Last week, Bay Harbor Islands, Fla.-based hedge fund ESL Investments unveiled a plan to rescue one of the icons of American retail: Sears Holdings Corp., which owns the Sears and Kmart brands. However, experts warn that ESL likely stands to gain more from the restructuring than Sears Holdings, and they note there is a potentially large conflict of interest, because Sears CEO and chairman Edward Lampert also owns the hedge fund, which is the retailer’s largest shareholder. ESL’s plan for Sears’ restructuring called for the retailer to sell real estate assets to extinguish related debt of $1.5 billion, as well as restructure $1.1 billion in debt, according to a  filing  with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The plan is expected to cut debt by 78% to $1.2 billion and lower annual interest expense by 80% to $88 million.…