MF Global plans bonus for three top executives
The plan will include bonus payouts for Chief Operating Officer, General Counsel and Chief Financial Officer
New York: Three top executives at MF Global Holdings Ltd kept on since the commodities firm's collapse could receive performance-based bonuses under a retention plan being prepared by a court-appointed trustee, people close to the trustee said.
Trustee Louis Freeh plans to ask a bankruptcy judge to approve the employment agreements, said these people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan is still being crafted.
The plan will include bonus payouts for Chief Operating Officer Bradley Abelow, General Counsel Laurie Ferber and Chief Financial Officer Henri Steenkamp if they meet certain targets.
The formation of a plan does not necessarily mean bonuses will ultimately be paid or that the executives will earn as much total compensation as they have in the past.
Still, it has garnered attention from at least one key politician. Senator Chuck Grassley, the highest-ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement it was "hard to believe that [Mr] Freeh would consider bonuses to these select few while customers and investors are still trying to recoup their losses."
Abelow, Ferber and Steenkamp are among a handful of employees asked to stay on after MF Global's October 31 bankruptcy.
They were asked to help Freeh, a former director of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, recover assets to be paid out to creditors.
The retention plan will set out the terms of that employment, and performance-based incentives will be an aspect of that plan, one of the people said.
