provides.

Recovery and enforcement. Turnover of property and records, enforcement of foreign judgments and orders following recognition, asset tracing in support of the foreign estate, and coordinated proceedings where value sits in more than one jurisdiction. Recognition is the gateway. This is the part that produces money.

Our Capabilities

The firm’s work in this area includes: Chapter 15 recognition petitions; center of main interests analysis and the evidentiary record supporting it; contested recognition proceedings; provisional relief pending a recognition hearing; examination of witnesses and production of records following recognition; turnover of property and books; enforcement of foreign judgments and insolvency orders in U.S. courts; asset tracing on behalf of foreign estates; coordination with parallel insolvency and enforcement proceedings in other jurisdictions; opposition to recognition and challenges to the scope of relief; discovery under 28 U.S.C. § 1782 where Chapter 15 is unavailable or inefficient; and representation of creditors and investors holding claims in foreign insolvencies with U.S. exposure.

What Recognition Actually Gives You

Chapter 15 was added to the Bankruptcy Code to implement the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross Border Insolvency. It does not create a plenary U.S. bankruptcy case. It gives a foreign proceeding a status in U.S. courts and gives the foreign representative standing to act here.

The threshold question is whether the foreign proceeding is recognized as a main proceeding, meaning it sits where the debtor’s center of main interests lies, or as a nonmain proceeding, meaning the debtor has an establishment there. The distinction matters because main recognition brings automatic protections, including a stay against actions and against transfers of the debtor’s U.S. property, while nonmain recognition leaves the corresponding relief to the court’s discretion. Where the debtor’s operations, management, and creditors were spread across several countries, that determination is genuinely contested and worth preparing for rather than assuming.

For a recovery driven estate, the stay is often the immediate value. A collapse abroad triggers a race among U.S. creditors to attach whatever is reachable, and recognition stops that race so the estate can be administered coherently instead of dismembered by whoever moved first.

The durable value, though, is information. A recognized foreign representative can examine witnesses and compel production in the United States. For estates arising out of fraud, where the records are missing and the people who kept them are hostile, that authority is frequently the difference between an insolvency that recovers something and one that recovers nothing.

What Makes Seiden Law Distinct

Most Chapter 15 practices sit inside restructuring groups and are built around reorganization. This one is built around recovery. The difference shows up in what happens after recognition is granted, which is where the majority of foreign estates lose momentum.

Recovery orientation. The firm treats recognition as the beginning of an engagement rather than its conclusion. Recognition orders are drafted for what the estate will need to do next, and the tracing work usually starts before the petition is filed.

An investigative bench inside the firm. Forensic accountants, financial analysts, former FBI agents, and former intelligence officers work alongside the firm’s litigators. Foreign estates arriving with incomplete records need reconstruction, not just representation.

Experience as the officeholder. Managing Partner Robert W. Seiden has been appointed receiver more than thirty times by over twenty five state, federal, and Chancery judges, and by courts in Hong Kong and the British Virgin Islands. The firm understands the position a foreign representative occupies because it has occupied the equivalent position itself, including the reporting obligations and the limits of a court conferred mandate.

Enforcement capability after recognition. The firm’s judgment enforcement and asset recovery practices carry the estate through collection. A foreign representative does not need to retain separate counsel when recognition turns into a turnover fight or an enforcement action against a third party.

Representative Matters

Recognition and recovery for a foreign trustee (global Ponzi scheme). Represented a foreign court appointed trustee in U.S. recognition proceedings arising from a global Ponzi scheme, obtaining recognition and enabling recovery of more than $100 million in U.S. based holdings for defrauded investors.

Receivership over a foreign connected public company (Baliga v. Link Motion, f/k/a NQ Mobile, S.D.N.Y.). Appointed temporary receiver over a NYSE listed, China based technology company. Took control of the company, replaced senior management, and preserved value for shareholders during contested derivative litigation, an appointment analogous to the control a foreign representative seeks through recognition.

First U.S. receiver in a contested BVI business dispute. The first U.S. lawyer appointed receiver in a contested business dispute in the British Virgin Islands. Over more than a decade of China related matters, recovered value for investors in dozens of U.S. listed companies that had gone dark.