Delphi Corp. won court permission to pay executives as much as $39 million in bonuses over six months and give creditors the right to review its business decisions if it doesn’t exit bankruptcy by Aug. 15, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain yesterday approved the incentive program for executives, which will pay between $21.2 million and $39.1 million, depending on how close Delphi comes to its $1.3 billion pretax earnings target for the first half of 2008. The bankrupt former parts unit of General Motors Corp. requested the additional incentive pay as its exit from court protection remained stalled by tight credit markets.

Investor Wilbur Ross announced Monday that his investment firm, WL Ross & Co., would buy the mortgage-servicing business of tax-preparation firm H&R Block Inc. for nearly $1.1 billion, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Ross previously bought the mortgage-servicing rights of subprime lender American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. for nearly $500 million. Together, the two units will handle nearly $100 billion of loans, the second-largest servicing business for subprime loans after mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp., Ross said.

A French appeals court ruled Tuesday that Jérôme Kerviel, the former trader that Société Générale has blamed for nearly $7.7 billion in losses, should be released from jail while the investigation into his alleged fraud continues, the New York Times reported today. Kerviel was to be placed under judicial supervision and was forbidden to leave France for the duration of the inquiry. The Paris prosecutor’s office had opposed his release on the grounds that he could flee or otherwise interfere with important witnesses or evidence in the case. Legal experts said the court’s decision was a recognition that Kerviel, who has already admitted to fabricating trades and forging documents to hid his activities, could only harm his chances for leniency if he failed to cooperate with the inquiry.