After two bankruptcies, Buffets managers share bonuses

Michael Andrews, chief executive of Buffets Holdings Inc., helped guide the restaurant owner through bankruptcy twice in the past four years. Both times, he was rewarded with court-approved bonuses.

Andrews, Chief Financial Officer Keith Wall and the Eagan-based company's concept officer are among 16 managers who may split about $2.3 million during Buffets' current bankruptcy. The three men also shared in about $1 million in bonuses handed out in the company's 2008 case, according to court records.

Both bonus programs took advantage of a common loophole to avoid a 2005 federal law that restricts extra pay for executives who put their companies into bankruptcy. Instead of payments made through so-called Key Employee Retention Plans, which Congress made harder to hand out, bankrupt companies now routinely set up Key Employee Incentive Plans, claiming the extra pay is tied to progress in reorganizing operations.

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