Citi exec in big bonus purgatory
TEXT OF STORY
Bill Radke: Corporate bonuses have been dirty words lately, and here is another possible controversy on the way. The bailed-out bank Citigroup is trying to decide whether to pay one of its executives the sum of $100 million. Marketplace’s Mitchell Hartman explains.
Mitchell Hartman: Andrew Hall runs Citigroup’s secretive and phenomenally successful energy trading group. Last year, he reportedly took home $100 million in performance-based pay. The oil trade is good again this year, and in ordinary circumstances, Hall’s pay package would reflect that.
But these are not ordinary times. Citigroup is one of seven bailed-out banks and industrial conglomerates where executive compensation is now overseen by U.S. pay czar Kenneth Feinberg. The companies have to submit their compensation plans by August 13.
Earlier this year, the troubled insurance company AIG got grief for paying out $165 million in previously promised executive bonuses. Citigroup now has to decide whether to honor Hall’s contract and face a similar backlash.
I’m Mitchell Hartman for Marketplace.
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