Welcome to WSJ Pro Bankruptcy's Daily Briefing. It's Wednesday, Nov. 26. In today's briefing, Optimum Communications has sued its lenders, including Apollo and Ares, alleging they formed an "illegal cartel" through a cooperation agreement that froze the company out of the U.S. credit market and blocked its efforts to repurchase debt.

Note to readers: The Bankruptcy newsletter will take a break for Thanksgiving. We will be back Monday.

Optimum Communications has filed an antitrust lawsuit against a group of investors including Apollo Global Management and Ares Management, alleging the firms acted in unison to freeze the telecommunications company out of the U.S. credit market.

Optimum, formerly known as Altice USA, said in its lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in New York that eight lenders to the company formed an “illegal cartel” in 2024 that prevented it from repurchasing any of its debt at prevailing market prices.

Tuesday’s lawsuit is a shot across the bow for the asset-management industry’s growing use of cooperation agreements in corporate lending, under which investment firms form a united front to influence the financial terms that borrowers can obtain in refinancings or restructurings.

A federal judge endorsed Elliott Investment Management’s roughly $6 billion bid for Venezuela’s shares of Citgo Petroleum, pushing the forced sale of the country’s prized foreign asset closer to completion.

U.S. District Judge Leonard P. Stark approved a court-appointed special master’s selection of Elliott as the winning bid, saying that although it didn’t have the highest sticker price, it was the best all-around bid and the one most certain to close.

The judge’s ruling ends a fraught auction process in which bidders competed for control of one of the largest U.S. oil refiners, with the sale proceeds earmarked for certain creditors of Citgo’s ultimate owner, the bankrupt Venezuelan government.

Chiquita Brands, the world’s largest banana producer, has engaged investment bankers to conduct a review of certain assets as the company seeks to move forward from an adverse legal judgment stemming from past operations in Colombia, according to people familiar with the matter.

Chiquita is working with Houlihan Lokey to examine certain business lines, conduct valuation analysis, and assess options for acquisitions, divestitures and other combinations, the people said.

Scott Nelson says he is running out of time.

If he can’t raise more money by the end of the year, the medical-devices executive says he may have to shutter his startup, FastWave Medical, and the technology he has been working on for nearly five years.

Nelson’s problem is that a Chinese company is his biggest investor and is blocking every fundraising move he tries to make, he alleges. It seems like an elaborate scheme to destroy the business and gain control of its technology, FastWave claimed in a letter to Cfius, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., which reviews investments from overseas entities with a focus on national security.

PosiGen, a national residential solar company, filed for bankruptcy after facing financial difficulties stemming from the Trump administration’s rollback of solar tax credits that hurt its ability to raise cash.

PosiGen filed for chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston late Monday, listing estimated assets and liabilities both between $100 million and $500 million.

The Louisiana-based solar developer, which aimed to make solar panel leasing more affordable, had been weighing restructuring options, including a bankruptcy, with advisers White & Case and FTI Consulting, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported in September.

Shutdown-delayed data showed American consumers closed out the third quarter on a cautious footing, while a measure of consumer confidence tumbled in November.

Taken together, the new and older data suggest the U.S. economy is heading into the all-important holiday season buffeted by a cooling labor market, continued inflationary pressures and signs consumers were easing their pace of spending and searching for bargains.

Share your tips, suggestions and feedback with the WSJ Pro Bankruptcy team: Soma Biswas; Alexander Gladstone; Jodi Xu Klein; Akiko Matsuda; Andrew Scurria; Becky Yerak. 

Follow us on Twitter: @SomaBisWSJ; @gladstonea; @jodixu; @AskAkiko; @AndrewScurria; @beckyyerak.