In this season finale of The Octus Download, hosts Jason Sanjana and Kevin Eckhardt are joined by the Honorable Michael B. Kaplan, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the District of New Jersey, for a candid look at how bankruptcy actually works from inside the courtroom. After settling the long-running debate over whether Central Jersey exists (00:03:54), Judge Kaplan explains how judges evaluate feasibility in modern Chapter 11 cases (00:05:03), addresses criticism around “Chapter 22” filings like Rite Aid (00:09:44), and discusses why courts are often reluctant to reject aggressive DIP financing outright (00:26:33). He also weighs in on bankruptcy venue, breaking down how companies choose where to file, why multiple jurisdictions are often legally valid, and why judges hesitate to second-guess venue decisions that comply with the statute (00:15:20), before sharing his frustrations with form-driven legal practice and public criticism of the judiciary (00:25:40, 00:37:41).

The episode then shifts to Update Corner with a look at the growing squeeze in Las Vegas tourism, where luxury spending persists but falling visitor volumes and job losses point to deeper structural strain (00:42:25). From there, Jason and Kevin enter Conspiracy Corner to unpack the baffling price action in First Brands’ DIP financing, exploring why a supposedly senior, protected investment is trading at distressed levels and what that might signal about control, funding, or market dynamics (00:48:07, 00:54:55).

The season closes with a spoiler-filled breakdown of Landman’s bankruptcy subplot, including a captive insurance tax scheme and why bankruptcy makes for better television than simpler financial solutions (01:01:42), followed by a thank you to the team and a special nod to Producer Tanya for making the show happen all season (01:08:01)

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Hosted by Jason Sanjana & Kevin Eckhardt

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Jason Sanjana & Kevin Eckhardt open the episode from the Octus studio (00:00:06) and quickly bring in their guest, Josh Sussberg of Kirkland & Ellis (00:01:04). The conversation begins with Sussberg’s early ambition to become a sports journalist and his time at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School (00:01:55), before an almost accidental pivot into law. By (00:03:47), he explains how rotating through corporate, litigation, and real estate made it clear that bankruptcy was the only practice where the stakes were immediate, the decisions were real, and the work wasn’t just documenting outcomes already decided elsewhere.

From (00:05:40) through (00:07:58), Sussberg walks through how bankruptcy practice has evolved since the early 2000s. He explains how the 2005 amendments to the bankruptcy code compressed timelines, shortened exclusivity, and pushed negotiations earlier and largely outside the courtroom. Retail cases that once lingered for years are now decided at speed, reshaping how Chapter 11 actually functions.

The discussion then turns to defining retail bankruptcies of the last decade. At (00:08:53), Sussberg revisits Toys “R” Us, pushing back on the idea that it was a liquidation disguised as a restructuring and explaining how its complex capital structure distorted public understanding of the case. By (00:10:12), he describes how the filing itself became part of the problem. At (00:11:07), the focus shifts to courtroom strategy and first-day presentations, culminating in the story of Claire’s (00:14:08), a case widely expected to liquidate. He recounts how the company survived and why he ended up piercing his ear in court when it did (00:15:09).

Before exiting, Sussberg offers a blunt take on AI and legal practice (00:16:32). Tools may change, but responsibility does not. If it goes into a brief, he is still printing it, reading it, and owning it. He departs the episode at (00:17:32). Black Friday online sales hit a record $11.8 billion, but the hosts argue the headline masks weakness beneath the surface. Buy-now-pay-later usage surged more than 20 percent year over year (00:18:46), while in-store foot traffic continued its long decline (00:19:16), raising questions about whether installment-driven consumption reflects resilience or strain (00:20:03).

At (00:24:01) Miami Macy’s, makes its case, contrasting packed South Florida stores with a balance sheet propped up by flagship real estate. The episode closes with Kawhi Watch (00:26:00), where the Clippers’ 2–13 collapse during Kawhi Leonard’s injury absence mirrors unresolved questions around an alleged $28 million no-show endorsement deal tied to a bankrupt counterparty (00:26:46). As the hosts note, exposure doesn’t disappear just because the lights are bright. Paperwork has a long memory.----more----

Jason Sanjana and Kevin Eckhardt open with Sonder’s spectacular implosion, where a Chapter 7 filing and a broken Marriott integration turned hotel stays into evacuation drills. At (02:45), they unpack why guests were kicked out mid stay, how the deal fell apart, and why travel bankruptcies always hit consumers the hardest.

At (12:07), they turn to Meta’s scam economy. Fake celebrity ads, counterfeit products, crypto traps, and a moderation system that quietly profits from the gray zone between “real” and “obviously fake.” Jason and Kevin break down how misinformation spreads, why victims blame themselves, and why Meta would rather price scams than block them.

