Woodbridge is in a post-emergence liquidation/recovery posture, with the estate story now centered on Liquidating Trustee Michael Goldberg’s adversary actions to recover alleged preferential, fraudulent, and related transfers rather than on operating restructuring. The case began on December 4, 2017, when Woodbridge and affiliated debtors filed chapter 11 in Delaware after regulatory pressure and liquidity stress overtook a real estate finance enterprise funded through investor-facing note and unit programs, as described in the Perkins first-day declarationDkt. 12.
The filing followed SEC and state securities-regulator investigations into alleged unregistered securities sales and fraud, management changes that removed Robert Shapiro from control, and a balance sheet built around approximately $750 million of noteholder notes and $226 million of fund units. The debtors entered chapter 11 with a large portfolio of real estate assets, roughly $12 million of cash, and a proposed $100 million Hankey Capital DIP facility secured by priming liens on specified properties, with the filing strategy aimed at preserving property value while pursuing an expedited plan process and potential exit financing path through the same lender, according to the Perkins first-day declarationDkt. 12.
After the main restructuring phase, the docket context shifts to litigation designed to monetize estate claims. Comerica opened a 2018 adversary proceeding seeking declaratory and injunctive relief against multiple investor-related parties in the Comerica adversary complaintDkt. 1. By late 2019, Goldberg, as Liquidating Trustee of the Woodbridge Liquidation Trust, was filing avoidance and recovery complaints, including fraudulent-transfer actions against individual and business defendants and broader claims against parties alleged to have participated in sales of unregistered securities, fraud, or aiding and abetting fraud, as reflected in the and the . The available context does not identify a pending omnibus hearing or near-term milestone; the current visible path is continued liquidation-trust litigation and recovery administration.
