Jack Lew's contract had an incentive to go into government

[Enrique]

http://news.firedoglake.com/2013/02/25/jack-lews-citigroup-contract-included-incentive-to-go-into-government/
There may not be anyone left in America that doesn’t know Wall Street sets the agenda in Washington, that the revolving door between finance capital and the so-called regulators of finance capital spins so fast the IAEA should demand inspections. And so we learn that President Obama’s Treasury Secretary nominee not only worked for the Citigroup hedge fund that shorted the housing market, invested in off-shore tax havens, and took a nice bonus from TARP money – he had a provision written into his employment contract that encouraged him to return to government service.

Lew’s employment agreement with Citigroup said his “guaranteed incentive and retention award” wouldn’t be paid if he quit his job, with limited exceptions. One was if he left Citigroup “as a result of your acceptance of a full-time high level position with the United States government or regulatory body.” This applied if he left “prior to the payment of any incentive and retention award for performance year 2008 or thereafter.” Such an award wasn’t guaranteed but would be consistent with the company’s practice, the document said…

When I asked Citigroup what its rationale was for including the government-service exception, a spokeswoman, Danielle Romero-Apsilos, said: “Citi routinely accommodates individuals who wish to leave the firm to pursue a position in government or nonprofit sector.” I pointed out that the contract terms I was asking about didn’t mention anything about a nonprofit, but she declined to elaborate on her statement.

The agreement makes no such mention of “non-profit” work. Is anyone surprised? How would Citigroup capitalize on that? No, Citigroup wants friends in high places, it wants puppets in power to give the bank further subsidies and favoritism. The Too Big To Fail bank seems to have secured itself another term of handouts with the Lew appointment, playing the old bribery game.

[CincyDem]

1. I'm not saying Wall Street doesn't have an "agenda" regarding Gov't service, but...

...this kind of exception is pretty common across most industries.

If you leave to go to a competitor, you're screwed on your deferred comp, unpaid bonuses, or options.
If you leave to go to some other kind of corporate job, it's usually up to your boss (and his/her boss) if you keep any of that.
If you leave to go to a government or non-profit, you usually keep all your deferred comp, unpaid bonuses and options.

So, while I agree that Wall Street banking is the deepest cesspool of the known world, I also have to say that not every single word from their mouths is stand alone proof of it. In this case, I hate to say the spokesperson probably has it right.

All IMHO obviously.

[Enrique]

2. notice the "high-level" part

if Lew had become a mailman, he wouldn't be competing with Citi, but he still wouldn't get his bonus, because Citi is not interested in Lew becoming a mailman. He can't help them there.

[xchrom]

3. du rec. nt