Dick Grasso's Grit May Prevail, Help Him Keep $185 Million Payday

New York Times:

Call it the curse of Dick Grasso.

Eliot Spitzer in 2004, pointing out what he said was evidence that Richard A. Grasso had received excessive compensation.

Five years after Richard A. Grasso flamed out as the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, his legal adversary and stock exchange directors have fallen even more spectacularly.

And now Mr. Grasso may be able to keep the staggering $185 million award that once made him a symbol of Wall Street greed -- a package awarded to him by the A-list board members at the exchange who eventually fired him.

Two men who played central roles in the legal tumult, Eliot Spitzer and James E. Cayne, saw their careers and reputations implode within days of each other in March.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[trollsbwild]

This story just SCREAMS that the SEC has to get involved with regulating compensation. Otherwise, this form of abuse will continue.

[Chris]

Why would you want the government involved?

Have you been offered a salary and told them it was too much and asked for less?

[Brownpower]

Chris: Nobody offered him the salary, he set his own pay scale!

[Brownpower]

Richard Goniff Grasso: He stacked the board with those he regulated.­..Who better to watch the chickens than the wolf? $200M... the best Regulation money could buy..anybo­dy else would be in jail.

He is a disgrace!!!!! "A dirty beat cop on the take"

[Chris]

Brown what laws were broken?

[Brownpower]

Setting your own salary! Your duty as an SRO to protect the public from your own board! Playing three card monty with your own board....

[wiseapple]

This guy was such a giant after 9/11. Ring the bell and clap; ring the bell and clap. Amazing. The way Wall Street just kept going while we all went shopping. Wow, what a guy. Let's see Vanna White would turn a letter and clap; turn a letter and clap. How much did she make? In comparison, does the ringing the bell out-trump the turning of the letter by that much?

[sa]

i didn't read the story,
just saw the figures.
what did this good fellow do?
for those numbers he must have cured cancer,
or have solved world poverty;
excuse me, i am ignorant,
did he write the world's greatest novel,
or paint something far beyond the greatest painting,
or write the greatest symphony in all of creation.
i don't know this fellow.
i don't know how he helped humanity to such an extent to deserve such numbers.
wait, my assistant is now briefing me... what....yo­u say....tha­t is it...
are you kidding me......ci­vilization paid him that much..... for that?!....­.
no!.......­....yes?..­........oh my god?! ..........­we are all finished..­....... of course ..........
that cannot be the reason!...­......he helped a bunch of rich people get richer!!!!­!!!!!!!!!!
no!!!!!!!!that cannot be it.......!­!!!!!!! he must have helped humanity!!!!!!!!!!

oh. so that's the way it all works. money has defeated people.

glad we're all on wall street.
let the poor eat themselves.
there's plenty enough meat to get along.

go green! - money. that's all that's left.
fuck humanity and the blue planet.
we gamed the system, and won!!!

p.s. capitalism is all a bag of shit.

[Chavez08]

No healthcare
No education
No jobs
Homelessness
Endless debt
No clean air
Economic Military Conscription
Prison Industrial Complex
Torture
Consolidation of wealth to few most scandalous

....but I'm sure glad we reject Socialism!

[TheJibreelaMonsters]

Were do you live at? I'm just wondering so I never move there

[LeonBNJ]

No one deserves that much money for their work or retirement funds.
Until March 2006, the NYSE was a not-for-profit corporation per NY State law it was incorporated under and such excessive compensation was not allowed. That became the basis of the NY AG's case. Of course then State AG Spitzer wanted to run for higher office and what would be better than to go after some too rich guys.
The Fed SOX laws encouraged the NYSE to disclose the compensation Grasso and others got. When CALPERS and other major public employee and other pension funds found out, they put pressure on the NYSE and the NY AG to go after the NYSE to recend them and correctly so.
I suspect they have or will file Friend of the Court Briefs to the court on their position. I hope the court rejects Grasso's and other's arguements. It is interesting to see that many on the board of the NYSE in the past are not their anymore due to their mismangement of their companies or personal lives.