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Vincent Indelicato

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Vincent Indelicato is a partner in Proskauer’s Corporate Department, and a member of both the Business Solutions, Governance, Restructuring & Bankruptcy and Private Credit Restructuring Groups. His practice focuses on corporate restructurings, with an emphasis on the representation of direct lenders, ad hoc groups, bondholders and creditors’ committees both out of court and in chapter 11. He is frequently consulted by leading distressed hedge funds, BDCs, private credit lenders, private equity investors and creditors on complex domestic and international insolvency and restructuring issues, including intercreditor and interlender matters, across a variety of industries. Vincent is also part of the Firm’s cross-disciplinary, cross-jurisdictional Coronavirus Response Team helping to shape the guidance and next steps for clients impacted by the pandemic.

Vincent has been recognized by the American Bankruptcy Institute for his “formidable courtroom presence with natural dealmaker instincts” as a recipient of the 40 Under 40 Award, and an Outstanding Young Restructuring Lawyer by Turnaround and Workouts. Chambers USA, America’s Leading Lawyers for Business describes Vincent as “incredibly thoughtful” and “a smart practitioner,” who “lobbies hard for his clients” and “is aggressive in his approach, but practical when it comes to dealmaking.” The Chief Executive Officer of a client recently told Bloomberg Law that “his mind is automatically strategic. And in tough situations, he never goes on defense. He has the ability to manage multiple personalities and temperaments to get them focused on the end game.” Reorg, one of the most widely-followed publications in the distressed investing community, also selected Vincent as the inaugural guest of its Professional Spotlight podcast.

Over the last decade, Vincent has played a lead role in some of the most significant corporate reorganization cases in the United States. These include his representation of the Statutory Committee of Unsecured Claimholders in the chapter 11 cases of Caesars Entertainment Operating Company Inc., which filed for bankruptcy with more than $18 billion of funded debt; the Los Angeles Dodgers in their $2 billion acquisition by Magic Johnson and Guggenheim Partners; Brookfield Asset Management in the $2.5 billion debt restructuring of Kerzner International’s Atlantis Bahamas Resort; and J.P. Morgan and other substantial creditors in the chapter 11 cases of MF Global, a financial services company with $41 billion in assets.

Vincent has been widely recognized in the restructuring community as a thought leader. He writes frequently on restructuring topics, and his writing has been featured in, among other publications, The Wall Street Journal Bankruptcy Pro, The American Bankruptcy Institute Journal, Law360 and The Bond Buyer. He has also assisted Martin Bienenstock as an Adjunct Professor of Corporate Reorganization at both Harvard Law School and Michigan Law School.

He serves as a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute’s Views from the Bench Advisory Board, the Federal Bar Counsel Bankruptcy Litigation Committee and is a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Vincent was selected to participate in the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges NextGen Program, and also serves as a Member of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Leadership Council.

A Harry S. Truman Scholar, Vincent graduated from University of Michigan Law School as commencement speaker. Prior to law school, he served as the Special Assistant to United States Senator Charles E. Schumer and worked as a personal aide to John C. Whitehead, former chairman and senior partner of Goldman Sachs. He also led a team of entrepreneurs to bring the world’s first hybrid taxicab to New York City.

Vincent graduated with an English degree from Haverford College, where he served as president of the student body and was one of 16 college students from the United States to be selected as a Goldman Sachs Global Leader. He was a visiting student of English at Pembroke College, Oxford University. A native New Yorker, Vincent attended Regis High School, a tuition free private high school for young men who demonstrate superior intellectual and leadership potential.

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On July 5, 2022, cryptocurrency brokerage Voyager Digital filed for chapter 11 in the Southern District of New York Bankruptcy Court, citing a short-term “run on the bank” due to the “crypto winter” in the cryptocurrency industry generally and the default of a significant loan made to a third party as the reasons for its filing.  At Voyager’s first day hearing on July 8, 2022, the Bankruptcy Court asked the critical question of whether the crypto assets on Voyager’s platform were property of the estate or its customers.  Voyager asserted the crypto assets were assets of the estate pursuant to the terms of its customer agreements, but the question of ownership was more problematic in the context of a liquidation.  In that context, Voyager’s plan of reorganization proposes to resolve any mystery of ownership by delivering the reorganized company to its customers.

On July 13, 2022, cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network filed for chapter 11 in the Southern District of New York Bankruptcy Court.  Celsius had frozen customer withdrawals on June 12, 2022 and, at the time of its chapter 11 filing, indicated that it would not be requesting court authority to allow customer withdrawals.  Celsius noted in a press release that customer claims would be addressed through the chapter 11 process.

Voyager’s and Celsius’ chapter 11 bankruptcy filings highlight the question of whether crypto assets held by an exchange, or similar platform, may be considered property of a bankruptcy estate and, therefore, not recoverable by the customer, who would then likely be an unsecured claimholder of the debtor.

While some commentators have suggested that crypto assets might be considered property of the exchange’s bankruptcy estate, existing common law, existing provisions of Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) Article 8, and proposed amendments to the UCC recognize that if the arrangement and relationship between the exchange and its customers is one that is characterized as “custodial,” the crypto assets held by the exchange should remain property of the customer and, hence, not subject to dilution by general unsecured claimholders.