CEO Got Golden Parachute Days Before His Bank Got Bailout

[babylonsister]

Bank Got Bailout, CEO Got Golden Parachute
by Paul Kiel, ProPublica - November 19, 2008 5:16 pm EST


The South Financial Group, South Carolina's largest bank, announced earlier this week that it had been approved to receive $347 million from the U.S. government. But the bank's founder and longtime CEO Mack Whittle won't be sticking around. He retired with an $18 million severance package in late October, two months earlier than had been expected. Because of the timing, he's free from golden parachute limits (PDF) that come with accepting bailout money.

"It smells like he moved the retirement date up to avoid {those limits}," said Paul Hodgson of the Corporate Library, a corporate-governance research firm. And the government's millions "make it a lot easier for the company to pay it out."

The move has proven controversial. After South Carolina's The State reported on suspicions of the deal's timing, Gov. Mark Sanford (R) called for the Treasury Department to investigate and said Whittle seemed to be "gaming the system." A spokesman for the governor said he had yet to receive a response from Treasury.

"The whole idea was to avoid these types of arrangements," Laurence Wagman of compensation consulting firm James F. Reda & Associates told us. The Treasury "doesn't want the companies receiving taxpayer funds, terminating executives and having them walk away with excessive golden parachutes."

more...

http://www.propublica.org/article/bank-got-bailout-ceo-got-golden-parachute-1119/

[katty]

1. sickening

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. It sure is

[opihimoimoi]

2. Mack Whittle is an asshole....this should be shouted from the rooftops

make millions of bumper stickers and pass um out...people need to know who their assholes are....

WHITTLE is SPITTLE...shit like that....

[OneGrassRoot]

3. I wish someone with $$$, and a conscience, would do a big ad.....

listing all these CEOs and their obscene golden parachutes.

It really is sickening.

[Stinky The Clown]

4. We need a populist posse and ........

http://www.slaverybyanothername.com/files/imagegallerymodule/@random47e2e6d383464/gallery1/Hounds.jpg

That bastard is a criminal. He **knew** what was going down.

[Initech]

6. God damn it. Once again the rich get richer and we get fucked.

:grr: :mad: :argh:

[OhioChick]

7. Greedy Bastard. n/t

[CrispyQ]

8. Give it back or go to jail.

Those should be his options.

:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: