Buckingham Oil Interests entered Chapter 11 in Massachusetts on September 1, 2015 after the death of Darryl Buckingham left an oil-and-gas investment business without its principal operator; the petition listed 100-199 creditors, and the record later described the debtor as holding working interests in roughly 100 prospects across 11 states. Janet Buckingham authorized the filing, but the U.S. Trustee immediately sought an independent fiduciary, citing an SEC investigation, management void, and imminent operational funding deadlines; Charles A. Dale III was appointed Chapter 11 trustee the same day on a $350,000 bond source filing source filing source filing.

The court confirmed Dale’s Third Amended Chapter 11 Plan on February 10, 2016, as modified by the plan supplement, with First Financial Bank’s limited objection and PBGC’s objection resolved by agreement. The plan addresses a liquidity-driven case: the debtor had only $264,833 cash at filing against about $2 million of Current Program capital calls, while investor-support parties had put more than $23 million into the debtor. The confirmed structure sells Legacy Program assets, moves Current Program assets into new Program LLCs, funds administration through subscriptions/backstop support, caps the GUC fund at the lesser of $1 million or 50% of timely filed GUCs, and channels assigned non-estate claims into a liquidating trust source filing source filing source filing.