Some of Tribune’s bondholders have filed a motion in bankruptcy court seeking an investigation of Sam Zell’s buyout $12bn buyout of the newspaper company. The suit claims the LBO made fraudulent transfers to the shareholders will not exchanging equivalent value.

“The LBO -- and the unsustainable debt burden it imposed on a business already in a secular decline -- undoubtedly caused the debtors’ demise. The architects of the LBO now concede that the transaction was a ‘mistake’ based on assessments of the Debtors’ business that were ‘too optimistic,’” the filing says. “Tribune commenced these Chapter 11 cases within a year of the LBO, leaving billions of dollars of pre-LBO debt unpaid”.

Tribune said in a statement that it was working with all its constituents, including bondholders, "to develop and implement a plan that maximiss the value of the company for all parties in interest and treats all creditors fairly, and to do so as quickly as reasonably possible".