Lee Buchwald, president of Buchwald Capital Advisors LLC, has announced that bankrupt jewelry retailers Friedman's Inc. and Crescent Jewelers made distributions to unsecured creditors on Friday.

The initial distributions came to 28.3% for jewelry chain Friedman's unsecured creditors which was more than the projected 22.6% -and 18.6% for jewelry retailer Crescent's unsecured creditors.

Friedman's unsecured creditors are expected to receive about 34% above the projected 31.6% and Crescent’s unsecured creditors are likely to receive distributions amounting to 19%.

Friedman's, which operated both Friedman's Jewelers and Crescent Jewelers fine jewelry stores, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 2008.

The companies initially put themselves up for auction, but the step met with little success. Ultimately, fine jewelers Friedman's and Crescent opted for self-liquidation. In April, a court approved Friedman's and Crescent liquidation plans.

Buchwald urges creditors to monitor the trusts’ websites - Friedmans-Trust.com and Crescent-Trust.com- for updates.