For Chapter 7 trustees
Recover value from records the estate already owns.
Austral works in a partnership model alongside the trustee, helping preserve the estate's data assets and license them, after privacy review, to US-based AI companies. There are no fees to the estate.
The records disappear when the accounts do
A closed company’s email archives, support tickets, CRM and accounting records, documents and code usually sit in SaaS accounts. Those accounts are often shut off for non-payment within weeks, and the records go with them.
Once that happens, a data asset the estate owned can no longer be preserved, reviewed or sold.
Timing
What Austral does for the estate
- Identifies the systems that hold saleable data assets.
- Helps set up a mass download of those systems into storage the trustee controls, so records are preserved before accounts are shut off.
- Coordinates privacy review. A specialist will contact the trustee to run it.
- Brings a qualified US-based buyer.
What the trustee does
- Grants access, or introduces the debtor's former IT contact.
- Approves the scope: which systems are included and how information is anonymized.
- Files the sale motion.
Personal and sensitive information is reviewed and removed before any sale. The trustee decides how information is anonymized, and Austral will make sure the review happens before anything is sold. Buyers are US-based AI labs, US public companies and US-regulated AI businesses that Austral trusts.
Questions trustees ask
Does the sale need court approval?
Selling property of the estate generally happens after notice and a hearing under 11 U.S.C. § 363, and the trustee files the motion. Whether and how to proceed is a decision for the trustee, counsel and the court.
What about the consumer privacy ombudsman question?
Section 363(b)(1) addresses a sale of personally identifiable information when the debtor's privacy policy limits transfers. Whether it applies depends on the debtor's policy and the records involved. The trustee and counsel make that call. Personal and sensitive information is reviewed and removed before any sale, and a specialist will contact the trustee to arrange that review.
Who pays?
There are no fees to the estate. Austral is compensated by the buyer side.
How long does it take?
The whole process typically takes 3 to 6 weeks from the first call. Timing depends on which systems are involved, how quickly access is granted, the privacy review and the court calendar, and court approval can add time. A specialist will contact you after the first call with a realistic schedule for the case. Accounts that are about to be shut off come first, so the earlier the call, the better.
Who decides what is sold?
The trustee. Austral works in a partnership model alongside the trustee, who decides which systems to include and how information is anonymized.
Have a case with live accounts?
Send the company name and chapter. A specialist will contact you. No fees to the estate.