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A founding member of the Fugees, a New York sports agent, a Saudi prince and an Indian company trying to spring its chairman from jail are all part of the saga to control New York’s storied Plaza Hotel, the Wall Street Journal reported today. In the latest development, a group of investors has agreed to lend $1.55 billion to the owner of the Plaza, a move aimed at gaining control of the landmark property. About $900 million of the new one-year loans will go toward retiring debt on the Plaza and two other hotels that is held by Bank of China Ltd., according to members of the investor group, Mirach Capital Group. The rest will provide the hotels’ owner, Indian conglomerate Sahara Group, with cash it is expected to use toward a bail payment for its chairman, Subrata Roy. Roy has been in a New Delhi jail since March on criminal charges after the government alleged that his company owes about $6 billion to the company’s bondholders. He and Sahara have denied the charges and say the debt has been paid, but his incarceration prompted the company to begin marketing the hotels to raise bail money.

The House of Representatives passed a bill yesterday that would allow for banks to voluntarily begin bankruptcy, MarketWatch.com reported yesterday. The bill, known as “The Financial Institutional Bankruptcy Act of 2014,” allows financial institutions to voluntarily begin the process of bankruptcy, or, in some cases, allows the Federal Reserve to begin the process. The bill was passed with bipartisan support, and was co-sponsored by Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), and Ranking Member John Conyers (D-Mich.). The bill uses a “single point of entry” approach to enable a holding company to go into bankruptcy while permitting subsidiaries to stay out of the process. The law builds on attempts to prevent taxpayer bailouts of financial institutions like the ones in 2008. Under the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, there is a provision for an administratively-driven resolution process.

A nutritional supplement business led by former professional bodybuilder Rich Gaspari has collapsed into bankruptcy under the weight of $16 million in debt, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Annual sales for Gaspari Nutrition Inc.’s muscle-building formulas like “Aminolast,” “Super Pump,” and “MyoFusion Advanced” have fallen from a peak of $78 million in 2011, said lawyers who put the New Jersey company into chapter 11 protection. The company, which sells its products online and at The Vitamin Shoppe, expects to make $45 million in sales this year. An affiliate of the U.K.-based Body Temple Ltd. has offered to pay $5 million in cash for the business, which is located near the Jersey Shore in Lakewood. At least one other buyer put in an offer for the company, which means that the business will be put up for auction on Monday, said Gaspari Nutrition lawyer Joshua Klein.

The financially struggling Charlotte, N.C.-based C.W. Williams Community Health Center, which primarily serves low-income patients, filed for chapter 11 protection, the Charlotte Observer reported today. Court records show the health center has liabilities of about $1.8 million to its 20 largest creditors. They include Certus Bank of Mauldin, S.C., owed $680,000; the Internal Revenue Service owed $313,000; and Hermosa Construction Group of Atlanta owed $188,000. C.W. Williams’ board Chairman Nelson Adesegha said the decision to file for bankruptcy became necessary because of the center’s “cumulative financial debt” and as the result of recent legal action against the center’s assets.

Latin American Nextel carrier NII Holdings Inc. has asked for a bankruptcy judge's permission to pay executives and other top-level employees as much as $9 million in bonuses, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported yesterday. In court papers filed last week, NII proposed bonuses for eight employees, including five senior executives and three vice presidents, tied to goals that incentivize a timely restructuring or sale. The names of the employees in line for the bonuses weren't disclosed.

A Caesars Entertainment Corp. creditor group said managers should be stripped of control of the casino company’s operating unit because they looted the subsidiary of billions of dollars in assets, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday. UMB Bank, trustee for first-lien noteholders owed about $1.25 billion, sued Caesars yesterday in Delaware Chancery Court, repeating allegations made by junior creditors in August. Yesterday’s suit, the first by senior creditors, came after some had agreed on the outline of a debt restructuring plan for the operating unit. The first-lien creditors yesterday asked the court to appoint a receiver for the unit.

The House of Representatives today is scheduled to vote on a bankruptcy plan for big banks that deserves more attention from taxpayers, according to an editorial in today’s Wall Street Journal. The Financial Institution Bankruptcy Act enjoys broad bipartisan support and has received little public examination. The bill will be considered today under suspension of the rules, meaning it cannot be amended and will be subject to limited debate, though to pass the House it will need to attract a two-thirds vote. Co-sponsored by Reps. Spencer Bachus (R- Ala.), John Conyers (D-Mich.), and Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), the bill creates a new section of the Bankruptcy Code for big financial firms. Bankruptcy courts, according to the editorial, would be better for resolving failing giants than the “orderly liquidation authority” created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank law that allows regulators to rescue these institutions and then discriminate among their creditors. However, nothing in the bill repeals the rescue authorities given to regulators under Dodd-Frank and there’s no ban on taxpayer assistance to the failing giants put through the new bankruptcy process. If the idea is to take power from bureaucrats and give it back to markets and judges, according to the editorial, it’s odd that not only the failing firm but also the Federal Reserve Board of Governors can trigger the bankruptcy filing if “necessary to prevent serious adverse effects on financial stability in the United States.” The affected company can contest the Fed’s decision privately before the court.

Bulldog Reporter, an Oakland, Calif.-based company that provided training and services for public relations professionals, recently filed for bankruptcy protection in California with liabilities of less than $1 million and assets of $178,220, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. Under the Bulldog Reporter and PR University brands, the company produced media directories, a daily online newsletter, webinars, live conferences and awards programs. Facing a severe cash shortage in August, the company laid off virtually all of its staff and shut down operations, filings show. Despite bringing in nearly $950,000 in sales as of this August and $1.48 million in sales last year, the company hadn’t turned a profit since at least 2012, it said in court filings.

Creditors of failed smartphone screen material supplier GT Advanced Technologies will get a peek at Apple Inc.'s secrets under a protective court order signed yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Apple is handing over documents and submitting to questions in advance of a planned December court review of a proposed settlement with GT, which would clear Apple of allegations it is to blame for GT’s bankruptcy. The information exchange is under wraps, but anything creditors seize on as grounds to challenge Apple’s deal with GT will have to meet strict standards to justify the secrecy, Bankruptcy Judge Henry Boroff warned the companies at a hearing yesterday.

The former owners of Lake Las Vegas, including two of Texas’ billionaire Bass brothers, paid $115 million last month to quietly settle a long-running lawsuit tied to the luxurious golf community and resort’s collapse into bankruptcy in 2008, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The lawsuit was brought by Larry Lattig, a court-appointed bankruptcy trustee, who sued the initial backers of Lake Las Vegas for the $470 million they took out of the project — a 3,600-acre resort community centered on a man-made lake about 20 miles from the Las Vegas Strip — before it tumbled into bankruptcy. The ex-owners — billionaire brothers Sid and Lee Bass and the estate of the late California developer Ron Boeddeker — were able to cash out of their investments in the resort community, due to a syndicated loan arranged by Credit Suisse Group. The Credit Suisse loan was similar to a home-equity loan, allowing the resort’s backers to cash out their investments. The Swiss bank later marketed similar loans to a number of other owners of western luxury resorts — including Yellowstone Club in Montana, the Promontory Club in Utah and the Tamarack Resort in Idaho — that eventually ended up going bust when property values cratered.