“GT Advanced Technologies Inc. lost a bid to keep an executive’s description of the circumstances surrounding its bankruptcy under seal, putting a settlement with Apple Inc. in danger,” Dawn McCarty reports for Bloomberg.
“The company and Apple, with which it had an agreement to supply the synthetic sapphire used in screens of mobile devices, had asked to keep the executive’s statement under wraps. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Henry Boroff today said he intended to unseal it while letting some pricing information remain confidential,” McCarty reports. “Boroff said he will go through the statement by Chief Operating Officer Daniel Squiller and probably issue an unsealing order next week. ‘At the moment, I believe I will completely unseal the so-called Squiller declaration,’ Boroff said. ‘From there, those parties disappointed with that ruling are free to take what best suits their needs.'”
McCarty reports, “Luc Despins, an attorney for GT Advanced, told the judge at the hearing today in Manchester, New Hampshire, that Apple might terminate the agreement if the declaration is unsealed… ‘The public has access to all substantive information,’ Bruce Meyer, an attorney for Apple, told the judge. He said portions of Squiller’s declaration are ‘untrue in Apple’s view and probably included to pressure Apple.'”
Read more in the full article here.
“At a court hearing Thursday, Judge Boroff said bankruptcy-code protections against defamatory information don’t apply to Mr. Squiller’s characterizations of Apple’s behavior,” Peg Brickley reports for The Wall Street Journal. “‘I simply do not think that they are sufficiently egregious that they are unusually prejudicial to Apple,’ the judge said.”
“Apple will refute the negative picture painted of it in the GT Advanced documents, Mr. Meyer said,” Brickley reports. “Creditors asked that the debate over continued secrecy be pushed off to allow the settlement to go through. The judge rejected those arguments. ‘The integrity of the Bankruptcy Code is not for sale,’ Judge Boroff said.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Apple and GT Advanced: What went wrong – October 29, 2014
Beleaguered GT Advanced describes ‘unsustainable’ Apple relationship – October 29, 2014
Beleaguered GT Advanced says it can’t afford to fight mighty Apple, must settle – October 28, 2014
Apple ponders future sapphire options, leaves door open for GT Advanced – October 23, 2014
Apple considering other options for Arizona sapphire facility, helping former GT Advanced employees find new jobs – October 23, 2014
GT Advanced announces settlement with Apple; to exit sapphire production – October 23, 2014
Apple and GT Advanced settlement: Ending the madness – October 22, 2014
GT Advanced, Apple ink deal for ‘amicable’ split-up – October 21, 2014
GT Advanced Technologies Inc. suspended by Nasdaq – October 17, 2014
GT Advanced confidentiality hearing with Apple delayed – October 16, 2014
GT Advanced bankruptcy judge challenges Apple’s penchant for secrecy – October 15, 2014
Apple, GT Advanced in secret session with bankruptcy judge – October 9, 2014
Apple supplier GT Advanced: Confidentiality pact rules out bankruptcy explanation – October 9, 2014
Apple ‘surprised’ by GT Advanced’s bankruptcy filing – October 8, 2014
Shattered sapphire dreams at GT Advanced – October 8, 2014
Apple’s withholding of $139 million payment led to GT Advanced bankruptcy filing – October 7, 2014
GT Advanced CEO sold 9,000 shares the day before Apple’s iPhone 6/Plus event – October 7, 2014
Law firms launch investigations into possible violations of federal securities laws by GT Advanced – October 7, 2014
Analyst: Apple may take possession of sapphire furnaces from GT Advanced – October 7, 2014
Apple to provide debtor in possession financing to GT Advanced? – October 7, 2014
Investors stunned over GT Advanced bankruptcy filing – October 7, 2014
GT Advanced files for chapter 11 bankruptcy court protection – October 6, 2014
Apple and GT Advanced rampup sapphire production in Mesa – August 11, 2014
GT Advanced expects sales of sapphire production tools to boost profit; shares surge – August 5, 2014
Apple and GT Advanced open second sapphire plant in Salem, Massachusetts – June 19, 2014
Apple patents method for embedding sapphire displays in LiquidMetal device chassis – May 27, 2014
So we’ll all get to see how stupid these clowns running GTAT really were. Won’t help the investors any but it should help with the class actions.
