It boggles the mind that heading into a confirmation hearing, William Kosturos, the Chief Restructuring Officer of Washington Mutual Inc., does not have a clear understanding of the Anchor Savings Litigation, the amount of money owed to LTW holders or the rationale behind why it was transferred in the §363 sale to JPM. If the LTW holders, as a group, are successful in the class action proceeding against WMI they will become one of the largest, if not the largest pool of claims within the GUC claims pool. I can understand that he might not have anticipated this outcome at the inception of the case because the actions (and previous lack thereof) on the part of WMI that gave rise to the necessary change in the nature of the claims did not occur until the LTW holders’ interests in the Anchor litigation were stripped away and transferred to JPM free and clear of any obligations.
The part I cannot get past is that the adversary proceeding turned class action proceeding dates back to April 2010 and in the last 7 months the CRO did not avail himself of the requisite knowledge to even be conversant on these subjects while under cross examination at the confirmation hearing. Bear in mind that this individual was admittedly the chief negotiator on behalf of the Debtor’s estates with respect to the global settlement. I guess $770 per hour just doesn’t get you what it used to.
