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Lehman Brothers executive pay was increased before bankruptcy
Turkmenistan News.Net
Monday 6th October, 2008
Richard Fuld, the former head of failed US investment bank Lehman Brothers, has told Congress that his pay over the past eight years was about $300 million.
Mr Fuld, whose firm went bankrupt last month, made his salary package public when asked the question by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
The panel is holding its first hearing into the cause of the financial crisis, with committee chairman Henry Waxman saying there must be real reform of the financial markets.
Waxman criticised Mr Fuld for requesting multi-million dollar bonuses for departing executives just days before last month's collapse.
Mr Fuld defended his actions as 'prudent and appropriate,' based on information he had at the time, but said he had since felt 'horrible about what happened.'
Lehman's failure set off a financial panic which prompted a $700bn rescue package approved by Congress.  Email this story to a friend
Comments on this story
karmaseeker
10-07-08, 02:31 PM |
Lehman Brothers executive pay was increased before bankruptcy
i think the son of a bich should go to jail .along with everyone else that took the money and ran like hell. all of them suck.
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waltky
10-07-08, 07:56 PM |
Lehman Bros. ain’t the only ones...
:mad:
After Bailout, AIG Execs Lounged At Resort
WASHINGTON, Oct. 7, 2008 - House Panel Probe Into Market Crisis Also Reveals Insurance Giant Hid Risky Practices
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Less than a week after the federal government had to bail out American International Group Inc., the company sent executives on a $440,000 retreat to a posh California resort, lawmakers investigating the company’s meltdown said Tuesday. The tab included $23,380 worth of spa treatments for AIG employees at the coastal St. Regis resort south of Los Angeles even as the company tapped into an $85 billion loan from the government it needed to stave off bankruptcy. The retreat didn’t include anyone from the financial products division that nearly drove AIG under, but lawmakers were still enraged over thousands of dollars spent on catered banquets, golf outings and visits to the resort’s spa and salon for executives of AIG’s main U.S. life insurance subsidiary.
“Average Americans are suffering economically. They’re losing their jobs, their homes and their health insurance," House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., scolded. “Yet less than one week after the taxpayers rescued AIG, company executives could be found wining and dining at one of the most exclusive resorts in the nation.” The hearing also revealed that AIG executives hid the full range of its risky financial products from auditors as losses mounted, according to documents released Tuesday by a congressional panel examining the chain of events that forced the government to bail out the conglomerate. The panel sharply criticized AIG’s former top executives, who cast blame on each other for the company’s financial woes.
“You have cost my constituents and the taxpayers of this country $85 billion and run into the ground one of the most respected insurance companies in the history of our country," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y. “You were just gambling billions, possibly trillions of dollars." AIG, crippled by huge losses linked to mortgage defaults, was forced last month to accept the $85 billion government loan that gives the U.S. the right to an 80 percent stake in the company. Waxman unveiled documents showing AIG executives hid the full extent of the firm’s risky financial products from auditors, both outside and inside the firm, as losses mounted.
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