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The parent company of Fox and Hound sports bar and Champps casual dining chains, F&H Acquisition Corp., is nearing a bankruptcy court deal valued at more than $120 million to sell to New York-based private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, the Triangle Business Journal reported yesterday. F&H would avoid a planned March auction under the deal, which reportedly calls for lender Cerberus Business Finance LLC to pay $14.5 million in cash in a private sale, forgive $19 million of debt and take responsibility for another $86 million of the company's debt in exchange for most of the company's assets. F&H Acquisition filed for chapter 11 protection in December 2013, and at that time the company owned and operated 101 full-service restaurants, including 50 Fox & Hound units, 35 Champps locations and 16 Bailey’s outlets, and it also franchised 11 Champps restaurants. F&H, based in Wichita, Kan, pointed to the continuing effects of the recession and poor sales as reasons for the filing.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. settled a $1.2 billion claim with Freddie Mac, freeing up millions of dollars which will be available for distribution to the bank's creditors, Reuters reported yesterday. Under the settlement, Lehman will make a one-time cash payment of $767 million to Freddie Mac, Lehman said in a court filing on Wednesday. The dispute stems from two loans extended to Lehman by Freddie Mac in the months before the bank filed for bankruptcy. Lehman was scheduled to repay the loan on Sept. 15, 2008, the day it filed for the biggest-ever bankruptcy. Lehman had set aside $1.2 billion to cover the claim as a general unsecured claim, but Freddie Mac argued that the claim should get priority status.

Fisker Automotive Inc. went up for auction yesterday, with Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li dueling China's Wanxiang Group for the assets of the failed luxury hybrid vehicle maker, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. No other bidders qualified by a Friday deadline, court papers say, so that the field is left to the two contenders that have been jousting over Fisker for weeks. Results of the auction will be reviewed at a hearing Friday in bankruptcy court.

Bankruptcy Judge A. Jay Cristol approved a plan by a company in chapter 11 to pursue a residential project on Fisher Island, Fla., the South Florida Business Journal reported today. The order by the judge on Feb. 11 allows Fisher Island Investments to fully pursue development of the Palazzo del Sol and Palazzo del Luna projects despite the ongoing bankruptcy case and a foreclosure lawsuit in county court. Fisher Island Investments was thrown into bankruptcy court by an involuntary chapter 11 filing by several alleged creditors in 2011. The case has been delayed by ownership disputes but those issues have apparently been resolved and the court declared that the officers and directors of Fisher Island Investments are Roberto Sosa, Mark Hauf and Yves Baumann.

Optim Energy LLC, a Texas electric company owned by a Bill Gates investment fund, filed for chapter 11 protection yesterday after piling up losses in a depressed power market, Reuters reported yesterday. The company, which owns three power plants in eastern Texas, said in court documents that it has been unable to reduce costs far enough to stem financial losses. Optim said that it had $713 million outstanding under a credit agreement with Wells Fargo. It estimated its assets were worth less than $500 million.

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee has proposed setting aside $4 million to compensate the victims of clergy sexual abuse in its bankruptcy reorganization plan, the Associated Press reported yesterday. The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in 2011, saying pending sexual abuse lawsuits could leave it with debts it can't pay. A statement the archdiocese provided to The Associated Press says the bankruptcy plan will include $4 million for sexual abuse victims. Some of that also could be used to sue the archdiocese's former insurers to get them to pay victims. The reorganization plan also includes money to provide victims with therapy for the remainder of their lives.

A federal judge yesterday allowed a lawsuit to move forward that seeks to hold former MF Global Holdings Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Jon Corzine and other executives responsible for the brokerage's collapse, Reuters reported yesterday. U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero said that it was reasonable to infer someone "did something wrong to set in motion such an extraordinary chain of events causing such extensive harm to so many people and interests." But the judge also called the litigation "wasteful and rancorous" and chastised the parties for failing to come together to resolve the matter "in a just and efficient way." Judge Marrero also chided lawyers for the customers for filing claims that "fly in the face of clear precedent." He dismissed parts of the lawsuit, including claims pending against accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

LightSquared hopes to submit a consensual restructuring plan by Friday, although the judge overseeing the wireless venture's bankruptcy isn't convinced that will happen, Reuters reported yesterday. A lawyer for the company said in a court hearing yesterday that it aims to file a reorganization plan that has the support of its creditors by Friday, putting the company, owned by Phil Falcone's Harbinger Capital Partners, on track to exit bankruptcy around the end of March. But Bankruptcy Judge Shelley Chapman voiced skepticism that parties in the fractious case could reach a deal by then. Three competing restructuring proposals are on the table — one backed by Harbinger and two others from creditor groups — but the company has said it plans to engage creditors and work toward a consensual deal. The key question is whether any restructuring plan would have the support of an investment vehicle run by Dish Network Corp Chairman Charles Ergen. The Ergen entity holds enough LightSquared debt to give him sufficient voting clout to block any restructuring plan that he opposes.

A unit of Cerberus Capital Management is poised to acquire the operator of the Fox & Hound and Champps restaurant and sports bar chains out of bankruptcy protection in a deal valued at more than $120 million, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Cerberus Business Finance, a unit of the New York private equity firm, would pay $14.5 million in cash, forgive $19 million of the debt it is owed as the company's lender and take responsibility for another $86 million of the company's debt in exchange for most of the company's assets, according to court papers filed Friday.

First Mariner Bancorp, the holding company for Maryland community bank 1st Mariner, plans to file for chapter 11 protection in order to sell the bank, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The company has an offer that would provide $100 million of new capital from a group of private-equity investors — Priam Capital, Patriot Financial Partners, GCP Capital Partners and TFO Financial Institutions Restructuring Fund LLC — and investors from the Baltimore business community. The offer will be tested at auction. First Mariner said that it would ask the bankruptcy court to approve the auction rules quickly but didn’t say exactly when it plans to file for bankruptcy. First Mariner had become undercapitalized, it said in recent financial disclosures, and wasn’t in compliance with Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Federal Reserve Board of Richmond capital requirements.