Ex-Nortel CEO says company owes him $12 million

As reported yesterday in FierceTelecom's sister publication FierceWireless, the recently departed Nortel CEO Mike Zafirovski has filed a claim that the Canadian company owes him more than $12 million in pension, bonus and severance payments. This latest development comes as other former Nortel employees have also filed their own lawsuits to get access to pension payments. Every claim will be examined alongside the other claims made in Nortel bankruptcy court proceedings, including related suppliers and creditors. However, none of the claims will be either acknowledged or paid out.

Not surprisingly, former Nortel employees were outraged. "I was amazed and I'm frankly staggered by his effrontery," Tony Marsh, spokesman for a group called Nortel Retirees and Former Employees Protection Canada, told the Canadian Press.

After deciding that the company would sell off key assets instead of restructuring, Zafirovski resigned from Nortel in August. Last week, the company sold its profitable Ethernet assets [1] to Ciena.

However, there was one ray of sunshine for Nortel. The beleaguered vendor reached a settlement with the U.S. Internet Revenue Service over a $3 billion tax claim.

For more:
- see this Canadian Press article [2]
- see this Ottawa Citizen article [3]

Related articles
Nortel, IRS headed to trial over $3B tax bill [4]
Ciena crafts deal for Nortel's Ethernet assets [1]
Nortel's Zafirovski departs as company posts $274M loss [5]
Canadian government won't block Ericsson-Nortel deal [6]
Nortel hit with $3B tax claim by IRS [7]