PCH's estate carries unsecured claims at $0 as fees pass $2.28M

Published October 3, 2026. Every claim below cites a document we opened on October 3, 2026 unless another date is given: the docket of In re 382 Channel Drive LLC f/k/a Publishers Clearing House LLC, No. 25-10694 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y.), eight filings in it, PCH Digital, LLC's Official Rules, a Bloomberg Law report of December 22, 2025, and an Associated Press report of September 17, 2025 that our PCH+ review also cites. One filing, the pro se motion (Doc 392), is no longer published by the claims agent; what we report from it is what it said when we read it on September 5, 2026.

Disclosure: this site's publisher, Luck Incorporated LLC, operates Chance Infinite, a free-entry sweepstakes app that competes for some of the same players as PCH's giveaways. The full disclosure is in the footer.

What the second-quarter report says

Doc 389 is the post-confirmation report for the quarter ending June 30, 2026, filed July 20 and signed by Kenneth Silverman as Plan Administrator "under penalty of perjury" (p. 8). In Part 2 ("Preconfirmation Professional Fees and Expenses"), line c ("All professional fees and expenses (debtor & committees)") shows $2,286,897 approved and $2,282,867 paid, cumulative (pp. 2, 7).

Part 3 is "Recoveries of the Holders of Claims and Interests under Confirmed Plan" (p. 7). Priority claims: $740,915 paid and allowed, 100 percent. Administrative claims: $270,292 allowed, $0 paid. General unsecured claims: $0 anticipated, $0 paid, $0 allowed. Part 4 answers "Is this a final report?" with No and anticipates a Final Decree application on December 31, 2027 (p. 7). On October 3, 2026, Doc 389 was still the newest post-confirmation report on the claims agent's docket; we found no report there for the quarter ending September 30, 2026.

Reading the $0 line

The claims objection deadline runs to January 5, 2027 (Doc 386), so $0 allowed may mean the unsecured claims are still unresolved rather than valued at nothing. The court's February 4, 2026 memorandum opinion (Doc 363), citing the debtor's Amended Disclosure Statement, reported "approximately 180 general unsecured claims in the amount of approximately $3.7 billion." The October 22, 2025 version of that statement (Doc 271, ECF p. 25) says in a footnote that the total "includes three claims filed by the same claimant each in the amount of $1 billion" and estimates allowed general unsecured claims at "approximately $70 million to an amount to be determined" after reconciliation. The February 4 opinion describes one claimant's three claims of $1 billion each and sustained the objections to them, along with the rest of the first three omnibus objections, which covered 25 claims listed as late filed, except for three prize winners' claims on which the Plan Administrator had adjourned his reply. Read together, these documents indicate that the $3.7 billion was an amount claimed, much of it since disallowed, not an amount allowed.

An Associated Press report of September 17, 2025, also cited in our review, said that at the time of the April 2025 filing PCH listed ten unidentified prize winners among its creditors with the largest unsecured claims. Bloomberg Law reported on December 22, 2025 that Judge Martin Glenn said at an uncontested hearing that he would approve the plan, which in the reporter's words "will likely pay its remaining prize winners just pennies on the dollar."

Other entries since June

Doc 386, signed by Judge Glenn on June 23, 2026, extends the Claims Objection Deadline "from July 5, 2026 through and including January 5, 2027" and "without prejudice to the Plan Administrator seeking further extensions of time" to object. It is the Plan Administrator's deadline to object to filed claims, not a new filing deadline for claimants. We found no further extension on the docket on October 3, 2026.

Doc 390, dated August 11, 2026, is a clerk's notice that the case "was reassigned to Judge Philip Bentley on August 11, 2026 for administration." No reason is stated. The claims agent's case page now says the case "is pending before the Honorable Philip Bentley".

A pro se $13 million claim over entry headlines the filer says shrank

Doc 392 is a pro se motion for leave to file a proof of claim after the July 14, 2025 bar date. CourtListener's copy of the court docket, a secondary mirror of PACER, lists it as "Motion, File Proof of Claim After Claims Bar Date" dated September 1, 2026. The claims agent no longer publishes it: the link we used on September 5, 2026 returned "File not found" (HTTP 404) on October 3, 2026, and the claims agent's docket list that day skips Doc 392 and Doc 394, a certificate of mailing.

