Transocean execs get 3/4 of their possible yearly "safety bonus" despite BP disaster

[DirkGently]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42393722/ns/business-us_bus... /

Dead: 11 people. Spilled: 200 million gallons. Reward: $340,000. Damage to the people and ecosystem of the Gulf: Incalculable.

Political and legal invulnerability afforded members of the Corporate Petroleum Class: Priceless.

Transocean Ltd. gave its top executives bonuses for achieving the "best year in safety performance in our company's history" — despite the explosion of its oil rig that killed 11 people, including nine of its own employees, and spilled 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

The CEO's take for this banner year: $5.9 million

That figure includes an $850,000 base salary — a 34 percent increase from the prior year; perquisites of $622,057, which includes housing and vacation allowances, among other things; and the $374,062 bonus. Also included in the figure are stock options valued at $1.9 million and deferred shares valued at $2 million when those awards were granted in March 2010.

(snip)

In the regulatory filing, the company said its bonuses were appropriate as a way to recognize its executives' efforts in "significantly improving the company's safety record" and implementing a new internal planning system.

(snip)

According to a recent Washington Post report, investigators are also examining violations of environmental laws and whether company officials made false statements to regulators, obstructed justice or falsified tests for key pieces of equipment, such as the rig’s failed blowout preventer.

First comment on the MSNBC page: "This article must be a satire piece, right??"

What's left of REALITY when destroying the economy and the environment are not only unpunishable acts, but entitle the perpetrators to six and seven-figure "bonuses?"

[Liberty Belle]

1. Horrifying - sounds like a bad April Fools Day joke.

[DirkGently]

4. It's a window into another reality --corporate rewards for profit at ANY cost. What can ever change

under this model?

The bigger, scarier message behind these bonuses isn't about just obscene wealth, although it is that. It's that inflating and then smashing the value in people's homes and investments, and wreaking devastation on the environment is --, if it makes a profit for shareholders -- not only not criminal, not only not subject to serious regulatory enforcement, but the basis for REWARD.

These people did the RIGHT things, by the standards of corporate duty. They made money for investors, avoided serious punishment, and minimized lost profits when their greedy, life-threatening tactics literally blew up -- in OUR faces.

They have no incentive to do anything differently, other than to continue to try to buy more influence and less regulation, and to grab for more and more and more, no matter the cost to anyone. They are perfect corporate capitalists, and we can only expect their behavior and the corresponding devastation to increase.

[Rabblevox]

5. that was my first thought. I can no longer tell satire from hard news. /nt

[DirkGently]

9. Because it's so contrary to human reason. Corporate reason is different. If stock prices rise,

you've done the "right" thing. It would arguably be a violation of fiduciary duty to shareholders to make ANY decision for, say "public safety," if it would mean lost profits. Conversely, a horrific accident that doesn't ultimately cost that much, is right on line with a CEO's duties. We bleed -- they get PAID.

[nashville_brook]

2. we were talking about this earlier today -- if this is 75% of their bonus, how much is their salary?

ferchrissakes!

[Rabblevox]

7. depends on the exec. Their CEO made 5.9 million. excuse me while I hurl. /nt

[nashville_brook]

8. holy shit. holy f'n shit.

[DirkGently]

12. Wonder how many people they killed the year before? How many ecosystems?

[suffragette]

3. This reminds of some posts I made in the past about them

Transocean transcripts - what did they know & when did they know it
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8347642


Transocean may make multimillion profit from the oil disaster
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8336750



Completely and sadly congruent with the bonuses the bank and Wallstreet execs "had" to receive, even after destroying economies and doing so poorly they had to be bailed out.

Seems to be the new normal and it's rotten to the core.

[DirkGently]

6. Exactly on point. Quarter over quarter costs vs profits are the ONLY concerns. Not destruction.

... or a few deaths.

[suffragette]

15. Exactly. From transcripts I posted and this NYT article,

they knew rigs had and have issues:

Oil Rig’s Owner Had Safety Issue at Three Other Wells
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/05/us/05transocean.html

It's clear and cold-blooded cost and profit with no regard to human suffering.

[Initech]

10. WTF - our economy is so damned bizarro-backwards it's not even funny.

:grr: :mad: :grr: :mad: :grr: :mad: :grr: :mad: :grr: :mad: :grr: :mad: :grr: :mad: :grr: :mad: :grr: :mad: :grr: :mad: :grr: :mad: :grr: :mad: :grr: :mad: :grr: :mad: :grr: :mad: :grr: :mad: :grr: :mad: :grr: :mad: :grr: :mad: :grr: :mad: :grr: :mad: :grr: :mad: :grr: :mad: :grr: :mad:

[Curmudgeoness]

11. I guess they were not fined enough for the fuck-up-in-the-Gulf. nt

[nashville_brook]

13. i would love to know how many regular people like DUers even get bonuses...

and what exactly you have to do get one...i know that at my company it's a percentage of salary, and the percent is figured on how well you met goals and performed. if i made the marketing blunder equivalent fuck up like these guys fucked up, i wouldn't have a job, much less a bonus.

[DirkGently]

14. In Middle-Class Reality, you might even worry about jail, or a bankrupting civil suit.

[jimlup]

16. We need to put an end to this bonus crap once and for all

Really, I don't know why these bonuses are not this generations "Let Them Eat Cake" moment. It is time to act to stop this crap both for Oil Company Executes who've ruined the environment and Investment Banker's who've ruined the economy.