Man, I sure hope more employees of financial institutions do this sort of thing. This sort of honesty is sorely missing from our country. I applaud Mr. DeSantis for having the one trait that folks on Wall Street seem to be lacking: a conscience!
Yep, this story just keeps getting better and better. Makes me completely sick to my stomach. I mean, regardless of whether these employees had a contract or not, the CEO could have reversed this decision and not pay these ridiculous bonuses. Getting government bailout funds is a highly extenuating circumstance and one that I feel should reverse any contracts that award any employees (or ex-employees) any bonuses like this. Sorry, there is absolutely no excuse for this. AIG took an action that was completely irresponsible. How can a bank claim to be in the shit and yet feel that it’s ok to payout millions in bonuses? Seriously…when the hell is the CEO of AIG gonna get fired?!
Cough! [Spits out coffee.] WHAT?! I did just read that, right? Hold on…lemme read that again just to be sure…
Yep, I did read that right. Here’s part of their excuse:
The payments to 400 employees of the financial-services unit — some of whom no longer work at the insurer — were promised last year before the federal government bailout. Bonuses range from as little as $1,000 to as much as $6.5 million.
And then they go on to say:
[Chief Executive Edward] Liddy also pointed out he won’t receive a bonus and that the company cut bonus payments for it senior executives. The top 25 executives in the financial-product unit, moreover, have agreed to accept a salary of just $1 for the rest of 2009, his letter said.
Liddy needs to go away. We own 80% of that company now. I say fire his ass!
Twitter: jeffwhitfield