Good day and welcome to WSJ Pro Bankruptcy's Daily Briefing. It's Friday, May 8. In today's briefing, Venezuela state-owned oil company PdVSA has hired adviser White & Case for the pending $6 billion court-supervised sale of Citgo Petroleum, sources told WSJ Pro Bankruptcy. Meanwhile, more creditors of Brightline have hired restructuring advisers: lenders holding uninsured senior bonds have engaged Cleary Gottlieb, while those holding parent company bonds have hired Cadwalader, according to sources. And Brad Heppner, the former chairman of Beneficient and GWG Holdings, was convicted by a federal jury on multiple fraud charges related to a corporate collapse that resulted in over $1 billion in investor losses.

Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela SA, has hired law firm White & Case to protect its interests in the pending Citgo Petroleum sale as the country girds for a debt restructuring, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday authorized Venezuela and PdVSA to hire advisers to help execute what is considered one of the largest and most complex sovereign-debt restructurings in history. The debt-ridden South American country, which holds some of the world’s largest oil and gas reserves, is estimated to owe more than $100 billion to pay holders of defaulted government bonds.

White & Case’s job is to advise PdVSA, which owns Citgo, specifically on matters related to its pending court-supervised roughly $6 billion sale to Elliott Investment Management affiliate Amber Energy, the sources said.

More creditors of Fortress Investment Group’s Brightline have hired restructuring advisers after the private railroad operator issued a warning last week that raised questions about its ability to continue operations.

Lenders holding Brightline’s uninsured senior bonds at the operating company have tapped Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton to advise them on potential talks with the company, according to people familiar with the matter. A separate group of lenders holding parent company bonds has hired Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, one of the people said.

Brad Heppner, a Texas-based businessman who served as chairman of financial-services companies Beneficient and GWG Holdings, was found guilty by a jury of fraud charges in connection with a financial blowup that caused more than $1 billion of investor losses.

A federal jury in Manhattan found Heppner guilty of securities fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy and making false statements to auditors, according to the case docket.

A bankruptcy judge on Thursday approved the sale of assets tied to Vanderbilt Minerals, a bankrupt former talc-mining subsidiary of R.T. Vanderbilt.

Riverspan Partners won the auction with a $64 million bid, topping stalking horse bidder Commodore Materials by $14 million. The sale includes a mineral-processing facility in Kentucky and other properties to be contributed to the bankruptcy estate by R.T. Vanderbilt and its affiliates.

The tort claimants committee said it didn’t object to the sale itself, but opposed the settlement tied to the sale that grants the parent company and its affiliates broad releases from mass tort liabilities.

Judge Wendy Kinsella of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Syracuse, N.Y., approved the settlement last month despite objections from the claimants who allege that Vanderbilt and its founding family concealed the lethal dangers of asbestos-contaminated talc.

The committee asked the court to stay the ruling approving the settlement pending appeal, but Kinsella denied the request Thursday, saying a stay would likely force Vanderbilt into liquidation and "harm the very claimants that this bankruptcy process is designed to protect."

—Akiko Matsuda

For much of America, the Iran war has meant pain at the pump. For Whirlpool, it has caused what it calls a “recession-level industry decline,” and higher appliance prices are coming as a result.

The Michigan-based maker of refrigerators and washing machines said Wednesday that it would suspend its dividend as it focuses on paying down debt. The company also cut its full-year earnings guidance roughly in half, from $6 a share to a range of $3 to $3.50. Whirlpool stock dropped by as much 20%.

Chief Financial Officer Roxanne Warner said U.S. consumer confidence nosedived to historically low levels, driven by worries over the rising cost of living, after the war began Feb. 28.

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