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Jose Garces has sweetened the pot to help cinch a sale of his restaurants in bankruptcy court, offering to pay $500,000 to M&T Bank to satisfy personal liens against him, Philly.com reported. Judge Jerrold N. Poslusny Jr. in Camden on Thursday heard details of a proposed sale agreement — totaling about $8.34 million — for Garces’ restaurants, management agreements, and catering division. The proposed buyer — Ballard Brands, a Louisiana food company that has been Garces’ longtime suitor — also announced that it had increased its cash offer by $1.5 million, to $3.5 million, the court heard. Garces’ own $500,000 and Ballard’s additional $1.5 million would boost the total price tag by $2 million from Ballard’s initial bankruptcy-court offer of about $6.34 million. The sale could be confirmed at a hearing July 9. Garces is expected to become a Ballard employee.

A federal appeals court yesterday blocked new litigation against the estate of a Florida investor accused of helping Bernard Madoff commit fraud, after the estate had reached a $7.2 billion settlement to benefit Madoff’s customers, Reuters reported. The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit is a victory for Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee liquidating Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC after its December 2008 implosion. Picard has said that allowing the $11 billion lawsuit by A&G Goldman Partnership and Pamela Goldman against Jeffry Picower’s estate would undermine his authority to obtain settlements, while assuring settling parties they would not be sued again.

Creditors Tuesday persuaded an investment group offering to buy Elements Behavioral Health Inc. to make a key concession in the bidding for the debt-burdened addiction-rehabilitation center, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy. An investment vehicle that includes hedge fund BlueMountain Capital and Platinum Health Care founder Ben Klein has set its sights on Elements Behavioral, and will lead the bidding at a planned July bankruptcy auction. The buyout group is also Elements Behavioral’s top-ranking lender, and, as such, was in position to dominate the auction, creditors feared. At a hearing yesterday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., the BlueMountain buyout group agreed to limit the amount of “credit-bidding” it will do to $65 million.

Bankrupt jewelry seller Claire’s Stores Inc. will spend the summer evaluating potential buyers after a judge ordered the retailer to open up the sale of the company to all bidders, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Bankruptcy Judge Mary Walrath on Friday set an Aug. 31 deadline for bids for the company, part of a revived marketing process ordered in response to creditor complaints that Claire’s previous attempts to sell itself were flawed. Claire’s, which filed for bankruptcy protection in March, said it looked for buyers before and after agreeing to a restructuring deal backed by the retailer’s private-equity owner Apollo Global Management and top ranking lenders, Elliott Management Corp. and Monarch Alternative Capital LP, but came up empty-handed. Bondholder Oaktree Capital Management criticized the marketing process as being designed to ward off competition. Among other things, Claire’s insisted that bidders offer cash only, and in an amount sufficient to pay off first-lien debt.

The future of Pittsburgh’s classic Clark Bar remains in limbo, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. The family owned investment company that saved Twinkies and last month bought the New England Confectionery Co. — the Massachusetts-based maker of Necco Wafers, Clark Bars and other nostalgic candies — isn’t commenting on whether it will continue making the crunchy chocolate-covered peanut butter concoction created a century ago in Pittsburgh. The Metropoulos family picked up Necco for $17.3 million in bankruptcy court after the initial winning bidder, Ohio-based Spangler Candy Co., failed to close on its $18.83 million offer.

Westinghouse Electric Co. is battling former subcontractor Fluor Corp. over some $260 million in damage claims stemming from failed efforts to launch a new wave of nuclear reactors in the U.S., WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The dispute erupted at the tail end of a bankruptcy that saw most of Westinghouse separated from its Japanese parent, Toshiba Corp., and sold to Brookfield Business Partners LP for $4.6 billion. Fluor’s bankruptcy claims include fees linked to the termination of Westinghouse’s contracts to build new reactors in South Carolina and Georgia, projects where cost overruns and delays mounted for years. Fluor was a subcontractor that worked on the projects for about 14 months before Westinghouse filed for chapter 11 protection and scrapped its construction business.

A judge approved the lead bid for Gawker on Wednesday while a lawyer for the blog’s former publisher said two or three other parties have also expressed interest in potentially acquiring the mothballed website, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Bankruptcy Judge Stuart Bernstein authorized the $1.13 million lead offer from Mineola, N.Y.-based advertising firm Didit during a hearing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. The court also set a July 9 deadline for submitting potentially higher bids for the blog. Advisers liquidating Gawker Media LLC will hold a bankruptcy auction if rival offers for the site emerge in the coming weeks.