Two former executives of WANdisco, the info software program group whose worth has collapsed after the publicity of an obvious fraud, have snubbed the corporate's request handy again practically £650,000 in bonuses.

Sky News understands that David Richards, the corporate's co-founder and former CEO, and former finance chief Erik Miller are resisting a request from WANdisco's board to repay the $832,000 (£647,000) they had been awarded for final 12 months.

Neither man could possibly be reached for touch upon Wednesday, though a spokesman for the corporate mentioned: "Whilst the former executives have so far robustly rejected our request for repayment, the board firmly believes this should be the right and fair outcome for shareholders and remains committed to pursuing it."

The annual bonuses took the respective pay packages of Mr Richards and Mr Miller to $1.14m (£886,100) and $551,000 (£428,300) respectively.

The bonuses have sparked anger amongst shareholders who've seen the worth of their holdings plunge for the reason that discovery of a gross sales and accounting rip-off in March.

WANdisco's shares had been suspended and the board parachuted in Stephen Kelly, the previous chief govt of Sage Group, as its interim boss.

Earlier this month, Mr Kelly and his boardroom colleagues secured $30m (£23.3m) in new funding to rescue the corporate, with the interim chief's appointment since made everlasting.

It is unclear whether or not WANdisco has any authorized powers to drive Mr Richards and Mr Miller to repay the cash.

The firm's annual report revealed in a bit on associated get together transactions that throughout the course of final 12 months, WANdisco agreed to pay greater than $360,000 (£280,000) to sponsor Sheffield Wednesday FC subsequent season.

The settlement was struck on behalf of EyUp Skills Limited, an organization owned by Mr Richards and his spouse, Jane.

An additional an identical sum is payable "contingent on certain post-year end outcomes", the annual report mentioned.

The suspension of WANdisco's shares got here simply days after Sky News had revealed that Mr Richards was working with bankers on plans to listing its shares within the US.

Mr Richards, then the corporate's chairman, president, chief govt and co-founder, had first talked publicly about the opportunity of its shares buying and selling on an American trade in 2017.

Based in Sheffield and Silicon Valley, WANdisco describes itself as an information activation platform which makes use of cloud-based analytics expertise to help company shoppers' decision-making.

In early March, the corporate had a market capitalisation of greater than £890m and had seen its shares rise greater than fivefold over the past 12 months.

Since the resumption of buying and selling in its inventory, its worth has fallen sharply.

On Wednesday, the shares closed at 83.2p, giving WANdisco a market capitalisation of slightly below £100m.

Content Source: information.sky.com