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Joe's Crab Shack owner Ignite Restaurant Group has officially filed a chapter 11 reorganization plan that confirms a California private equity group as its preferred bidder, intensifying a derisive court battle with Tilman Fertitta's restaurant empire, the Houston Chronicle reported on Friday. In the plan, Houston-based Ignite reaffirmed its intent to sell its restaurant chains, which also includes Brick House Tavern + Tap, to KRG Acquisitions Co. The company, an affiliate of a San Diego-based firm called Kelly Cos, agreed last month to pay $50 million for both brands. The bid sparked a controversy with Landry's, Tilman Fertitta's privately held restaurant and entertainment operation. The company in court filings offered $55 million for both restaurant chains and argued it should unseat KRG as the preferred bidder because its higher bid aligns with Ignite's obligation to secure the best sale price for its creditors.

A U.S. judge has appointed a new receiver to oversee the unwinding of assets held by hedge fund firm Platinum Partners, after the first receiver resigned over disagreements with federal securities regulators, Reuters reported on Friday. In a written order on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Dora Irizarry in Brooklyn accepted the resignation of Bart Schwartz, chairman of professional monitoring firm Guidepost Solutions LLC. Schwartz had been appointed receiver after prosecutors in December accused Platinum leaders of running a more than $1 billion fraud. The six men have pleaded not guilty. At the suggestion of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Irizarry appointed former bankruptcy judge Melanie Cyganowski, now head of law firm Otterbourg's bankruptcy group, as Schwartz's replacement. The agency is pursuing civil claims against the Platinum leaders.

People who lent money to Fyre Festival before it collapsed are now trying to force the company that ran the event into bankruptcy following the arrest of William “Billy” McFarland, the man behind the ill-fated music festival, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. Hyped as “the cultural experience of the decade,” Fyre Festival was to be held in the Bahamas over two weekends in April and May featuring artists like Migos and Lil Yachty. But the festival proved to be a flop when attendees, some of whom paid thousands of dollars, arrived at the private party venue only to find a half-built festival ground, bad food and canceled musical acts. “We look forward to finding out where the money went,” said Robert Knuts, a lawyer at Sher Tremonte LLP, who filed a petition Friday in New York against Fyre Festival LLC on behalf of three lenders who sunk $530,000 into the event. Knuts said that they are part of a larger group of more than 20 individuals who together lent more than $4 million to Fyre Festival.

Jireh Preparatory Academy in Matthews, N.C., and its athletic program, Jireh Prep Athletics, Inc,. have filed for bankruptcy protection, just months after a class-action suit alleged that it did not follow through on promises made to help students win recruitment by NCAA schools, the Charlotte Observer. Documents for a chapter 7 bankruptcy were filed on Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court Western District of North Carolina. The filing says that the school, a nonprofit, owes about 50 creditors nearly $88,000, but has assets of less than $65,000. The academy has no money in any of its bank accounts, according to the documents.

People injured by Takata Corp's defective air bags were given an official committee in the bankruptcy of its U.S. unit yesterday, allowing them to challenge restructuring plans that plaintiffs' lawyers have criticized as protective of automakers, Reuters reported. A seven-member committee will represent economic loss and personal injury or tort claimants, David Buchbinder, a lawyer with the U.S. Department of Justice's U.S. Trustee Program, told a meeting of creditors of Takata's U.S. business. William Weintraub, a lawyer with Goodwin Procter who is not involved in the Takata case, said that he expected the committee "to be active and to make sure that the claims of the car manufacturers are not treated preferentially and that tort victims are fairly compensated." A second five-member committee of suppliers and vendors was also appointed, according to Buchbinder.

Public Health Management Corp. has agreed to acquire Wordsworth Academy Inc. — which operated a residential treatment facility where a teenager died last fall in a struggle with staffers — in a deal that will send the Philadelphia human-services agency through bankruptcy court, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported on Friday. “Wordsworth has had its share of problems,” said Lawrence G. McMichael, a Dilworth Paxson attorney hired to handle the bankruptcy, which was filed Friday. “They have litigation against them. They have litigation threatened. They have lost the license to operate the Ford Road facility.” That West Philadelphia facility is where David Hess, 17, of Lebanon, Pa., died last Oct. 13 in a fight over an iPod. Hess’ death by suffocation was ruled a homicide in February, but charges have not been filed. His death capped a decade of allegations and charges of sexual and physical abuse at what was the city’s only residential treatment center for troubled youth.