In its bankruptcy filing, Anthracite lists assets of between $101 million and $500 million and liabilities of between $501 million and $1 billion. Anthracite's statement notes that in a liquidation, "it is likely that shareholders would not receive any value and that the value received by unsecured creditors would be minimal." The court-appointed trustee for the Chapter 7 filing is Albert Togut of Togut Segal & Segal, according to court documents filed Monday afternoon; no hearing dates have been scheduled as yet.

A Chapter 7 filing had loomed as a possibility for the past several months. In its third-quarter results this past November, Anthracite reported net losses of $132.5 million for the first nine months of 2009, following full-year losses of $258 million in 2008, and said its unrestricted cash and equivalents had dwindled from $9.7 billion at the start of the year to $297 million as of Sept. 30.

In that Q3 filing, Anthracite cited the adverse effect of rising delinquency rates for CMBS and commercial real estate loans on its cash flow. "This negative trend has continued into the fourth quarter of 2009 and the Company believes this negative trend will continue into the foreseeable future," Anthracite said in November. Anthracite had been an active buyer of CMBS and unsecured REIT debt.