AIG exec donates bonus, says public anger is unfair
Filed under: Company News, People
Just because someone is rich, it doesn't mean he's a crook. Just because someone works on Wall Street, it doesn't mean he's greedy. And just because someone is an AIG employee, it doesn't mean he's not an honest, hard-working person, just like the rest of us.Indeed, that's how Jake DeSantis, an executive vice president of the American International Group's (AIG) financial products unit feels. He has resigned from AIG with a very moving letter to CEO Liddy made public in The New York Times.
DeSantis explains how no more than a handful of the 400 current employees of AIG's financial products unit were responsible for the credit default swap transactions that hurt the insurer -- and our economy -- so badly. The rest were and are hard working individuals who used to earn millions for the company each year.
When the crisis hit, he agreed to take a salary of $1 per year, as did other executives. They've been hard at work in the crucial work of dismantling the unit. They were promised they would be rewarded and put in 10, 12, 14 hours days. They've done it "out of a sense of duty to the company and to the public officials who have come to its aid."
It is no wonder then that DeSantis feels hurt. More than that, he feels betrayed -- betrayed by the company and by government officials as the public outrage is directed at AIG. Interestingly, those who are to blame left the company and escaped all that.
To make a clean break, DeSantis declared his intention to donate his entire post-tax retention bonus in the amount of $742,006.40. He intends to keep none for himself, but donate it all to those suffering from the recession.
Reading the DeSantis letter, one can't help but feel for him and others who have done nothing wrong yet are made to suffer for it. But DeSantis is forgetting something crucial. It doesn't matter if his own actions or his own department caused AIG's losses or not. If the company wasn't bailed out but was like any other company, he would have likely never gotten these retention payments in the first place.
In the 1990s, I worked for a company that went belly up. We know well the promises companies make, and the actions that are actually done. Often, employees at such companies agree to work far more for far less just to help the company. And contracts or not, employees at struggling companies often do not get what they are owed. AIG is no different. It's just that the amounts are larger and the people who work there are not used to such treatment.
The personal attacks against AIG employees are unwarranted. DeSantis appears to be quite the classy guy, and it stands to reason that there are more like him at AIG and in the banks and on Wall Street. Even so, while this should make us think twice before we condemn everyone in the financial world, most of whom had nothing to do with this whole fiasco, DeSantis should admit that there is something indecent about the AIG bonuses. And that's why he's done an admirable thing giving his away.
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Reader Comments (Page 15 of 15)
3-26-2009 @ 12:54PM
Jacki said...
What are you people talking about ?? they are misusing our tax paying dollars.That money was to keep the Company afloat not their wallets. I also agree that our government gets paid way to much money also, and the state workers also get paid way to much , all these things are why our taxes keep going up. I am tired of the higher ups filling their wallets with our money. We gave AIG the money to keep the company from going bankrupted not to give it away to their employees.They misused the money and they should not have been giving the second round of money to begain with. They screwed the tax payers once and then did it again. I feel they should give up all the money and take care of them selves .
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3-26-2009 @ 2:46PM
tom said...
this guy is brilliant. the old dodge and duck routine. i'd pat him on the back....but hes already doing so. had the hearings not taken place he wouldn't have given a dime back.
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3-26-2009 @ 3:19PM
Kevin said...
As the Obama administration sets its sets on reining in the industry, Soros and others literally made billions by taking contrarian bets against stocks.
As stocks fell in half, pension funds collapsed and millions of savers watched their 401(k)s founder, Soros made $1.1 billion last year.
“It is, in a way, the culminating point of my life’s work,” Soros told The Australian.
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3-26-2009 @ 8:38PM
ruminator1 said...
Hello Jude,
I have found a few errors in your letter:
1. "Ive" should be "I've."
2. At the end of each sentence, after the period, you should use the space bar.
3. "Dont" should be "don't."
4. "Intitled" should be "entitled."
5. "Soicalist" should be "socialist."
There are five or six more errors.
What college did you attend? Ask for your money back.
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3-28-2009 @ 8:47PM
Mike said...
BS , I don't care if it was only one person at AIG that screwed up . They are using taxpayers money to bail them out. The taxpayers have every right to decide how that money will be spent. Including pay cuts, cancelling bonuses and removal of the fools thiefs working at AIG. Without us , they all be out of a job and should be going to prison.
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3-29-2009 @ 9:44AM
dave said...
$745,000.00 per year just for working 10-14 hours a day whether structured as a bonus or salary, that IS greed plain and simple.
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3-29-2009 @ 8:41AM
Rick said...
I hope to keep my job, I still have to provide for my family and AIG. I wonder if I can claim them on this years tax return ?
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4-05-2009 @ 12:02PM
CSH said...
I'm sorry...I disagree. First of all taking a dollar was a noble thing to do but to take a dollar with the expectation of $742,006.40 down the road takes the nobility out of the equation. This is just more of the same.
What should have been done was a fair salary renegotiation - no hidden payments. If they had paid this man say, $200,000 they could afford ten more employees at $50000 a piece. Or saved $542000 in bailout money. This frustrated exec should ask himself what kind of compensation he would have received had there been no bailout.
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4-08-2009 @ 1:58AM
jerry mcdonald said...
hang them all!
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