Bonuses

Next week will be busy for the bankruptcy courts as bankrupt companies vie for sign-offs before the Christmas holiday break.

Energy Future Holdings Corp. on Wednesday will request permission from a Wilmington, Del., bankruptcy judge to pay up to $158 million in bonuses to hundreds of employees.

The Texas energy company would like to pay annual bonuses to rank-and-file employees next year, saying the bonuses are “are reasonable in cost, will generate substantial additional value in these chapter 11 cases and comply with all applicable provisions of the bankruptcy code.”

A former Lehman Brothers star trader secretly recorded several conversations that he says prove Lehman owes him more than $83 million in bonuses for his work done mostly in 2008, even though he received a similar amount when Barclays PLC bought Lehman, The Wall Street Journal reports.

While restructuring professionals have proposed some interesting changes to the bankruptcy code, it’s also striking what their 370-page report leaves out. Here are some hot topics in the bankruptcy world that wouldn’t be affected:

Distressed-Debt Trading

Latin American Nextel carrier NII Holdings Inc. has asked for a bankruptcy judge’s permission to pay executives and other top-level employees as much as $9 million in bonuses. Read the Daily Bankruptcy Review article here.

Energy Future Holdings Corp. will continue making its case next Wednesday in Wilmington, Del., to pay as much as $18 million in bonuses to upper management. A hearing on the matter began on Oct. 8 and spilled into Oct. 9, as the company faces a fight from U.S. Trustee Roberta A. DeAngelis.

Among Ms. DeAngelis’s problems with the package is a pre-existing bonus arrangement that could nearly double the amount Energy Future is seeking.