The show shifts at (17:04) to the rise of fake news aggregators, including a phantom auto lender bankruptcy story that fooled half the internet. The hosts look at how recycled content and algorithmic boosts have made disinformation feel routine.

Trend Watch hits at (24:36) with the national coffee shop shakeout. Red Bay, Switchback, Cup of Austin, Compass Coffee, and others are sliding toward Chapter 11 as bean costs, climate shocks, tariffs, labor, and rent all spike. Even Starbucks is trimming. Demand isn’t gone. Margins are. At (29:04), this weeks Unofficial Sponsor: The Collective Hive, the only lifestyle brand that promises freedom from decision making by eliminating your ability to have any.

Culture Corner begins at (30:05) with Pluribus, the Apple TV series where a viral alien gift turns humanity into a blissed out hive mind. Everyone joins except Carol Sturckow, who still feels grief, irritation, and a very human urge to run. Jason and Kevin debate whether the hive is salvation or annihilation, and whether individuality is overrated anyway.

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Hosted by Jason Sanjana and Kevin Eckhardt

Jason Sanjana and Kevin Eckhardt open with the bankruptcy of MTV’s Ridiculousness, the show that turned cultural decline into a business model. Thrill Intermediate LLC is in Chapter 11 after fourteen years and forty-six seasons, and Bloomberg’s sloppy redaction reveals Rob Dyrdek earning more than thirty-two million dollars a year. The hosts break down how a show built from recycled clips became a symbol of cultural bankruptcy (04:28).

At (11:22), they dig into the case’s real story, a lender control fight rather than a liquidity crisis, with Dyrdek sitting on both sides of the table. Jason and Kevin debate whether YouTube killed MTV or if MTV simply stopped trying.

Octus senior distressed analyst Adam Rhodes joins at (15:50) to explain the global battle over spectrum. He unpacks EchoStar’s thirty-five billion dollar sale to AT&T and SpaceX and how Starlink is quietly rewriting the rules of connectivity. Spectrum, once the domain of engineers, is now the next financial frontier.

The show turns to Venezuela at (31:19), where a Delaware court is auctioning off Citgo to repay billions in judgments. Elliott’s Amber Energy leads at five point nine billion while rival factions of the Venezuelan government fight for control. It’s part bankruptcy, part geopolitics, and entirely surreal.

By (45:59), the focus shifts to Recession Indicators 2025. Trader Joe’s ends free samples, Target tightens prices, Southwest scraps open seating, and LinkedIn influencers rediscover “resilience.” It all ends with a Nextdoor mystery about a doghouse, a pile of clothes, and an uneaten hot dog — the only recession indicator that really matters.

Hosted by: Jason Sanjana and Kevin Eckhardt

Jason Sanjana and Kevin Eckhardt open with the kind of week that makes “crisis” sound quaint. First Brands’ auto parts empire gets gutted by a refinancing gone sideways, two billion dollars missing, and more double-pledged inventory than a payday loan strip mall. With founder Patrick James shown the door and CRO Charles Morris dragged off the bench (01:58), the pair dissect how nine billion in creditor claims is chasing what might be a three billion dollar business, and what “small f fraud” actually means when the court is holding the shovel.

At (02:37), special guest Jared Muroff, Head of Special Situations at Octus, walks through the knife fight between creditors and the strange mechanics of tracing fugitive proceeds through webs of SPVs and offshore accounts. Is this the tip of the loose credit iceberg or just another spectacular bankruptcy flameout?

Then, because the universe loves its little jokes, we pivot (19:38) to Publishers Clearing House, where “lifetime” sweepstakes winners just discovered their prize was a front row seat in the unsecured creditors section. Balloon arches, seven figure dreams, and a lawsuit dripping with irony. They even debate (20:46) whether it is reasonable to expect the newly bankrupt to have diligenced a sweepstakes capital structure. Your call.

The Bankruptcy Boys update (28:33) blazes through Stoli and Kentucky Owl’s whiskey for debt gambit, the Seaquarium’s tanked lease, and that rare bourbon brand comeback story: Uncle Nearest, in receivership but actually recovering (34:59).

At (35:31) comes this week’s Unofficial Sponsor, Starbucks Workers United. Jason and Kevin take a walk down memory lane to their high school jobs before closing (39:15) with Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another. Set in a dystopian, painfully recognizable America, the film throws leftist nostalgia and right wing cosplay into a blender and serves it with a side of despair and dry humor. Leonardo DiCaprio stumbles through as Bob Ferguson, a burnout chasing the ghost of activism past, while his daughter Willa inherits both the fight and the wreckage. Benicio Del Toro glides in as Sensei Sergio, the only character who seems genuinely aware that humanity is actually on the line, not just performing for the timeline.

