Bloomberg Law
July 14, 2020, 8:00 AM UTC

Executives at Bankrupt Companies Scored $131 Million in Bonuses

Allison McNeely
Allison McNeely
Bloomberg News
Madeleine Ngo
Madeleine Ngo
Bloomberg News

Before the bankruptcies came the bonuses: $10 million at <-rte-company state="{"_id":"00000173-4e7b-dd8d-a77f-eeffd0660000","_type":"00000160-4b23-d8bd-adfd-4b3348fd0000"}">J.C. Penney Co., $25 million at <-rte-company state="{"_id":"00000173-4e7b-dd8d-a77f-eeffd0660001","_type":"00000160-4b23-d8bd-adfd-4b3348fd0000"}">Chesapeake Energy Corp., $1.5 million at <-bsp-bb-link state="{"bbHref":"bbg://securities/htz%20us%20Equity","_id":"00000173-4e7b-dd8d-a77f-eeffd0670000","_type":"0000016b-944a-dc2b-ab6b-d57ba1cc0000"}">Hertz Global Holdings Inc.

That’s how much was promised to executives only weeks or in some cases days before bankruptcy, according to a Bloomberg analysis of regulatory filings. Of the 100 or so major companies that have filed since the <-bsp-bb-link state="{"bbHref":"bbg://news/topics/CORONAVIR","_id":"00000173-4e7b-dd8d-a77f-eeffd0670001","_type":"0000016b-944a-dc2b-ab6b-d57ba1cc0000"}">coronavirus shutdown began, 19 of them have committed to paying a total of $131 million in retention and performance bonuses, both before and after bankruptcies, a number that’s poised to climb as a record number of Americans ...

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