WILMINGTON – Wilmington Trust, one of the largest trust banks in the U.S., has been appointed trustee for the $2.7 billion Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust.
The bank has handled other large-scale cases, including serving as the initial trustee for the Greece debt-restructuring program and chairing the unsecured creditors committees for the Lehman Brothers and General Motors Corporation bankruptcies.
All 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Native American nations are potential beneficiaries of the Volkswagen trust, which was created as a result of the car company’s 2015 emissions scandal and the $4.3 billion settlement.
The money will be used to implement air pollution mitigation initiatives The trust has been set up for 10 years, and could be extended, if necessary.
The bank has extensive experience providing trust, custody, escrow and investment management services to state governments, and it has handled other environmental mitigation trusts. It served on the unsecured creditors committee in the WorldCom, Washington Mutual, Tribune Company and General Growth Properties bankruptcies.
“We are honored to be selected to administer the environmental mitigation trust,” said Jack Beeson, head of Global Capital Markets at Wilmington Trust. “We’ve carefully built our corporate trust business over the decades by acting as an impartial and collaborative trustee, and serving in non-creditor roles in transactions. We look forward to bringing our high level of professionalism and service to this important role.”
Wilmington Trust will work with the parties to finalize the trust agreement, which will require approval by the court.
To spread information about the Volkswagen Clean Air Civil Settlement and the application process, the EPA created an information website with FAQs, helpful links, and updates: www.epa.gov/enforcement/volkswagen-clean-air-act-civil-settlement.
