Michael Deeba is a partner emeritus in the bankruptcy and restructuring practice of Baker Tilly. Michael has over 30 years of experience dealing with distressed business issues including bankruptcy, workouts and turnarounds and related issues in litigation, arbitration, mediation and other out of court proceedings. Michael has provided consultation, fiduciary, and expert witness services in the areas of restructuring, bankruptcy, insolvency, valuation, fiduciary duties and governance issues, related party transactions, fraudulent transfers, fraud investigations, forensic accounting and investigatory services, and commercial damages modeling. He has served in these capacities in bankruptcy, federal and state courts and in arbitrations.
Michael has served in court-appointed capacities such as Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 bankruptcy trustee, bankruptcy examiner, receiver, and court-appointed expert witness. He was a financial analyst with the United States Trustee Program, providing specialized assistance on certain topics and continues to provide regional training programs to the office of the U.S. Trustee.
Michael has served as a financial advisor to debtors-in-possession, trustees, secured creditors, committees, and other parties-in-interest. His experience has included matters involving analyzing the financial structure and feasibility of plans of reorganization, disclosure statement issues, valuation of businesses and divisions, solvency analyses, assessment of reasonably equivalent value, adequate capital concerns, and preference and fraudulent transfer claim disputes. He has provided interim management turnaround services to companies in a wide range of industries including oil and gas, construction, real estate, healthcare, manufacturing, and other industries.
Michael has experience with taxation issues arising in complex business bankruptcy cases, such as the treatment of cancellation of indebtedness income, attribute reduction, preservation of NOLs, consolidation and tax refund issues, and the development of bankruptcy tax strategies.
Michael has been retained to provide valuation services and lost profits calculations in disputes involving sales agreements, contracts, shareholder and partner agreements, leases, employment contracts, non-compete clauses, trade infringement, and wrongful competition.
- Financial Advisors to the Disinterested Directors of the Board of Directors of Seadrill Limited (SDRL) in the SDRL bankruptcy. Retained to investigate and analyze certain transactions and relationships between SDRL and/or its subsidiaries and certain related persons. Assessed the financial condition of SDRL and the exchange of value in certain related party transactions, and analyzed other ventures and transactions between SDRL and related parties.
- Financial Advisors to Sabine Oil & Gas Corporation’s independent directors committee to investigate potential estate claims involving various subsidiaries and affiliates following its merger with Forest Oil Corporation and subsequent bankruptcy filing.
- Financial Advisors to American Stock Transfer & Trust Company, LLC, the indenture trustee, in connection with unsecured notes issued by Energy Future Holdings Corp. (EFH). EFH was Texas’ largest power supplier and filed one of the largest chapter 11 cases in U.S. history, which included a pre-arranged plan to restructure $42 billion in debt. Advised on complex valuation and tax issues and performed a detailed intercompany transactions assessment to identify potential claims.
- Financial Advisors to Chapter 11 Trustee to provide accounting and financial advisory services for an upstream oil and gas company. Services included budgeting and cash flow duties, assistance with sale of oil and gas properties, analysis of tax attributes, claims, preferences, and insider transactions, litigation consulting, and Chapter 11 reporting obligations.
- Financial / Tax Advisors to FDIC In Re Downey Financial Corp. to provide analyses of a tax sharing agreements, tracing and allocation of net operating losses (“NOLs”) through various subsidiaries, analyses of consolidated tax issues, rules and regulations and quantification of potential claims, including tax claims related to the treatment of the tax sharing agreement, and evaluate the resulting settlement.
- Appointed as Chapter 11, then Chapter 7, Trustee in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to operate and assess business operations of a real estate company and its related Special Purpose Entities. Case included management of LLCs consisting of apartment complexes, commercial real estate, land, residences, personal property and other assets. After conversion to Chapter 7, services included liquidating remaining assets, pursuing litigation including insider and preference claims, and the wind-down and closure of the case.
- Appointed Receiver to operate groups of nursing homes and assisted living facilities. These three appointments included financial management, licensing, compliance with federal and state operating laws, cash controls, and contracting with various management companies, through sale, closings and other dispositions of the facilities. The role included financial investigations into past financial transactions.
- Retained by defense counsel to a telecom company in a $60 million FBI/IRS criminal case to advise counsel on various financial and tax issues. The role expanded to advising at conferences with government agents and United States Attorney regarding status of assets, loss modeling, tax issues, and probation financial disclosure issues. Advisor and coordinator for various tax return issues and amendments between client and government agents.
- Retained by United States Attorney to serve as summary expert witness in tax and bank fraud criminal case. Duties included reviewing tax returns, government documents, and defense documents, and providing expert testimony.
- Presented as guest lecturer, including at the 2014 FBI CPA conference for Special Agents and forensic accountants.
- American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) AICPA Forensic and Valuation Services (FVS)
- Association of Insolvency & Restructuring Advisors (AIRA) American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI)
- Turnaround Management Association (TMA)
- Associate Member of Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE)
Location
Oklahoma City, OK
Education
University of Central Oklahoma (Edmond, Oklahoma)
Bachelor of Science, accounting