Suntech asks court to dismiss amended involuntary Chapter 7 petition

By Caroline Salls

Pittsburgh, Dec. 10 - Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York to dismiss the amended involuntary Chapter 7 petition filed against it, according to a Monday court filing.

As previously reported, the involuntary petition was filed by Trondheim Capital Partners, LP, Michael Meixler, Longball Holdings, LLC and Jiangsu Liquidators, LLC.

The company called the amended filing the petitioners' "latest self-serving attempt to frustrate Suntech's consensual restructuring to further their own agenda at the expense of Suntech and the majority of its stakeholders."

Like the original petition, Suntech said the amended petition did not include attached statements that each of the petitioners' claims was not acquired for the purpose of filing the involuntary case, "which is inexcusable at this juncture."

Despite acknowledging that Trondheim is not an original holder of Suntech's debt, the company said neither Trondheim nor Meixler have filed a Bankruptcy Rule 1003 statement. Suntech called this "a direct attempt to subvert the safeguards enacted to prevent abuse of the involuntary process."

"This alone is enough to disqualify Trondheim and Meixler as petitioners, leaving only Jiangsu and Longball as potentially eligible petitioners - short of the three petitioning creditors needed to commence a case under section 303(b) of the Bankruptcy Code," Suntech said.

"When combined with the circumstances surrounding the acquisition of petitioners' claims and the commencement of this proceeding, as well as the relationships between petitioners, petitioners' actions are permeated with bad faith and raise serious factual questions that require discovery."

Specifically, the company said Jiangsu and Longball acquired their claims the day of and the day before the case was filed, and Jiangsu and Trondheim are affiliated entities.

An involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy case was filed against Suntech, a Wuxi, China-based global manufacturer and distributor of solar panels, on Oct. 14 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The Chapter 7 case number is 13-13350.

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