Bankruptcy bill pushes debt repayment: Proposal could make it harder for individuals to escape debt, put limitations on corporate reorganizations
Upon seeking bankruptcy protection in late 2002, Conseco Inc. initiated a plan to shower key executives with millions of dollars in retention bonuses if they prevailed in reorganizing the company. The windfall for the six officers, totaling more than $9 million, is just one of many instances in which impoverished corporations have sought to recover from bankruptcy by dangling lucrative incentives to deter executives from fleeing. But in the aftermath of such scandals as Enron Corp. and WorldCom Inc. (now…