Portrait Corp. of America Inc. (PCA) has received more criticism in its attempt to sell off its assets to Consumer Programs Inc. for $100 million, with insurers and a group of Texas counties filing objections to the bankrupt photography company’s sale bid, Bankruptcy Law360 reported yesterday. In court documents filed Tuesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, one group of insurance companies, known collectively as the CNA companies, said that they wished to make sure that that the sale will not in any way impair or interfere with their ability to draw upon collateral. The CNA companies, which maintained an insurance program for PCA prior to the company’s bankruptcy filing, said that PCA’s sale motion is silent as to whether the debtors seek to assume and assign the agreements and policies. The companies said that they had no objection to the sale motion as long as no assumption or assignment is contemplated, and said they objected to any assumption or assignment of its agreements and policies “only insofar as the structure of that transaction interferes with CNA’s vested rights in its collateral.”

Parmalat SpA on Wednesday said New Jersey’s highest court rejected Citigroup Inc.’s attempt to dismiss its $10 billion lawsuit accusing the largest U.S. bank of helping former management commit fraud, Reuters reported yesterday. Parmalat, an Italian company, said that the state supreme court rejected Citigroup’s appeal of a January ruling by Bergen County Superior Court Judge Jonathan Harris. The judge had turned aside Citigroup’s argument that Parmalat brought the case in the wrong court. Parmalat Chief Executive Enrico Bondi has accused some 50 defendants, including Citigroup, of helping prior management hide debt and inflate results, leading in 2003 to Europe’s largest bankruptcy.

SLM Corp. CEO Thomas J. Fitzpatrick quit under pressure from a firm taking the nation’s largest student lender private for $25 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Chief Financial Officer C.E. Andrews will replace Fitzpatrick, said the company, commonly known as Sallie Mae. Fitzpatrick’s departure after two years at Sallie Mae’s helm was an abrupt turnaround. The private-equity firm acquiring Sallie Mae, J.C. Flowers & Co., said just last month that it intended to retain management, including Fitzpatrick. The deal is considered the largest privatization in the financial-services industry. However, the firm concluded that Fitzpatrick’s resignation would help reduce congressional opposition to the deal. Some members of Congress, which sets the subsidies that Sallie Mae and other student lenders receive, have criticized the student-loan industry for cozy ties to college officials. Fitzpatrick’s departure came a day after Flowers said it would replace Sallie Mae’s board and appointed an independent committee to review its marketing practices.

Bankruptcy Judge A. Jay Cristol ruled that an independent trustee will maintain control over a bankrupt company, owned by O.J. Simpson’s children, which holds the rights to the canceled Simpson book ”If I Did It,” the Associated Press reported yesterday. The decision by Judge Cristol paves the way for the family of slaying victim Ron Goldman to negotiate a deal to acquire the rights to the manuscript. In the book, Simpson explains how he would have committed the killings of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Goldman. The book has been the subject of a legal fight between the former NFL star and Goldman’s family. HarperCollins planned to publish it but canceled the deal following public outrage. Lorraine Brooke Associates, which names Simpson’s oldest daughter, Arnelle, as its head, retains the rights to it. Arnelle Simpson had sought to reorganize Lorraine Brook, which would have allowed her to maintain temporary control over it — and possibly ensure that the book would not be sold to the Goldman family. Judge Cristol ruled that the company was in no position to be reorganized and should simply be liquidated.