Slashdot Mirror
Equifax CEO Richard Smith Who Oversaw Breach To Collect $90 Million (fortune.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: The CEO of Equifax is retiring from the credit reporting bureau with a pay day worth as much as $90 million -- or roughly 63 cents for every customer whose data was potentially exposed in its recent security breach. Richard Smith, 57, is the third Equifax executive to retire under pressure following the company's massive data breach revealed earlier this month, putting the personal information of as many as 143 million people at risk. Equifax said Tuesday that as a condition of Smith's retirement, he "irrevocably" forfeits any right to a bonus in 2017, an amount that under normal circumstances would have totaled more than $3 million -- the bonus he received in 2016 -- according to the company's retirement policy. But the CEO is still set to collect about $72 million this year alone (including nine months' worth of his $1,450,000 salary), plus another $17.9 million over the next few years. That's when the rest of Smith's stock compensation hits a few important milestones or "vests," allowing Smith to essentially put it in his bank account. Altogether, it adds up to a total potential paycheck of more than $90.1 million, according to Fortune's calculations based on Equifax securities filings.
The latest Red Scare is just a big nothing burger.
It's ironic that posts about Russian hacking are being done by a bot. This is the third identical post I have seen here today. So rather than being a "nothing burger" these posts indicate that the very interference they are trying to play down is in fact still ongoing.
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
Bonus and stock manipulation does not cause incentive for CEOs to conflict with shareholder interests. That is literally the opposite of what CEOs are supposed to do. They are supposed to follow the interests of shareholders or face rejection and replacement, and the interest of shareholders is to squeeze out another penny of profit wherever possible. Companies were not always like this, they acted in the best interest of the CEO and chairman of the board. But then a lawsuit set case law which forced companies to act for the good of their shareholders, not the good of mankind.
So we actually created this culture 40 or 50 years ago. We have also grown our population by 1/3 since then. You think it will be *easy* to unite the country in this change? I have a bridge to sell you...
-dk
We do income taxes rather than net worth, not because it's preferable from an economic or moral perspective, but because taxes on net worth are extremely difficult to implement.