Alcatel-Lucent must pay back $188 mil

An Alcatel-Lucent SA unit must return to the U.S. trustee of bankrupt Winstar Communications Inc. a $188.2 million loan payment it accepted in 2000, an appeals panel decided.

As a business partner to the telecommunications company, Lucent Technologies Inc. was an "insider" under U.S. bankruptcy law and owes Winstar's Trustee the money, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided Feb. 3 in Philadelphia.

The case is In Re Winstar Communications Inc., 07-2569, 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (Philadelphia).