2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE THIRTEEN - Taxation and Finance (§§ 1 — 33423) › Subtitle 1 - Governmental Finances (§§ 1 — 155) › Chapter 8 - Puerto Rico Public Corporation Debt Enforcement and Recovery Act (§§ 111 — 113nn) › Subchapter III - Debt Enforcement (§§ 113 — 113nn) › § 113q - Formation of Creditors’ Committees

(a) As soon as practicable after the petition is filed, but not later than fourteen (14) days prior to the first scheduled date of the eligibility hearing pursuant to § 113e of this title, the Court shall appoint a general committee comprised of entities, based on the received Notices of Willingness to Serve on General Committee, holding the largest amount of secured claims and largest amount of unsecured claims identified in the schedule of affected debt filed pursuant to section § 113(d)(1) or § 113a(a)(2) of this title. The general committee shall be comprised of at least five (5) and no more than thirteen (13) members, and, to the extent reasonably practicable, shall be representative of the categories of claims to be affected by the plan.
(b) The Court may appoint as the general committee a committee of creditors formed to negotiate with the petitioner prior to the filing of the petition; provided that the members of the prepetition committee are representative of the categories of claims to be affected by the plan.
(c) At the petitioner’s or GDB’s request, the Court shall appoint one or more additional committees, comprised of holders of affected debt held by particular creditor constituencies and identified by the petitioner in a written certification that the petitioner or GDB believes formation of such committee(s) would facilitate efforts to obtain a transfer pursuant to § 113f of this title or confirmation of a plan. Such additional committee shall be comprised of at least three (3) and no more than seven (7) members. If and when an additional committee is disbanded or the petitioner or GDB certifies in a writing filed with the Court that it no longer believes an additional committee previously appointed will further facilitate a transfer pursuant to § 113f of this title or confirmation of a plan or that the additional committee’s costs outweigh its benefits, the additional committee no longer shall be eligible for reimbursement of its member expenses and its professionals’ fees and disbursements.
(d) Each creditors’ committee member shall file with the Court, within twenty-one (21) days after its appointment to a creditors’ committee, a verified statement declaring, as of the date of its appointment to the creditors’ committee, that:
(1) The creditors’ committee member, the entity to be acting on its behalf on the creditors’ committee, and any affiliate of the foregoing that employed or is employed by such member, held or controlled, to the extent set forth in such statement, a beneficial interest in:
(A) Any affected debt, specifying the face amount of each security or other claim;
(B) any interest, pledge, lien, option, participation, derivative instrument, or any other right or derivative right granting any of the foregoing an economic interest that is affected by the value, acquisition, or disposition of the affected debt, specifying each type of right;
(C) each other economic interest relating to any Commonwealth Entity, specifying each interest; and
(D) any credit default swap of any insurance company that insures any obligation of any Commonwealth entity, specifying each type of interest; and
(2) no interest that the creditors’ committee member, such entity to be acting on its behalf, or any such affiliate holds or controls and that should have been set forth pursuant to paragraphs (A)-(D) of clause (1) of this subsection may increase in value if any debt issued by any Commonwealth entity declines in value.
(e) The holding or controlling at any time of any interest that should be set forth pursuant to subsection (d)(2) of this section by the creditors’ committee member, such entity that acts on its behalf, or any such affiliate shall disqualify such creditor from serving as a member of any creditors’ committee. For the avoidance of doubt, the acquisition of such an interest by a creditors’ committee member, such entity acting on its behalf, or any such affiliate, automatically shall divest the creditor of committee membership.
(f) Each creditors’ committee member shall update its disclosure contemplated by subsection (d) of this section in writing filed with the Court within three (3) business days of each change in its previously disclosed holdings.
(g) Requests by the petitioner, GDB, or any affected creditor for changes or additions to creditors’ committee membership shall be granted or denied in the Court’s discretion. The Court’s determinations of creditors’ committee(s) membership shall not be appealable.
(h) Creditors’ committee(s) members shall not be entitled to compensation for their time and service as creditors’ committee members or to reimbursement of their expenses for retaining professionals to represent them individually, but the creditors’ committee(s) shall be entitled from the petitioner to payment of fees to the extent permitted in § 113ff of this title, and creditors’ committee(s) members shall be entitled to reimbursement of their actual, reasonable, and documented out-of-pocket expenses for travel and lodging arising from their function as creditors’ committee members.
History —June 28, 2014, No. 71, § 318.