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General Motors Co. ignition switch compensation fund has received 284 claims through Friday, including 100 claims for deaths, The Detroit News reported yesterday. The fund began accepting applications for funding on Aug. 1. Camille S. Biros, deputy administrator of the fund, said it has received 184 claims for physical injuries and 100 for deaths. The fund hasn’t made any determinations if the deaths are eligible for compensation. The 100 death claims are far above the 13 linked to the issue by the Detroit automaker. Once the fund determines that applications are “substantially complete,” it plans to make compensation decisions within 90 days for simpler claims and 180 days for more complicated ones. The fund will accept applications through Dec. 31. Many have been mass filings sent electronically by lawyers representing many victims linked to GM’s recall of 2.6 million Chevrolet Cobalts, Saturn Ions and other cars that have since been recalled for faulty ignition switches. Some have said they plan to file hundreds of claims related to the defect that can allow the key to inadvertently turn off the engine, disabling power steering and air bags. GM said as of last week it has repaired 881,652 of the cars and will have built enough switches to repair all 2.6 million vehicles — including 2.2 million in the United States — by October. GM has set aside $400 million to pay claims but said the total could hit $600 million.

With access to cash for at least another week, the trustee overseeing Truland Group Inc.'s bankruptcy plans to launch an investigation into what led to the electrical contractor's sudden shutdown and chapter 7 filing a little more than than a month ago, Washington Business Journal reported yesterday. Wiley Rein lawyer Jason Gold, who is representing trustee Klinette Kindred, said that it is too early to determine how that investigation will pan out. At the same time, he told Hon. Brian Kenney on Monday that "if appropriate, litigation will be brought against potentially culpable parties." This hearing was the first time the prospect of "potentially culpable parties" came up. Gold said that neither he nor the trustee has come up with any information so far that would lead to criminal charges being filed in connection with the case. Nor is there information ruling out the prospect. Judge Kenney approved a consent order allowing the trustee to have access to cash to fund its administrative costs for at least another week. BMO Harris Bank NA has agreed to cover those costs outside of the $27 million it is already owed.

Burger King Worldwide Inc. is in talks to buy Canadian coffee-and-doughnut chain Tim Hortons Inc., a deal that would be structured as a so-called tax inversion and move the hamburger seller's base to Canada, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. The two sides are working on a deal that would create a new company and the takeover would create the world’s third-largest quick-service restaurant provider. Inversion deals have been on the rise lately and are facing stiff opposition given that they threaten to deplete U.S. government coffers. A move by Burger King to seal one is sure to intensify criticism of them, since it is such a well-known and distinctly American brand. Tim Hortons has a market value of about $8.4 billion, while Burger King's is about $9.6 billion, a combined worth of about $18 billion. By moving to a lower-tax jurisdiction, inversion deals enable companies to save money on foreign earnings and cash stowed abroad, and in some cases, lower their overall corporate rate.

The nation’s oldest cutlery manufacturer has filed for bankruptcy, The Associated Press reported yesterday. Lamson & Goodnow Manufacturing Co. of Shelburne Falls, Mass., filed for chapter 11 this month. The business, founded in 1837, has also put its 18-acre factory complex up for sale. According to the bankruptcy court, the company filed for bankruptcy protection as a result of two multi-million-dollar loans that it could not repay. The company owes $1 million on a U.S. Small Business Administration loan and more than $2 million to the small business corporation in New York.

The Pittsburgh Riverhounds soccer team has a plan to get out of bankruptcy with a new owner: a local businessman who has already extended several million dollars to keep the team kicking, the Wall Street Journal reported today. In court papers, officials asked a judge to approve two bankruptcy-exit plans — one for the team and one for its 3,500-seat stadium on Pittsburgh’s South Side — that would allow Terrance “Tuffy” Shallenberger Jr. to become their sole owner. Right now, Shallenberger owns a 51 percent stake in the two partnerships that own the team and the stadium. The partnerships filed for chapter 11 protection on March 26 (several days before the team’s season opener) blaming the larger-than-expected construction costs of Highmark Stadium. Before the stadium opened last year, the team played at local high schools. The team has never made money, according to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Pittsburgh.

A bid by television personality Marcus Lemonis and Dippin' Dots owner Fischer Enterprises to relaunch the closed Crumbs Bake Shop moved closer to reality this week after a deadline to trump the pair's $6.5 million offer came and went with no other takers emerging, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. The cupcake chain, which abruptly closed its doors in July and sought chapter 11 protection, will ask a judge to sign off on the bid at a Tuesday hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Newark, N.J.

Mall snack staple Hot Dog on a Stick has been purchased from bankruptcy by a portfolio company of Los Angeles private equity firm Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, the Los Angeles Times reported today. The firm's Global Franchise Group has bought HDOS Enterprises, parent company of the fast-food chain known for hot dogs and lemonade, for about $12.2 million in an auction from Bankruptcy Court. HDOS filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in February after struggling with declining foot traffic in malls and expensive leases. Before filing for bankruptcy protection, Hot Dog on a Stick tried to slash its expenses and cut its workforce.

Energy Future Holdings Corp. yesterday successfully fended off questions from creditors anxious to probe the financial health of a company division that is the target of deal talks, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The questions arose in a brewing court fight over whether Energy Future owes millions of dollars of premiums on $4 billion worth of debt attached to the division, which owns an 80 percent stake in the Texas transmission business, Oncor. At some point, that fight may turn on the question of whether the division is solvent. The answer to that question is in the works, as Energy Future engages in talks aimed at selling the Oncor stake, probably by way of a complex transaction worked into a chapter 11 restructuring plan.

Freedom Industries Inc., the company behind a chemical spill that contaminated a significant swath of West Virginia's water supply, filed a creditor-payment plan that aims to start resolving the claims brought by those affected by the spill, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Freedom Industries in a Monday court filing provided an outline of its plan, on which creditors must eventually vote. That includes general unsecured creditors, who would receive nearly a dime for every dollar of the approximately $8.5 million they are owed. The proposal is buoyed by two recent settlements. The first is a $2.9 million compromise with attorneys representing local residents and businesses, with the money earmarked for health studies, water testing or other projects to benefit individuals as well as the businesses that were forced to close in the wake of the spill. The settlement would end about two dozen lawsuits filed against Freedom Industries. The other deal is one Freedom Industries struck in June with AIG Specialty Insurance Co., which provided insurance coverage to Freedom Industries before the Jan. 9 spill. The agreement calls for AIG to pay nearly $3 million to Freedom Industries, which has faced a number of claims in connection with the spill, from civil lawsuits to cleanup costs.

The $6.5 million bid for Crumbs Bake Shop fronted by CNBC star Marcus Lemonis went unchallenged yesterday, setting the stage for the cupcake shop to emerge from bankruptcy on Aug. 26, the New York Post reported today. Crumbs’ new owner, Lemonis Fischer Acquisition Co., includes serial entrepreneur Fischer Enterprises in addition to the host of CNBC’s “The Profit.” The pair decided to make a run at the cupcake chain within days of its unexpectedly laying off all of its workers and closing all 48 shops in 10 states on July 7. By July 11, when Crumbs filed for bankruptcy, Lemonis Fischer had already stepped up with $1 million in financing to minimize damages to the chain throughout what promises to be a short stay in chapter 11. That financing, coupled with a $5.5 million secured loan previously made to Crumbs by Fischer, became the basis of a “stalking-horse bid” that the public was invited to beat by noon yesterday.