When we read the 52-page filing on September 5, 2026, it was stamped received August 28, 2026. Its Official Form 410, line 7, stated the claim as "$13,000,000.00"; line 8 gave the basis, handwritten: "(Fraud) Fraudulent Alterations of Claimed Entries To Contest Game Prizes Amounts" (p. 9). Exhibit A reproduced undated app entry screens. Page 18 was headlined "$300,000.00 Jetsetting Surprise" and page 19 showed the same opening line above "WIN $95,000 To Jet Away To Anywhere" and GWY #21601. The filer did not claim to have been drawn as a winner; the claim is that entry-screen amounts were lowered. The allegations are unproven.

Doc 395, the newest entry, is a five-page filing the claims agent lists as "Statement of facts in support of Motion" and the court header shows as filed September 15, 2026. In it the filer describes "a substantial administrative and fraud-based claim" arising from what the filer calls "unauthorized alteration of game prize amounts." The filer says an email sent to the company on January 21, 2025, before the April 9, 2025 petition, put the company on notice, and that the company omitted the filer from its creditor matrix, so the filer never received bar date notices. It asks the court "to find that my delay constitutes excusable neglect". These are the filer's statements, and we found no ruling on them.

Doc 393, the clerk's notice dated September 1, sets the hearing on Doc 392 for October 13, 2026 at 3:00 p.m. ET. On October 3, 2026 the claims agent's calendar still showed it: "Hearing to be held on 10/13/2026 at 03:00 PM at Videoconference (ZoomGov) (PB)." On the claims agent's and CourtListener's docket lists that day, we found no response or objection from the Plan Administrator, no adjournment notice and no withdrawal of the motion. As we read the motion on September 5, the filer's proposed order would leave the claim open to objection: it was "without Prejudice to the right of the Debtor or any other party in interest to object" (p. 6). We found no statement on the filing from PCH Digital or the Plan Administrator; this article will be updated if either provides one.

What PCH's own documents say

The Official Rules page on pch.com, which names PCH Digital, LLC as sponsor, says: "Various presentations of these Giveaways using various prizes/prize values may be presented to the public. The winning entry will be eligible for the prize configuration promoted in the Promotion or pch.com offer from which it comes." The same two sentences appear in paragraph 8 of the rules for GWY #23097, whose entry period ran June 3 to September 22, 2026. Both are PCH Digital, LLC rules from after the July 15, 2025 sale; the filer describes conduct by the old company before its April 9, 2025 petition (Doc 395), and on October 3, 2026 we did not find the rules that governed GWY #21601.

Side by side: the filer treats the $300,000 and $95,000 headlines as an alteration of an amount owed; PCH Digital's rules describe varying presentations as permitted, with the winning entry eligible for the prize promoted where it came from. We are not a regulator and we do not claim any law is being broken; the matter noticed for October 13 is the motion to file a late claim, not whether the claim would be allowed. The claim sits in the old company's case. The debtor's Amended Disclosure Statement (Doc 271, ECF p. 19) says the buyer, PCH Digital, LLC, assumed prize liabilities for contests launched after the April 9, 2025 petition, two outstanding super-prizes and one super-prize awarded May 31, 2025, and "did not assume annuity prize winner obligations". ARB Interactive, Inc. had assigned its rights and obligations under the purchase agreement to PCH Digital before the sale closed on July 15, 2025 (Doc 193).

What a player should do with this

If you hold a prize claim against the old company that the buyer did not assume (Doc 271 lists what it did assume), the docket gives you two dates: January 5, 2027, the Plan Administrator's current deadline to object to filed claims (Doc 386), and December 31, 2027, the date the Plan Administrator anticipates applying for a final decree (Doc 389, p. 7). The claims agent's case page lists an information line, 888-710-5634 (US and Canada, toll free), and an email address, [email protected].

