Stretto, the claims and noticing agent for Character Technologies, the company behind the Character.ai chatbot app, filed a 27-page affidavit in the Delaware bankruptcy court on October 20, 2026, listing who received the case's first-day motions, the interim orders granted on October 14 and the notice of hearing on the Disney sale procedures. A week after the first service list went out, the contact details for eight state attorneys general still name officials who have left office, Oregon has dropped off the mail list entirely, and 23 parties whose identities are withheld received the sale papers by mail and email.

In Short

Character.ai is selling parts of itself to Disney in bankruptcy, and the law requires it to tell regulators, lenders, insurers and other affected parties about each step. A sworn record filed on October 20 shows who was sent the court papers on October 14, and it still addresses several state attorneys general by the names of people who left those jobs years ago. That matters because a sale that cuts off old claims only binds parties who were properly told, and the states are the ones most likely to object to what happens to users' chats and data.

The filing

The document is Docket No. 57 in case 26-11603 (BLS), In re Character Technologies, Inc., before Judge Brendan L. Shannon of the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. Christopher Chiu, who states that he is "employed by Stretto, the claims & noticing agent for the Debtor," signed it before a notary in Denver County, Colorado, on October 20, 2026. The court filed it the same day. It is the second affidavit of service in the case. The first, Docket No. 28, was sworn on October 13 and covered only the two notices announcing the first-day hearing.

One word in Chiu's opening sentence has changed between the two. On October 13 Stretto described itself as the "proposed" claims and noticing agent. The order appointing it, Docket No. 35, was entered at the first-day hearing on October 14, and the qualifier is gone.

According to the affidavit, Stretto employees served the papers on October 14, 2026, the day of the hearing. The filing came six days later. Service went out in eight separate packages, each matched to its own exhibit, and by first-class mail and email only. The fax channel used for the first-day notices was not used this time.

What was served

The main package, sent to the general service lists in Exhibits A and B, contains 28 documents. It includes the company's first-day motions (Docket Nos. 2 to 11), the bidding procedures motion that names Disney Worldwide Services, Inc. as stalking horse purchaser (Docket No. 15), the motion to shorten notice of that request (Docket No. 16), and the declarations of Adam Dunayer (Docket No. 17) and Colin M. Adams (Docket No. 18). It then lists every order Judge Shannon signed on October 14: the order on the worldwide automatic stay (Docket No. 34), the Stretto appointment (Docket No. 35), seven interim orders on utilities, insurance, taxes, critical vendors, redaction, cash management and wages (Docket Nos. 36 to 42), and the order shortening notice of the bidding procedures motion (Docket No. 43).

Four notices complete the set: an omnibus notice of the first-day motions and the final hearing on them (Docket No. 44), a notice that the stay order had been entered (Docket No. 45), a notice of hearing on the bidding procedures motion (Docket No. 50), and a notice of hearing on the motion to reject an unexpired lease (Docket No. 51).

The affidavit does not reproduce the hearing dates in Docket Nos. 44, 50 or 51. From the interim orders themselves, objections to final relief on the first-day motions are due October 30, and the final hearing is set for November 17 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern, as covered when Character.ai won its interim order to keep its cash system running.

Targeted packages

The remaining exhibits show how the company sorted its creditors. Each group received only the motions and orders that touch it, plus the omnibus notice:

  • Banks (Exhibit C): Chase, Morgan Stanley and Silicon Valley Bank received 13 documents, including the cash management, wages, tax and critical vendor motions and their interim orders.
  • Utilities (Exhibit D): AT&T, Comcast and Pacific Gas & Electric received the utility motion, the interim utility order and the omnibus notice.
  • Insurers and brokers (Exhibits E and F): 18 entries, from AIG and Beazley to the brokers Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. and Woodruff-Sawyer & Co., received the insurance motion, the interim insurance order and the omnibus notice, by mail and by email to claims mailboxes.
  • Tax authorities (Exhibits G and H): 17 mail entries, from the Internal Revenue Service and California's Franchise Tax Board to the New York City Department of Finance and the sales tax processor Numeral Two Inc, received 10 documents. That set includes the sale motion, the Dunayer declaration and the notice of hearing on the sale procedures, the papers a taxing authority would need to object if a sale were to cut off tax claims against the assets.
  • WeWork Companies LLC, at 12 East 49th Street in New York, received the lease rejection motion, the omnibus notice and the notice of hearing on lease rejection, which concerns the company's New York WeWork membership.

Eight names out of date

The general lists are where the problems sit. Exhibit A, the first-class mail list, has 83 entries. Exhibit B, the email list, has 54. Both carry over contact details from the October 13 round that do not match who holds the office.

Kentucky's mail entry reads "Attorney General Daniel Cameron," at 700 Capital Avenue in Frankfort. Cameron left office at the end of 2023, and the office now run by his successor, Russell Coleman, is suing Character and its co-founders in Franklin Circuit Court, a suit filed on January 8, 2026, according to the chief executive's first-day declaration. Kentucky has no email entry at all. Kansas is addressed "Attn: Attorney Gen Derek Schmidt" by mail and to derek.schmidt@ag.ks.gov by email; Schmidt left in January 2023.

