Is E*Trade Still Playing Fast & Loose With The Facts?

Is E*Trade Still Playing Fast & Loose With The Facts?

E*Trade's ex-CEO Mitch Caplan (2007 "Goat of the Year") got a $10.9 million going-away bonus after blowing the company's value to smithereens. No surprise there.

(What did you expect? That he would walk away with nothing? Being CEO is a risky job! Make a catastrophic decision that destroys your company and you could...lose your job. Everyone should get an $11 million severance for shouldering that kind of responsibility!)

What is a surprise, according to Michelle Leder at footnoted.org, is that E*Trade's explanation of Caplan's going-away bonus doesn't compute. E*Trade breezes over the number by saying it's just two times Caplan's salary and bonus for 2006. Except that it isn't. After checking the proxy, Michelle says that 2X Caplan's salary+bonus was all of $1.5 million.

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