PCH Digital's Official Rules say: "No payment, fee, tax or any amount is ever required to claim or receive a prize in a legitimate PCH giveaway." Never pay a fee, wire money or buy a gift card for anyone who contacts you saying they can collect a PCH prize or a bankruptcy payout for you; see our guide to prize-claim scams. If you enter PCH giveaways, read the prize-presentation paragraph of the rules before treating an entry headline as a promise.

What is not public

On the pages we opened on October 3, 2026, we found nothing that says why Doc 392 and Doc 394 left the claims agent's site, whether the Plan Administrator will respond to the motion, how many general unsecured claims remain unresolved, or what holders of those claims can expect beyond the $0 anticipated in Doc 389; the October 22, 2025 Amended Disclosure Statement gave their estimated distribution as "To Be Determined" (Doc 271, ECF p. 21).

Common questions

Are Publishers Clearing House unsecured creditors getting paid?

Not as of the report for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, which lists general unsecured claims at $0 anticipated, $0 paid and $0 allowed. It was still the latest report on the docket on October 3, 2026. The deadline to object to claims runs to January 5, 2027, so the line may change as claims are resolved.

What is the $13 million claim against the PCH bankruptcy estate?

A pro se motion, docketed September 1, 2026, asking leave to file a late proof of claim that, as we read it on September 5, stated $13,000,000 over prize amounts on app entry screens the filer says later appeared lower. The filer did not claim to have been drawn as a winner. The hearing was still set for October 13, 2026 at 3:00 p.m. ET when we checked on October 3.

Did PCH change the prize amounts on its giveaways?

The current rules of PCH Digital, the operator since the July 2025 sale, say various presentations using various prizes or prize values may be shown and that the winning entry is eligible for the prize configuration promoted where it came from. The filing concerns the old company and its giveaways before April 2025. Whether the screens in the filing were changed improperly is an unproven allegation by the filer, and we found no ruling on it.

Documents we opened

Case docket, No. 25-10694, claims agent site, through Doc 395 (filed September 15, 2026), retrieved 2026-10-03 in a browser: live
Claims agent case page and October 13, 2026 calendar entry, retrieved 2026-10-03: case page, calendar
CourtListener docket mirror (secondary, sourced from PACER), last known filing September 17, 2026, retrieved 2026-10-03: live
Doc 193, Notice of Closing of Sale and Filing of Amended Asset Purchase Agreement, filed July 16, 2025, retrieved 2026-10-03: live
Doc 271, Amended Disclosure Statement for Amended Plan of Liquidation, filed October 22, 2025, retrieved 2026-10-03: live
Doc 363, Memorandum Opinion Sustaining the Debtor's First, Second, and Third Omnibus Claim Objections, February 4, 2026, court website, retrieved 2026-10-03: live
Doc 386, Order Extending Deadline to Object to Claims, June 23, 2026, retrieved 2026-10-03: live
Doc 389, Post-confirmation Report, quarter ending 06/30/2026, signed July 20, 2026, retrieved 2026-10-03: live
Doc 390, Notice of Case Reassignment, August 11, 2026, retrieved 2026-10-03: live
Doc 392, pro se late-claim motion, Form 410, Exhibits A and B, 52 pages, received August 28, 2026, read 2026-09-05; no longer published by the claims agent (its link returned 404 on 2026-10-03)
Doc 393, hearing notice, September 1, 2026, retrieved 2026-10-03: live
Doc 395, statement of facts in support of the motion, received September 15, 2026, retrieved 2026-10-03: live
Official Rules, pch.com, sponsor PCH Digital, LLC, retrieved 2026-10-03: live
GWY #23097 Official Rules, PCH Digital, LLC, entry period June 3 to September 22, 2026, retrieved 2026-10-03: live, archived
Associated Press, Amid bankruptcy, some Publishers Clearing House winners are facing the end of forever prizes, September 17, 2025, as carried by WSAW (secondary reporting), retrieved 2026-10-03: live
Bloomberg Law, Publishers Clearing House Liquidation Plan Approved After Sale, James Nani, December 22, 2025, retrieved 2026-10-03: live, archived