The email exhibit adds six more. California's address is xavier.becerra@doj.ca.gov. Florida's is ashley.moody@myfloridalegal.com. Idaho's entry lists lawrence.wasden@ag.idaho.gov and agwasden@ag.idaho.gov. Illinois is reached at info@lisamadigan.org, a domain outside government. New Mexico's is hbalderas@nmag.gov. And Oregon's entry includes ellen.rosenblum@doj.state.or.us. Becerra left office in 2021, Wasden and Balderas in January 2023, Madigan in January 2019, and Moody and Rosenblum in January 2025.

Most of these states also received paper at their office address, so the letter will probably reach the right building. The affidavit does not say whether any of the email addresses still work, or whether any message bounced. A week of active case management, including a 40-jurisdiction filing by the states, has not changed them.

Oregon falls off the mail list

Oregon is the one state with no physical address anywhere in this affidavit. Exhibit A runs from the State of Alabama to the State of Wyoming, with Washington listed twice, and skips Oregon. The first service round, according to the October 13 affidavit, sent overnight mail to all 50 states.

Oregon is not left out entirely. Its email entry, "c/o Oregon Department of Justice," reaches four addresses, including that of Senior Assistant Attorney General Justin D. Leonard. That reflects the states' notice of interest filed on October 14, which Leonard signed for Oregon. But the switch from paper to email alone is not explained, and email service on a governmental unit is the kind of detail that gets argued if a state later contests whether it was bound.

The smaller errors also carry over. The second Washington entry still gives a ZIP code of "98504-00," with digits missing, and both US Department of Justice entries, including the one "c/o Antitrust Division," still give 20050-0001.

The lawyers who appeared

The email list does show the case catching up in one respect. Named government lawyers now appear for states that have taken a position:

  • Commonwealth of Massachusetts: "c/o Division Chief, Privacy and Responsible Technology Division, Attn: Jared Rinehimer, Assistant Attorney General"
  • NAAG Client States: "c/o National Association of Attorneys General, Attn: Abigail Rushing Ryan, Bankruptcy Counsel"
  • State of Oregon: Justin D. Leonard, Senior Assistant Attorney General
  • State of Colorado: Robert Padjen, through the Colorado Department of Law
  • Tennessee Attorney General - Consumer Division: "c/o TN Attorney General's Office, Bankruptcy Division, Attn: Laura L. McCloud"

Rinehimer, Ryan, Leonard and Padjen all signed the states' October 14 notice, in which 39 states and the District of Columbia set nine conditions for any buyer of Character.ai's assets, from age assurance to limits on using chat content for advertising. Ryan signed for 36 jurisdictions. Tennessee was among them; McCloud was not among its signatories, and her name appears here for the first time in the case's service lists.

Two signatories of that notice are absent. New Jersey, whose Section Chief Thomas Huynh signed for the Division of Consumer Affairs, and Pennsylvania, whose Senior Deputy Attorney General Saverio P. Mirarchi signed for the Bureau of Consumer Protection, have no email entry. Both receive paper: New Jersey at the Richard J. Hughes Justice Complex in Trenton, Pennsylvania at Strawberry Square in Harrisburg, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania again at a separate Harrisburg address as a creditor in its own right. In May 2026 Pennsylvania's State Board of Medicine sued the company over a chatbot that presented itself as a licensed psychiatrist.

Registered parties also received the papers through the court's CM/ECF system, according to the affidavit, which would cover lawyers who filed appearances. The list itself, though, is the debtor's own record of who it treats as needing notice.

The 23 confidential recipients

The most opaque part of the filing is a single paragraph. On October 14, according to Chiu, Stretto served "twenty-three (23) confidential parties not included herein" by first-class mail and email with four documents: the bidding procedures motion, the Dunayer declaration, the omnibus notice and the notice of hearing on the bidding procedures motion. Two further confidential parties, one by mail and one by email, received the main package.

The affidavit does not say who the 23 are. Two readings fit the filings so far. The interim redaction order, Docket No. 40, allows the company to withhold the names and addresses of natural persons, and private plaintiffs, including the minor whose name was redacted from the petition, have the most personal stake in whether a sale cuts off claims. The package, however, is a sale package rather than a general one. Dunayer, of the company's investment bank, stated in his declaration that a prepetition process approached about 28 potential buyers and drew one proposal that was not actionable. Prospective bidders who signed confidentiality agreements would be logical recipients of exactly these four documents. Neither reading is confirmed by the affidavit.

The affidavit names Dunayer but not his firm. Earlier filings in the case are inconsistent on that point: his own declaration refers to Houlihan Capital, Inc., while the petition's board resolution and the chief executive's declaration name Houlihan Lokey.

Disney and the commercial parties

Disney appears three times on the email list, through Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom: as "Disney," for the attention of Brandon Van Dyke, Ron E. Meisler and Samuel J. Cammer, and as "Disney Worldwide Services, Inc.," once for Joseph O. Larkin and once for Meisler and Bryan V. Uelk. Skadden is also on the mail list as a creditor, at a post office box in White Plains. Disney had already kept its jury trial rights through its notice of appearance.

