(Harvard) Study: CEOs cashed in before Wall Street meltdown

[kpete]

Source: Raw Story

Study: CEOs cashed in before Wall Street meltdown

By David Edwards and Daniel Tencer
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 -- 10:20 am

The CEOs of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, the two investment banks that collapsed during last year's financial meltdown, walked away with hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation even as the company's shareholders lost everything, says a new report from Harvard Law School.

The top five executives at Bear Stearns made a total of $1.4 billion from bonuses and equity sales between 2000 and 2008, while the top five executives at Lehman Brothers made around $1 billion during that same period -- the period during which the companies ran up the bad investments that would see them collapse in 2008, according to "The Wages of Failure" http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/bebchuk/pdfs/BCS-Wages-of-Failure-Nov09.pdf (PDF), a report from Harvard Law School's Program on Corporate Governance.

"The people who invested in these companies should feel betrayed," Nell Minow, a compensation expert at the Corporate Library, told NBC's Lisa Myers. "The whole idea of capitalism is that the people provide the capital and the executives take care of it for us. In this case, the people provided the capital, and the executives took it."

Bear Stearns CEO James Cayne personally made $388 million in the eight-year period leading up to the bank's collapse, while Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld made $541 million. Boomberg news service notes that "shareholders who held their shares throughout the period analyzed in the report lost most of their initial investment."

Read more: http://rawstory.com/2009/11/nbc-ceos-cashed-in/

[RufusTFirefly]

1. Whaaat??!!!

Those fine upstanding pillars of society??

[yurbud]

2. the sociopaths on Wall Street figured out that it's not enough to screw their workers and customers

they could make even more by screwing their investors too.

[meow2u3]

25. Those crooked CEO's should be thrown in a maximum security prison

...and forfeit all their assets, a la Bernie Madoff. That is, after a fair trial and conviction.

Forget Club Fed. Throw them in with the murderers, rapists, and gang members.

[yurbud]

37. and forfeit their asses to their roommates in prison

[Blue_Tires]

48. out of respect for this site, I will not type what MY punishment would be...

[Froward69]

3. like we all agreed...

the burglars went back and double checked for every silver fork and dropped penny on the way out the door last Jan.

Goddamn thieves.

[Soylent Brice]

4. K&R

[Frosty1]

7. +1

:nuke:

[closeupready]

5. Honestly, does not surprise me in the slightest.

These people run rings around the SEC and all kinds of regulations. I'm sure this is just the tip of the iceberg.

[JHB]

32. It didn't hurt that the SEC had spent 8 years in the hands of unregulators.

Well, didn't hurt them. The rest of us...

[Ignis]

40. Bingo!

Take an already crippled, muzzled animal, clip its nails, file down its teeth, reprimand it whenever it barks....

And we're surprised that the SEC didn't catch this sooner? :rofl:

[Blue_Tires]

49. i'm also really dreading what secrets will come out after 8 years

of pro-industry people running the EPA and FDA...We've had a little trickle of info here and there, but I feel the worst is yet to come...

[pattmarty]

6. I guess prosecution only applies to people that are "of color" and/or..........

...........are poor and don't have shit. These motherfuckers ought to be in the worst jails in this fucked up country, period.

[Judi Lynn]

8. We've learned so much from history.Seems like only yesterday Ken Lay & pals grabbed investors' money

right before the lights went out.

http://www.debarygolfers.com.nyud.net:8090/images/james_cayne.png http://www.debarygolfers.com.nyud.net:8090/images/richard_fuld.png

James Cayne, Richard Fuld

[Nikki Stone1]

9. +1

.

[RedCloud]

10. Off with their heads for plotting the economic downfall of America.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

33. Wondering when the demonstrations are going to go house to house

I know some folks showed up in front of AIG execs homes in CT last year but nothing since.

[LaPera]

11. What kind of person would be surprised by this? A dim nonpolitical church going lifetime republican?

[Tansy_Gold]

12. THIS IS NOT LBN!!!!

It's :sarcasm:





TG

[bergie321]

13. These poor bankers

They needed to be compensated for putting up with all of the evil peons continually defrauding them by demanding subprime mortgages. They deserve some bailout money on top of this for their pain and suffering. :sarcasm:

[FarLeftFist]

14. Isn't that what Martha Stewart went to jail for? Insider trading.

Enron and Worldcom too.

