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Hey /biz/, I got a question about phantom shares.

So, a company I used to work for gave me 500 phantom shares as a bonus one Christmas. About 6 months later, the company got bought out and I got laid off. They sent out an email saying that the company that bought them out would be paying them a lump sum payment every month for the next three years, plus royalties every quarter for the next four years. They also said that once all the debts of the company I worked for were paid off, distributions to employees in the phantom share plan would begin. They estimated that even with no royalties being paid to the company, they would have the debt paid off after about 18 months.

Well, it's been over 18 months now, and I hadn't heard anything since I got laid off, so I decided to call up the company that bought us out and figure out what's happening with the phantom share plan. After talking with someone there, I learned that the company that bought us out hasn't been making a profit off the products we made, so they stopped sending payments to the company I worked for. Now, maybe he meant the royalties and not the lump sum payment, but all I know is that it's been about 20 months since I got laid off and that's the only news I've heard from anyone since then.

So my question is: can they actually do that? I mean, they bought the company out, they have to at least pay the lump sum, don't they? My old company gave me an email address to send to in case I moved, and I emailed them about a year ago when I did, but I haven't heard anything out of that either. Not even a confirmation that they got my change of address. Would there be anyone I could get in contact with to figure out exactly what's going on? Am I just screwed?

Has anyone else ever been in a similar situation?