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Hosted by Jason Sanjana & Kevin Eckhardt

Jason Sanjana and Kevin Eckhardt open with the collapse of First Brands (02:26), the autoparts empire that ran on borrowed cash until the music stopped. Once a $6 billion capital structure with 20 acquisitions since 2018, the company unraveled after a failed refinancing, a missing quality-of-earnings report, and an expensive dependence on factoring. Skylar Chen, Senior Reporter at Octus, joins (04:40) to explain how a billion dollars in liquidity vanished in weeks and why a traditional manufacturer ended up looking more like a shadow bank.

The conversation turns to Argentina (14:13) and President Javier Milei’s $20 billion lifeline from the U.S. Treasury. Markets cheer, protesters riot, and soybeans quietly switch buyers from Iowa to Shanghai. Jason and Kevin debate whether this is financial genius or bailout theater and unpack how hedge funds, swap lines, and soy taxes became foreign policy.

At (24:40) the Kawhi Leonard Update Corner returns with the latest from the Aspiration bankruptcy. Kawhi denies the “no-show” contract claims, the NBA hires Wachtell Lipton to investigate, and the bankruptcy trustee circles a $28 million endorsement that looks less like marketing and more like compensation.

The week’s Unofficial Sponsor arrives (33:29) as the Federal Government of the United States, proudly closed for business but still billing interest. Jason and Kevin break down how a government shutdown manages to stall everything except debt.

The episode closes with Slow Horses (36:31) on Apple TV, the British spy series that turns bureaucratic failure into performance art. Jason and Kevin explore why the show’s cast of MI5 rejects feels like the perfect metaphor for modern institutions, broken, brilliant, and somehow still functioning when everything else has fallen apart.

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Hosted by Jason Sanjana & Kevin Eckhardt

Jason Sanjana and Kevin Eckhardt open in Dallas with the collapse of Tricolor Auto Group (02:58). Once a major subprime auto lender and used car chain catering to Hispanic communities across the Southwest, Tricolor filed Chapter 7 overnight, shuttering 65 dealerships. Allegations of double-pledged collateral, warehouse loan defaults, and immigration policy headwinds turned a growth story into a sudden liquidation, raising questions about broader risks in the $1.6 trillion U.S. auto loan market.

From there (17:44) the spotlight shifts to QVC. Once the late-night shopping staple, the company now leans on TikTok influencers while battling tariffs, cord-cutting, and a billion-dollar deferred tax liability. Simran Bal, Senior Credit Analyst at Octus, joins to explain how prepaid executive bonuses, maxed-out revolvers, and Liberty’s convoluted capital structure signal a likely restructuring — and why TikTok “live selling” may be QVC’s last real lifeline.

The Kawhi Leonard update begins (38:24). At a Chapter 7 creditors’ meeting, CTN Holdings’ former CRO claimed he had “no knowledge” of Leonard’s $28 million contract with the bankrupt tree-planting startup. With the NBA investigating and the trustee probing potential fraudulent transfers, questions swirl about whether management concealed material contracts or whether the bankruptcy process itself failed.

The culture close starts (47:58) with Netflix’s Unknown Number. The documentary exposes a cyberbullying scandal where a mother secretly tormented her own daughter with thousands of lurid text messages. Jason and Kevin unpack the failures of law enforcement, the moral panic around social media, and why sometimes the adults are the real villains.

The episode wraps (56:50) with reflections on how collapsing cars, collapsing cables, and collapsing caller ID all point to the same theme: shaky credit, shaky institutions, and shaky trust.

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Hosted by Jason Sanjana and Kevin Eckhardt

Jason Sanjana and Kevin Eckhardt open in Los Angeles with the biggest sports bankruptcy crossover in years (02:58). NBA star Kawhi Leonard faces scrutiny over a $28 million endorsement deal with now bankrupt tree planting company Aspiration Partners (CTN Holdings). What began as a standard corporate restructuring has turned into a potential salary cap circumvention scandal involving the LA Clippers. The NBA has reopened its investigation and a Chapter 7 trustee now controls potential fraudulent transfer claims worth millions.

From there (29:00) the conversation shifts to Spirit Airlines’ second bankruptcy filing in less than a year. Once considered a restructuring success story the discount carrier faces the same operational problems that plagued its first case including grounded aircraft, credit card processor demands, and revenue per passenger declining 9% year over year. Management’s bold Friday filing before Labor Day weekend signals desperation rather than strategy.