[Auggie]

19. +1

[mrdmk]

47. Martha Stewart was convicted of the following:

<snip>
Stewart was found guilty in March 2004 of conspiracy, obstruction of an agency proceeding, and making false statements to federal investigators and sentenced in July 2004 to serve a five month term in a federal correctional facility and a two year period of supervised release (to include five months of electronic monitoring).
<end>

link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Stewart

In fact other than lying to prosecutors, she did nothing wrong. Her broker Peter Bacanovic heard through the grapevine that the CEO of ImClone Systems Samuel D. Waksal was selling his stock and informed Ms. Stewart. This is not inside information, this is just knowing of what is going on around you. The prosecutors of the case choose to make an example of her, which they did.

edit: hitting the wrong buttons.

[Doctor_J]

15. Boy, when all of this finally sinks in to the proletariat,

I would love to have the rope concession.

[green917]

43. George HW Bush agreed with you back in '06

"If the American people knew what we have done, they would string us up from the lamp posts." George H.W. Bush 2/07/2006

[Therellas]

16. fucking scumbags.plain and simple.

heads on a post.

[TygrBright]

17. I'm shocked! SHOCKED, I tell... Oh, never mind. N/t

[Javaman]

26. I know, it's exhausting. nt

[PuraVidaDreamin]

18. The ULTIMATE insider trading!

Criminal!

When are we going to take to the streets people?

I'm ready- but I can't do it alone.

[aquart]

20. Can we hang them now?

[subterranean]

21. Jim Cramer is right. Nothing has changed to stop this from happening again.

"What happened to these people? Nothing," Cramer said. "They got the money, they left. ... They got away with it, so why shouldn't the next guy try?"

[barbtries]

22. i can't believe this was all legal

there should be consequences.

[winyanstaz]

31. Fraud is never legal....these are criminals...

and I agree...there MUST be consequences.

[newtothegame]

23. I'd take my money and get the hell out too; look what happened to those who waited. n/t

[varelse]

24. "The people who invested in these companies should feel betrayed,"

I do feel betrayed :(

[orbitalman]

27. Are We Surprised by these SCUMBAGS??

We just new there was SOMETHING wrong. Kill'em. They are the republican greedy A**holes we've known and hated.

[paparush]

28. While I'm not the lest bit suprised, it makes me sick.

I swear these people are UTTER SCUM and not fit to dwell in civilized society. Such greed and hubris will eventually move the working class to take action (right after I finish posting on the interwebs)

[irislake]

29. Hopefully in future, these psychopaths will not be hyped up

admired and emulated. They used to represent the success of the American dream. Everybody wanted to achieve their lifestyles and their obscene bonuses.

I never could admire them my idea of success is to have a happy family life and to live in a fairly equal society. Universal health care and and a graduated tax system.

I don't even think those idiots were happy --- just driven and self-satisfied.

But it used to be those criminals were held up as the epitomy of all we should strive for.

Yuck! Sick bastards.

[winyanstaz]

30. More fraud and crimes against the people of America...

Pay that money back you shysters!

[gorfle]

34. I am SHOCKED! SHOCKED I TELL YOU! n/t

.

[pundaint]

35. Yeah, before, during and after, it's the only constant

Removal of protective laws are responsible for this. Which of our elected officials deserve to be reelected?

[Blue_Tires]

36. from the files of "Shit we already knew...."

[radhika]

38. So They are Different than Bernie Madoff? n/t

[ArcticFox]

39. Some real braniacs at Harvard

They only just now figured that out?

[valerief]

41. And this surprises who? Good thing for the "free market" that it's above-board legal.

I mean, we can't have the scum-sucking pigs held to account, can we?

[Odin2005]

42. The rules against "Insider Trading" are only for little people.

The Masters of the Universe have no problem getting around the rules for use mere mortals.

[dixiegrrrrl]

44. Thank god we have a new President who allowed the prosecution of these thieves

and of all others who did the same thing, esp. in AIG and BOA and Goldman Sachs ( for insider trading).

Can hardly wait to hear the results of the trials.


***crickets***

[Vilis Veritas]

45. 304 Million people who can't think because they are sleeping.

Will never be moved by the 1 million that can think because they are awake.

Check mate.

Even if they go after these crooks they will get a slap on the wrist.

V V

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

46. I think these guys should be the next Secretary of The Treasury and Fed Chairman. nt