MF Global Execs to Still Get Bonuses

MF Global may have gone down in a ball of flames, but its chief operating officer, chief financial officer, and general counsel are all likely to get six-figure performance-based bonuses anyway, the Wall Street Journal reports. All three execs stuck around after the crash to help trustee Louis Freeh deal with the firm's assets and pay creditors, and he's expected to ask a bankruptcy-court judge to approve bonuses for them and up to 20 other MF Global employees who stayed on.

The bonuses will likely be much smaller than those executives would have gotten pre-collapse, and many have already taken huge salary cuts. But the plan is still unorthodox, and controversial. "It's unfathomable to me," says one ex-MF Global employee, who says the company still owes him money. "Everyone's getting paid except customers and employees." But a Freeh adviser defends the suit, saying keeping the executives onboard is "quite honestly saving a considerable amount of the estate's resources," and that without them, more money would have to be spent on additional accountants and consultants. (More executive compensation stories.)