The commercial names have not changed. Google LLC is reached at a post office box in Los Angeles. Apple Distribution International Ltd is served at a Dallas post office box and at ar_ad_platforms_amr@apple.com, its ad platforms accounts receivable mailbox. DigitalOcean, Fireworks.ai, Zayo Group, DoorDash, Sundial Product Inc (for the attention of Julie Zhuo), Tines Automation Inc, Late Checkout LLC, Alder FM LLC and Invertase Limited, through the Crewe accountancy Banks Sheridan Ltd, are all present again, as are the law firms Hogan Lovells, Munger Tolles & Olson, Quinn Emanuel and White & Case.

The federal list matches the first round: the Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission at two offices, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Internal Revenue Service, the US Trustee, the US Attorney for Delaware and the Justice Department, once through its Antitrust Division. No foreign government or data protection authority appears on any exhibit, despite the worldwide reach of the stay order that was served.

Why the list matters for the sale

The Disney agreements contemplate a transfer free and clear of claims, including successor liability, and a sale order can give that protection only to the extent affected parties received adequate notice. The users, data and app are not part of Disney's $20 million license, as PPC Land reported when the petition showed Character.ai facing a wind-down. Whatever happens to them next depends on the November process: bids due November 20, an auction on November 23 if there is more than one qualified bid, and a proposed sale hearing on November 24, the day after the creditors' meeting on November 19 and in the same week.

The states are the parties most likely to press on data. Their notice reserved the right to ask for a consumer privacy ombudsman under the Bankruptcy Code, and their sixth condition asks that any buyer honor account-level advertising opt-outs already exercised. For advertisers who bought inventory on the app, about $2.5 million a month in ad sales according to the chief executive, those conditions, and the parties positioned to enforce them, shape whether the app survives the auction and on what terms.

An affidavit of service is a clerical document. In a case whose central asset is a court order that cuts off claims, though, it is also the record a party would cite if it later argued it was never properly told. On that record, eight states are still addressed through people who have left office, one state is reached by email alone, and 23 recipients of the sale papers are not identified.

Timeline

  • January 2019: Lisa Madigan leaves the Illinois attorney general's office
  • 2021: Xavier Becerra leaves the California attorney general's office
  • January 2023: Derek Schmidt (Kansas), Lawrence Wasden (Idaho) and Hector Balderas (New Mexico) leave office
  • End of 2023: Daniel Cameron leaves the Kentucky attorney general's office
  • January 2025: Ashley Moody (Florida) and Ellen Rosenblum (Oregon) leave office
  • January 8, 2026: Kentucky sues Character and its co-founders in Franklin Circuit Court
  • May 2026: Pennsylvania's State Board of Medicine sues Character Technologies
  • October 12, 2026: Character Technologies files for Chapter 11 in Delaware, with the bidding procedures motion and the Dunayer declaration
  • October 13, 2026: Stretto serves the first-day hearing notices and files its first affidavit of service (Docket No. 28)
  • October 14, 2026: 39 states and the District of Columbia file their notice of interest; Judge Shannon enters the Stretto appointment, the stay order and seven interim orders; Stretto serves 28 documents to the general lists and targeted packages to banks, utilities, insurers, tax authorities, WeWork and 25 confidential parties
  • October 20, 2026: Chiu signs the affidavit before a notary in Denver County, Colorado, and it is filed as Docket No. 57
  • October 30, 2026: Objection deadline for final relief on the first-day motions
  • November 17, 2026, 10:00 a.m. ET: Final hearing on the first-day motions
  • November 19, 2026: Meeting of creditors
  • November 20, 2026: Proposed bid deadline
  • November 23, 2026: Proposed auction, if more than one qualified bid arrives
  • November 24, 2026: Proposed sale hearing

Summary

Who: Character Technologies, Inc., operator of Character.ai, through its court-appointed claims and noticing agent Stretto and employee Christopher Chiu. Recipients include the state attorneys general, the National Association of Attorneys General, the FTC, the Justice Department and its Antitrust Division, Disney through Skadden, banks, utilities, insurers, tax authorities, WeWork and 25 confidential parties.

What: A 27-page affidavit of service (Docket No. 57) proving delivery on October 14 of 28 documents, including the first-day motions, the bidding procedures motion, the October 14 interim orders and the notice of hearing on the sale procedures. Eight state entries name attorneys general who have left office, Oregon is missing from the mail list, named lawyers now appear for Massachusetts, Oregon, Colorado, Tennessee and NAAG, and 23 unnamed parties received the sale papers.

When: Papers served October 14, 2026; affidavit sworn and filed October 20, 2026, ahead of the October 30 objection deadline, the November 17 final hearing and a proposed November 24 sale hearing.

Where: The US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, case 26-11603 (BLS), with the affidavit sworn in Denver County, Colorado.

Why: A sale free and clear of claims binds only parties who received proper notice. The states that have set conditions on user data and advertising opt-outs are the parties most likely to object, so the accuracy of the addresses used to reach them, and the identity of those who received the sale papers, bear on how secure the Disney deal and any rival bid will be.