No bonuses for those who need taxpayer money to stay afloat!
Filed under: Ripoffs and Scams
Pardon me if I don't feel sorry for the executives who aren't getting bonuses after they required taxpayer money to keep them afloat. How heartless of me. But something in me says that wealthy CEOs who run their companies into the ground and need to pick my pocket to stay in business shouldn't be rewarded for that. Today's news is that the CEO and chairman of Citigroup aren't getting bonuses for 2008. And that's news why? Seriously. If you need to steal money from taxpayers, then you don't deserve a bonus, period. There should be no "news" that you're going without a bonus.
Maybe the more "newsy" part of this story should be that all the other top executives at Citigroup are still getting bonuses. Yes, that's right. They won't be as big as they have been in the past, but they'll still get bonuses. Citigroup's handout courtesy of the taxpayers currently stands at $45 billion. And hundreds of billions of dollars of losses are basically going to be covered by the taxpayers somewhere down the road. Not a bad handout, if you can get it.
For the year ended December 31, 2007, Citigroup paid out a total of $85.1 million in bonuses. For the top executives, bonuses ranged from $1.3 million to $14 million. You figure out what "reduced" bonuses might look like for them this time around. And this is how taxpayer money is spent at companies that made poor business decisions and deserve to go under because of it....
Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-03-2009 @ 2:06AM
Michael said...
I think we are often times to quick to criticize the executive management teams when things go wrong; well even when they don't go wrong. While I am not an executive manager I do however understand the weight and stress these positions hold. These executives have to answer shareholders in which more often than not determine the direction of a given organization. In addition, the executives have to answer to the public and ensure public perception maintains, and last they have to maintain employee morale & motivation. They are legally responsible for there actions, they often face lawsuits with out merrit, and bottom line they bare more on there shoulders than most others in a position below them. They hold the weight that there decision could effect thousands of employees including single mothers, single fathers, families with little income and hard times. They bare the stresses of having to take certain directions despite personal opinions due to shareholder demands/obligations. There salaries and bonuses are with out question justified. Funny, how I didn't see an article questioning the bonuses of top executives when the companies were doing really well. At the end of the day, the issues in which we face here in the United States are not in light of decisions in which these top executives made but because of our decision to allow the news media to influenence our spending. At the end of the day it was us who made the decision to purchase homes in which we could not afford. Sure we can say we were presurred into it but bottom line is we chose the path that caused the foreclosure crisis. We failed to read the numerous of disclosures that ensure adjustable rate mortgages weren't implemented with out notice. We choose to take the risk in which we could not handle. Funny though, that articles aren't being written about the uneducated americans who made some of the poorest decisions I have ever seen in my life.
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3-16-2009 @ 6:55PM
Jigga said...
"There salaries and bonuses are with out question justified"
Wrong!! can you spend 10 mill a week, if you avg the vg bonus across the board
At the end of the day it was us who made the decision to purchase homes in which we could not afford.
Wrong, The crooks made it possible to do what should never be logicly allowed to happen, all out of greed for moneys from late paymnts and other similar chgs
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3-28-2009 @ 1:58PM
Tammy said...
I just don't understand how these people think they should get that kind of bonus. I'm a single mom raising 2 kids on less then 30,000 a year. Where is my bonus for being able to do that. A bonus is not 14 million when your already making hundreds of thousands a year without the bonus. I think these high level people that think they should be able to rip the government off so they can have there UN-EARNED bonus should have to take a pay cut and only make 30,000 for the yeah and see how us regular people live. I would love to see that happen. They need to take all this bail out money and share it with the real people that do the spending on real items in the real world. And to tell me that my bail out is going to equal about 13.00 more on my paycheck wont even get me a tank of gas in this real world. I would be happy with a few hundred to go shopping with for items that I usually wouldn't get but that will never happen on 13.00 or as they say 400.00 over the year. Get real!! It just makes me sick to think that the people that are running these company's into the ground think they deserve any bonus at all. They should have to turn in there company cars and boats and and stop making the company pay for those items. Live in the real world pay your own bills on a regular salary. YOU ALL MAKE ME SICK!!!!
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