The hedge fund investor and former Sears boss who bought the chain's assets out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy is now trying to back out of an agreement to pay for the severance of the retailer's laid-off employees.
Former Sears CEO, chairman and shareholder Eddie Lampert is requesting that a federal bankruptcy judge release him from his obligation to compensate former Sears workers, who he had agreed to pay up to $43 million.
The agreement applied to workers who lost their jobs from the day Sears filed for bankruptcy in October through February, when Sears assets were sold to Lampert in a last-minute deal. The company closed hundreds of stores during that period.
In a court filing, Lampert's representatives accused Sears Holdings of failing to deliver "hundreds of millions of dollars of assets" it had promised as part of the deal to save the company from total liquidation. Those assets were earmarked to make the severance