Federal judge Martin Glenn disapproved Celsius’ plan to pay bonuses worth $3M to select employees.
In October, Celsius requested the court to approve its Key Employee Retention Plan (KERP) to retain important 'non-insider employees.'
As per the court filings, 102 employees quit Celsius after the lender filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July. In order to prevent more brain drain, Celsius suggested paying roughly $3M to 62 of its non-insider employees as a bonus.
In response, Martin Glenn refused to approve Celsius’ plan. He claimed that the withholding of employees’ records, including their salaries, job titles, and job description, was the reason behind the rejection of KERP, adding
“I’m telling you, I was shocked when I saw the redactions. I’ve never seen anyone try to redact everything. Everything is blacked out – you’ve got to be joking.”
According to him, disclosing the employees’ salaries will allow him to determine whether they are eligible to receive the bonus,
"I want anyone looking at the record to be able to see that the proposed awards are reasonable in relation to the current salary ranges of different categories of people."
Interestingly, the judge did not have any issues with the actual contents of the KERP and stated,
“I do believe there’s a basis for approving a KERP in this case, but it hasn’t been made out.”