A freind of judge Cote this judge…
With both parties warning that this could jeopordize the mutual settlement and the jobs it saves why else on earth would this judge apease the wall street journal who made this request…?
Generally speaking, democracies have a policy that the public is entitled to know what its servants are doing, and why. That applies to the judicial branch, just like the executive and legislative. Judges are public officials, not private arbitrators, and the disputes they hear are matters of public concern. The voters and taxpayers have the right to know the basis for judges’ decisions. There is no other way to dispel the notion that they might be arbitrary, biased, or corrupt.
Many states have a constitutional guarantee that their courts will be open to the public, absent some compelling public necessity. Note, “public,” not “private.” Without hearing the same evidence as the judge, how could we possibly assess his fairness?
That means ALL the evidence, not just the evidence that the judge believes. Otherwise, he would only release the facts that support his decision and suppress those that argue against it.
Judges regularly hear objections that proferred evidence or exhibits are so explosive or private that the prejudicial effect of admitting them would outweigh their benefit in reaching a decision. Again, how is the public to know that the judge reached the right decision without knowing, at least in general terms, what the testimony would have shown? Keeping the judicial process about such matters open is the best guarantee that the process is fair. The courts simply cannot operate unless the public trusts them enough to comply with their decisions. There aren’t enough US Marshals to force compliance unless the public sees the courts and their decisions as having legitimate authority, even when they disagree with the outcome.
In this case, the judge has determined that the matters asserted in the GT Advanced motions are not so private as to overcome the presumption that court proceedings should be public. He has agreed to redact matters that he determined to be purely proprietary, but the rest comes in. The public interest outweighs the parties’ desire for privacy in a matter that will have public impacts (for example, allowing GT to wash its obligations in connection with the tax breaks and other government incentives it requested when it located in Arizona). That may be unfortunate for Apple, but it is part of the cost of living in a democracy,
Wow, not for sale, alrighty. Maybe this judge should go over to the patent side and start to instill an example of some backbone for the other patent Judges.
Sounds like the judge is okay with providing false witness on court documents. Wants to show the world these statements, and let Apple clean up the pieces while in the mean time outsiders get to form their own opinion based on false claims, what happens, happens.
Whatever happened to perjury rules?
Exactly correct.
At no point does the judge say the statements are not lies. He only says the lies are not “sufficiently egregious”.
So, they are not big enough lies to prohibit them from being disclosed.
Also, I guarantee that in the disclosure, the court will NOT point out what are the lies in any way.
Bottom line:
The press (and anti Apple crowd) will grab every negative statement about Apple and repeat each and every one with the tag line “as disclosed in recently unsealed court documents”. Thus the vast majority of the public will take all of it as fact as they’re “court documents”. “Court documents” must be fact, right?
This judge is just one more idiot in the legal system.
Any lie is egregious, white or not. The court system has no room for lies. One little lie compromises everything.
Further comment.
Why does the judicial system seem to willfully shaft Apple at every chance they get?
Apple doesn’t grease the political wheels enough.
For the record, the courts are not meant to be political. They are meant to pass fair and unbiased judgement. It seems that if that is no longer the case, one branch of our government, if not all, has completely failed.
It’s any wonder that Apple will keep manufacturing there products in China.
Because they want to be appointed to higher courts by the current administration, which is in the pockets of Amazon And Google.
How is Apple shafted?
Because they’re out to get Apple, because Apple is eating all the parasite’s lunches and the gravy train is threatened.
The judges are enablers ofthe gravy train and don’t like those that threaten it, the judges are all biased, self erving and power maniacs sponsored amd appointed for life by the maniacs.
Justice for all… Ha what a joke
So this is what you get for trying to manufacture things in the US
Unjustified & Inappropriate!
Just when the soap opera was getting tedious, a twist in the plot! How the worm turns As The Sapphire Turns.