BofA CEO: $53 million retirement score

[spanone]

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Ken Lewis doesn't have a golden parachute, but he's all set for a comfortable landing -- unlike his long-suffering shareholders.

The Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) chief executive officer said Wednesday he'll step aside at year-end after eight years at the helm. Based on the company's most recent proxy statement, he will have $53 million in pension benefits waiting for him when he leaves.

That should give him about $3.5 million a year in pension payouts for the rest of his life -- at a time when people who bought the stock when he took the reins in 2001 are underwater on their investments.

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That's not all. Lewis also has $10 million in deferred compensation owed to him and another $8 million in restricted stock and stock options as of Dec. 31 that will continue to vest over coming years, according to the most recent proxy filing. BofA referred questions about Lewis' retirement plan to those filings.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/10/01/news/newsmakers/lewis.payout.fortune/index.htm

[malaise]

1. I wondered about this on another thread this

morning. :puke:

[Ruby the Liberal]

2. Time to start the investigations and empanel a Grand Jury...

[Selatius]

3. See, the problem in the US is people are allowed to have conflicts of interests in corporations.

It is quite often, almost standard practice at this point, for the board of directors to appoint people to the compensation committee at the recommendation of the CEO. Often, the CEO recommends his own friends in the company for the committee. The board of directors may or may not be open to such gaming, but often, the CEO has friends on the board of directors as well. In some companies, the CEO also is the chairman of the board, so he has even more power over the make-up of the compensation committee.

[Octafish]

4. We really don't hear enough about the Wall Street Bailout on CNN.

We're also not hearing much about anyone besides Madoff and Stanford going to jail for the fraud leading up to it.

[ProSense]

5. Maybe he will not be allowed to keep all that money

See the second item here.

[AllentownJake]

6. Capitalism at it's finest

When he began his reign as CEO the stock traded at around 25. Today it trades at 16.

53 Million dollars in retirement for evaporating $9 of share holder value!

[Thrill]

7. Outside of Paulson, this guy is by far one of the biggest crooks

ever in this country