- Jul 27, 2015
- 5,458
More than 30 employees at the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange Voyager will receive $1.6 million in bonus pay as the company scrambles to return customers' funds frozen on its platform.
Bankruptcy Court judges in southern New York approved Voyager's request to award key staff this week. Voyager argued it needed to award top workers as a way to keep them as the company restructures its financial assets. Under the Key Employee Retention Plan (KERP), 34 out of 328 employees will be paid an extra 22.5 per cent of their annual salaries which amounts to $1.6 million. These employees provide services that are considered essential for the company, such as accounting, IT infrastructure, legal, and the like. "[Voyager] employees have legitimate reasons to be concerned about their long- term employment status given the ongoing sale process and uncertainty of future operations," the company's lawyers said in court filings [PDF].
Voyager had asked judges to approve a total of $1.9m in bonus pay for 38 employees, and this kind of request is standard stuff for businesses that have gone broke and need some kind of workforce to clean up the mess. That said, the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors appointed to represent those who are owed money objected. The committee criticized Voyager for trying to award staff when consumers were yet to be compensated for their losses, and said it had provided zero evidence that employees would resign without the extra pay.
Crypto exchange Voyager to pay $1.6m bonus to key staff
Frozen firm has yet to return all funds to netizens
www.theregister.com