U.S Court Allows Voyager Digital to Offer Retention Incentives

• In all, the KERP benefits amount to 22.5% of the salary of those who qualify for them.
• The request for the KERP payments was accepted by Judge Michael Wiles.

The ailing cryptocurrency brokerage Voyager Digital has been allowed permission by a New York bankruptcy court to offer retention incentives to key employees.

On August 2, the company filed a petition with the United States Bankruptcy Court to get permission for its Key Employee Retention Plan (KERP), which would pay out about $2 million to 38 workers who are essential to the smooth running of the exchange.

Objection by Multiple Parties

In a court petition dated August 19, 2022, creditors of the company that filed for bankruptcy in July 2022 argued against Voyager’s KERP payments, arguing that payments to investors should take precedence over those to “well-compensated” workers.

Court documents show that Voyager and the committee of creditors came to an arrangement to abandon their objection to the planned KERP. The most significant of them is the adoption of steps to reduce operating costs by $4.6 million. In all, the KERP benefits amount to 22.5% of the salary of those who qualify for them.

The 38 workers, according to Voyager, “essential accounting, cash and digital asset management, IT infrastructure, legal and other critical functions for the Debtors.” The Department of Justice’s U.S. Trustee’s Office, which manages the process of bankruptcy and private trustees, expressed its concerns in a court filing as well.

The request for the KERP payments was finally accepted by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Wiles, who agreed with Voyagers’ legal team that none of the bonus recipients were selected, sit or report to the board of directors and does not have management control over the firm.

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