As companies such as J.C. Penney prepared to file for bankruptcy during the coronavirus pandemic, their executives scored millions in bonuses sometimes weeks or even days before filing their cases. That's according to a Reuters analysis of securities filings and court records. J.C. Penney, which furloughed about 78,000 of its 85,000 employees amid mass store closures to stop the spread of the coronavirus, approved nearly $10 million in payouts for top executives, including CEO Jill Soltau, just days before it filed for bankruptcy in May. The company declined to comment but said in an earlier statement that the bonuses were to retain a “talented management team” that had made progress on a turnaround at J.C. Penney before the pandemic. At Hertz, a similar story. The car rental company, which recently terminated more than 14,000 workers, paid senior executives bonuses of $1.5 million days before its May bankruptcy. While companies are banned, with few exceptions, from paying executives retention bonuses while in bankruptcy due to a 2005 law...the firms seized on a loophole by granting payouts before filing for bankruptcy. The lavish payouts come as a record number of Americans are jobless. Just
