At the risk of grossly over-simplifying, let's just call them CS (Altus/Empire, yada-yada-yada). The company was faced with claims from creditors in the neighborhood of $60M, but most of this debt was comprised of "gun-point" deals that were usurous, and highly questionable in nature. I think we can surmise that the creditors knew these claims would never survive scrutiny under Ch.11 examination, and considered themselves lucky when CS proposed a Sampsonian ~75% haircut (@$16M buyout).
What REALLY grinds my grits is that certain principals once beholden to the S/H's interests, that originally (and openly) valued the company at $5-8M, suddenly found a "White Knight" source of capital to usurp control of the S/H's interests (how convenient). By assuming the role of principal creditor, these self-same parties immediately re-assessed the value of the company's debt back in the $60M range, with a "put-up, or GET OUT" ultimatum.
While I would pull-up well short of openly accusing any particular parties of collusionary, self-serving conduct in violation of their fiduciary responsibilities to the S/H's that BUILT this company, perhaps these issues might bear one last examination while we we are still under the aegis of Judge Thurman's court. The last bell has yet to toll...
AI