Julian Bulaon, Head of Liability Management, joins (48:00) to discuss the rise of disqualified counsel provisions in credit agreements. These sponsor friendly clauses allow borrowers to veto lender counsel selections after deal closing, a concerning evolution in the ongoing battle between creditors and sponsors over liability management exercises.

The culture close begins (57:00) with Netflix’s The Hunting Wives, a suburban Texas drama of lake houses, politics, and scandal.

The episode wraps (01:06:00) with cannabis foreclosures as marijuana companies increasingly turn to Article 9 processes in the absence of bankruptcy protection.

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Hosted by Jason Sanjana and Kevin Eckhardt

Guest: Julian Bulaon

Produced and edited by Tanya Hubbard

Jason Sanjana and Kevin Eckhardt open in Tennessee with Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey's court-ordered receivership. What began as a celebrated brand story has turned into missing collateral, questionable accounting, and a Martha's Vineyard real estate controversy. Fawn Weaver faces accusations of overstating barrel inventory by $21 million, transferring assets improperly, and violating gag orders through Instagram posts. Patrick Mohan, whiskey correspondent, joins (04:12) to discuss how premium spirits brands navigate financial distress and whether Uncle Nearest can survive its founder's social media strategy.

From there (21:27), the conversation shifts to Stoli's rare full-blown cram down fight against Fifth Third Bank. Once standard bankruptcy practice, dirt-for-debt scenarios have become extinct in modern Chapter 11 cases. Stoli wants to hand over Kentucky Owl bourbon inventory to satisfy secured debt, but the parties remain deadlocked on valuation after five days of confirmation hearings. The hosts debate whether Houston's debtor-friendly reputation can overcome fundamental secured creditor protections.

This episode's unofficial sponsor (34:45), the Brazil-Miami Pipeline, makes its case. The tongue-in-cheek ad skewers cross-border restructuring complexity before Jason and Kevin pivot to Oi's unprecedented Chapter 15 termination request, weighing jurisdictional chaos against practical solutions.

The show closes with Dad Core (36:37), where K-Pop Demon Hunters dominates Netflix streaming charts. The animated film's sincere treatment of Internet fandom culture sparks discussion about girl-dad dynamics and content that bridges generational gaps. The hosts reflect on modern parenting through pop culture that doesn't demonize social media engagement.

Hosted by Jason Sanjana & Kevin Eckhardt

Jason Sanjana and Kevin Eckhardt open in Florida with the bankruptcy of the Miami Seaquarium, owned by Mexico-based The Dolphin Company. What began as a typical debt-fueled acquisition has spiraled into one of the most contentious Chapter 11 cases of the year. Former CEO Eduardo Albor is accused of obstructing the current management, withholding company records, defying court orders, and even engineering an armed standoff at corporate headquarters. The case now includes $10K daily sanctions, $3.3 million in damages claims, and a tug-of-war between U.S. bankruptcy court and Mexican civil proceedings. David Zubkis, Legal Analyst at Octus, joins (03:51) to break down the cross-border legal mess, asset sale hurdles, and the practical challenges of selling live animals under federal law.

From there, the discussion shifts to Las Vegas (24:37) where the focus is on the collapse of its middle-market tourism base. With Canadian and Mexican travelers historically making up roughly 50% of international visits to Vegas, political tensions and rising costs have pushed that traffic into steep decline. Earnings from MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment show luxury properties like the Bellagio holding strong while mid-tier hotels struggle, and Station Casinos has pulled a $1.5 billion loan repricing amid soft demand. The hosts ask if the city is undergoing a temporary slump or if the era of affordable Vegas is gone for good.

At (37:23) the episode’s unofficial sponsor takes the stage: Visit Las Vegas, the “tourism board” that insists the Strip is not empty, you are just poor. The tongue-in-cheek ad skewers airfare hikes, inflated room rates, and mortgage-sized table minimums before the conversation turns to The Sphere (38:36), the $2.3 billion, debt-heavy venue owned by Sphere Entertainment Co.. While some call it the best concert experience of their lives, others cite obstructed views, logistical headaches, and ticket prices that rival rent payments.

The episode wraps with The Mailman segment (47:27), a Nextdoor saga where a new homeowner tried to stamp “Return to Sender” on a single addressed piece of junk mail marked for “Current Homeowner” instead of simply throwing it away. Their USPS carrier returned it with handwritten notes pointing out why that is not how mail works. Jason and Kevin side with the postal worker, question the legal citation the homeowner tried to use, and offer a reminder to pick your battles and be nice to the people delivering your mail.

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Hosted by Jason Sanjana & Kevin Eckhardt