EXCERPTS
The company secretary of ABC Learning is refusing to deny reports that he and other executives will receive bonus payments from the collapsed childcare provider.
Company secretary Matthew Horton has told The World Today that media reports of bonuses of up to a quarter of a million dollars are wrong, but Mr Horton would not comment on whether or not ABC Learning executives will receive extra payments.
Australia's biggest childcare provider collapsed in November last year amid huge debts of nearly $2 billion after founder Eddy Groves' dreams of world domination were halted by the global financial crisis.
ABC Learning is now a shell company with the receivers McGrathNicol trying to sell more than 700 childcare centres before Christmas.
Michael Peters, a lecturer at the Australian School of Business at the University of New South Wales, says bonuses at collapsed companies seem to be becoming a common occurrence.
"This has been a phenomenon now for almost a decade. The greatest example is the tale of the Wall Street banks where bonuses were payed literally payed days before receivership was declared and literally days after the taxpayer bailed them out," he said.
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ABC Learning company secretary Matthew Horton refused to do an interview with The World Today.
He denied media reports that he and other top executives, including chief executive Rowan Webb, were going to receive year-end bonuses of $250,000 each.
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- reprinted from ABC News