Tribune creditors prepare to sue for payback in buyout bankruptcy

Tribune Company's creditors committee this week is poised to sue a slew of the media company's current and former executives, directors, advisers, lawyers and shareholders it blames for engineering an $8.2-billion leveraged buyout in 2007 that landed Tribune in bankruptcy.

Possible targets such as Chairman Sam Zell, the billionaire real estate mogul who led the takeover, are well-known. But former major Tribune shareholders the McCormick Foundation and the Chandler family of Los Angeles could be named, too. Officers and directors, such as former CEO Dennis Fitz-Simons and board members William Osborn and Betsy Holden, also could become defendants. Others: deal adviser Valuation Research Corp., of Milwaukee, and New York-based Morgan Stanley. Tribune, owner of TV stations and newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, estimated in a court filing that the claims could yield billions of dollars. In suing on behalf of the company, the committee of unsecured creditors will allege that a host of illegal moves, from unjust enrichment to breach of fiduciary duty to professional malpractice, resulted in a "fraudulent transfer" of assets that left Tribune insolvent. The committee is expected to sue now even though it has agreed not to pursue litigation until either a reorganization plan is approved or until April 1, if that comes sooner.