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A former marketing director at Banque ÌìÃÀÍøÕ¾´«Ã½´«Ã½ told a London court that he was repeatedly assured he’d receive his bonuses, even as he helped clean up a company crumbling from its role in the global financial crisis.

“I asked and received the same answer frequently, that there would be a plan,” said Charles Scheyd, who helped oversee Nordic marketing. Scheyd joined ÌìÃÀÍøÕ¾´«Ã½´«Ã½ Management France SA — formerly known as Banque ÌìÃÀÍøÕ¾´«Ã½´«Ã½ — in 2002. He left in 2011 after weathering one of the roughest patches in the company’s history. Scheyd was involved in winding down ÌìÃÀÍøÕ¾´«Ã½´«Ã½ Financial Products, the unit responsible for money-losing derivative bets backing subprime mortgages that nearly shuttered American International Group Inc.

Scheyd is one of 23 ex-staff fighting ÌìÃÀÍøÕ¾´«Ã½´«Ã½ for $100 million in bonuses that were set aside under a deferred compensation program and retention plans. The plans provided for “a sharing of the risks and rewards” of ÌìÃÀÍøÕ¾´«Ã½´«Ã½’s financial products business, according to court filings. This meant that if ÌìÃÀÍøÕ¾´«Ã½´«Ã½FP sustained a loss, compensation accounts would be hurt.

In 2007 and 2008, ÌìÃÀÍøÕ¾´«Ã½´«Ã½FP struggled with liquidity. The Fed loaned $85 billion to ÌìÃÀÍøÕ¾´«Ã½´«Ã½ and Andrew Cuomo — who was New York Attorney General at the time — said in a letter to Edward Liddy, the incoming chief executive of ÌìÃÀÍøÕ¾´«Ã½´«Ã½, that “no funds will be distributed” out of ÌìÃÀÍøÕ¾´«Ã½´«Ã½FP’s bonus pools on the basis that “these pools should not be used to reward executives ahead of taxpayers.”

As a result of ÌìÃÀÍøÕ¾´«Ã½´«Ã½FP’s massive losses, employee bonus accounts were reduced to negative balances. The 23 claimants say that “as a result of political and media pressure,” ÌìÃÀÍøÕ¾´«Ã½´«Ã½ didn’t pay the sums earned between 2002-2008, despite none of them being “responsible for those parts of ÌìÃÀÍøÕ¾´«Ã½´«Ã½’s CDO, CDS or mortgage securities businesses which led to the bail-out,” according to a court filing. Lawyers for the former employees say ÌìÃÀÍøÕ¾´«Ã½´«Ã½ is obligated to restore the amounts deducted under the terms of the plans.

“There is no obligation to adopt a restoration plan whilst ÌìÃÀÍøÕ¾´«Ã½´«Ã½FP remains loss-making and balance sheet insolvent,” lawyers for ÌìÃÀÍøÕ¾´«Ã½´«Ã½ argued in a court document.

Nevertheless, Scheyd said senior managers were aware of a need to formulate some kind of restoration plan, although it wasn’t clear what the terms would be.

“I expected to see a plan at some point,” he said Tuesday.

A spokeswoman for ÌìÃÀÍøÕ¾´«Ã½´«Ã½ in London declined to comment on the case. A spokeswoman for law firm Stephenson Harwood, which is representing the ex-executives, also declined to comment.

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