Great post!
1. Sean Menke, former CEO of Pinnacle Airlines
And the winner of all losers is... Sean Menke of the now-bankrupt Pinnacle Airlines! Back in early April I noted that I'd seen some questionable pay raises in my time, but this one may take the cake as the head-scratcher of them all. Despite filing an extension with the Securities and Exchange Commission reporting that Pinnacle's quarterly filing would be late, Menke filed an 8-K indicating that he'd be receiving a 60% boost in pay to $675,000 from $425,000 -- despite the fact that his airline was far from profitable.
Now here's where things really got interesting. Just 11 days after his pay raise was filed with the SEC, Pinnacle filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection -- on April Fool's Day, no less. I couldn't make this stuff up if I wanted to! Furthermore, activist shareholders had made an attempt to get board representation on Pinnacle in prior years, as management had, in their eyes, not looked out for their best interests -- but they were eventually denied by the board.