Florida, can we pay the trades directly of our contractor that has filed a Chapter 11.

We hired a shell contractor that filed a chapter 11 before finishing the job and/or billing us and learned he stopped paying his trades a while back. 4 trades did not file NTO's and we want to pay them and then settle the remainder with the shell contractor. The contractor wants us to pay them what is owed so they can put the money in the pot and settle with the trades they have to. Basically these small vendors are either going to get pennies on the dollar or nothing at all. I want to pay them and give the shell contractor the receipts and releases with their remaining monies. Can we legally do that or just the vendors smart enough to file NTO's.