Diamond Offshore Creditors Call Executive Bonuses ‘Perverse’

Bankrupt Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. shouldn’t be allowed to pay $9.7 million in bonuses to nine executives when other workers are facing 20% to 30% pay cuts, the oil driller’s creditors say.

The proposed payouts to officers and directors don’t provide a true incentive and aren’t in line with how other companies are responding to the pandemic, the committee of unsecured creditors said Tuesday in a filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.

“Indeed, the Debtors seem intent on proving that executive compensation in the post-COVID-19 world should be what it was in the pre-COVID-19 ...