Endo International, with North American headquarters in Malvern, filed for bankruptcy last week, yet it has been revealed that $55.5 million in bonuses were paid to its top executives over the past 10 months, writes Bob Fernandez for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Over the course of a few rounds of pre-bankruptcy bonuses, Endo paid top executives Matthew J. Maletta, chief legal officer, $3.5 million; Patrick Barry, president of global commercial operations, $3.3 million, and Mark Bradley, chief financial officer, $3.5 million, and — just days before filing — paid chief executive Blaise Coleman $11.85 million.

“I would not say it’s normal for a company to pay significant retention bonuses twice before bankruptcy,” said Temple University law professor Jonathan Lipson. “The optics are never good,” he added. “Ordinary people who are not paid millions of dollars wonder why a company should be paying out millions of dollars to people who oversaw the demise of a company.”

As per the bankruptcy agreement, Endo must pay $450 million in cash to settle its multi-state investigation over the next 10 years.

Read more about the bonuses in the Philadelphia Inquirer.