Even though he got fired for mishandling a scandal about his academic credentials, Scott Thompson got paid handsomely for his four-month stint as Yahoo's CEO, an SEC filing shows.

As we reported last week, Thompson had already earned a $7 million bonus—$1.5 million in cash and $5.5 million in restricted stock—just by sticking around for a couple of months.

He negotiated those amounts when he signed on as a "make-whole" bonus to compensate him for cash and stock awards he left behind when he joined Yahoo from eBay's PayPal subsidiary.

Earlier today, CNNMoney reported that Thompson's contract might require him to repay those amounts if he voluntarily resigned.

But that's a moot point, since Thompson and Yahoo negotiated a separation agreement which explicitly allows him to keep those bonuses, while waiving claims to any other severance.

Executive-compensation expert Chris Crawford, COO of Longnecker & Associates, told Business Insider last week that it would be tough for Yahoo to claw back bonuses it had already paid. Such clawbacks are a new and contested area of employment law.

And it's smart for Yahoo to clear the decks for interim CEO Ross Levinsohn to continue the company's turnaround, rather than have the drama of a fight over the terms of Thompson's departure.

And Thompson can grapple with his own issues—like his recent diagnosis of thyroid cancer.

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »