Fred Holden
has an international restructuring practice, drawing on four decades of experience representing global businesses and government agencies in resolving financial crises, through reorganizations, receiverships, debt restructurings, mergers and acquisitions.
The 2014 edition of Chambers USA states: “Clients admire Frederick Holden’s ability to think broadly about the implications of decisions and be proactive in ensuring losses and liabilities are minimized. He has significant expertise working in the solar energy field with companies in distressed situations, as well as with creditors and distressed asset purchasers.”
Mr. Holden’s noteworthy engagements include the following:
Debtors. Mr. Holden is currently guiding numerous technology companies in the United States and Asia on insolvency and corporate governance issues under the laws of multiple nations. Earlier, he represented Philippine Airlines as debtor under its US$2.5 billion international rehabilitation plan and was lead counsel for MacArthur and Western MacArthur Companies, as debtors that established a US$2.1 billion trust, the largest ever created to that date to pay asbestos claims. Mr. Holden was lead counsel for publicly-traded, multi-national chipmaker Siliconix, as debtor in its groundbreaking high-technology reorganization under Chapter 11. In 2013, he testified in the High Court of Singapore as an expert witness on the duties of debtors in U.S. bankruptcies.
Financial Institution Receivers. Mr. Holden was general counsel for the trustee appointed in USA v. Bank of Credit & Commerce International (BCCI), to liquidate the U.S. assets of an Islamic bank that had financed terrorist organizations and arms and drug trafficking, and secretly owned several U.S. banks, resulting in the largest racketeering asset forfeiture ever to the U.S. and payment in full to all U.S. creditors and governmental agencies. He currently represents former employees in the Stanford Financial Ponzi receivership. Mr. Holden previously served as general counsel for the receiver appointed in the massive pension embezzlement case, SEC vs. Qualified Pensions, Inc., and as lead counsel for the California Commissioner of Financial Institutions, as liquidator of various licensees, including First Independent Trust Company, the nation's second largest student loan originator, resulting in full payment to creditors.
Creditors. Mr. Holden represents banks, venture capital funds, vendors, service providers and intellectual property licensors and licensees in many of the largest Chapter 11 cases pending in the Bay Area, Delaware, New York and elsewhere. He represented Wells Fargo Bank in the first prepackaged Chapter 11 case (Jimmy Grizzard Sales), the first reorganization of an operating airline (Continental) and many other major reorganizations and workouts of loans to borrowers in agriculture, energy, retail, technology, real estate and other industries. Mr. Holden guided IndyMac Bank through the home mortgage crisis. He also represented Southern Pacific as the primary creditor in the reorganization of Eureka Southern Railroad under Chapter 11.
Retirees. As lead attorney for official committees of retirees in the Kaiser Aluminum and Kaiser Engineers Chapter 11 cases in Delaware, Mr. Holden played a central role in the innovation of using a VEBA trust, funded by a debtor under its Chapter 11 Plan, to assure full lifetime benefits for retirees.
