More than 100 employees at Vice Media were axed on April 27. The very next day, executives raked in “retention bonuses” totaling more than $1 million, which has reportedly left the now-bankrupt company unable to pay laid-off staff and freelancers for months. The totals are now public thanks to bankruptcy court documents—which show that Global Head of Programming Subrata De ranked in the biggest bonus of more than $201,000, just one day before her department was stripped of numerous positions. Global TV President Morgan Hertzan scored $150,000, and Co-CEO Hozefa Lokhandwala got more than $133,000. Several other Vice higher-ups also got five and six-figure bonuses the day after the “painful” layoffs, which came less than a month before the company declared bankruptcy. Vice’s own Joseph Cox dug into the numbers, which he said Tuesday were “worse than I thought.” “So many execs, some which led VICE to bankruptcy, make $700-900k, including bonuses at the time VICE laid off much cheaper workers,” Cox said in a tweet Monday. In a scathing statement shared Tuesday, the Vice Union had a single message for the corporate execs: “We see you.”
