Content area
Full Text
While passing out pink slips to their employees, five top executives at ailing Venture Lighting International Inc. were earning salaries in excess of $120,000 a year.
Total annual compensation for the five executives in the 12 months before the company filed for protection from its creditors was $735,361, according to documents filed in Venture Lighting's bankruptcy case. Venture Lighting and its parent, VLI Inc., each filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Cleveland on July 29.
The five executives' compensation included car leasing allowances of between $620 and $1,000 a month, $1,150 in auto insurance coverage each and $1,000 apiece in services from the accounting firm of Ernst & Young. Their company is based in Solon and makes metal halide lamps, or bulbs that generate high-intensity light from burning a gaseous chemical.
The top wage earner was Wayne Hellman, chief executive of the 9-year-old company. His compensation in the 12 months before the...