Pay Czar Feinberg to Broaden Investigation Into Wall Street Compensation During 2008 -Gasparino
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FOX Business' Charlie Gasparino is reporting that Kenneth Feinberg is increasing his investigation into Wall Street executive compensation during 2008 -- a year when major firms were taking taxpayer bailout money in order to stay in operation.
The investigation is not focusing on the Troubled Asset Relief Program legislation but instead is concerned with the stimulus package, and will be looking into whether big banks paid their top executives too much. Among other Wall Street firms, Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) was specifically mentioned.
Gasparino sees Goldman as having one of the biggest targets on its back considering that the firm made a billion dollars in 2008 while paying out more than $4 billion in manager's bonuses. Goldman, like other banks, would not have been profitable without bailout funds.
He added that over the next two weeks, Feinberg “is going to decide whether or not he should go to the firms and say ‘you must pay that back’ but he has no legal authority… But if he finds there are problems here… he’s going to try and shame them.”
The government’s so-called "pay czar" is trying to appease an American public that is angry at the banks for taking taxpayer dollars and then paying out exorbitant amounts in bonuses. The public sees this as a slap in the face.
“This is an outraged public right now,” Gasparino admitted. “We bailed these guys out in 2008 in an unprecedented fashion. At the firms there is a lot of anxiety because if you think about it 2008 if it weren’t for those bailouts Wall St. would be gone… yet after the bailouts, they all paid bonuses.”
The investigation is not focusing on the Troubled Asset Relief Program legislation but instead is concerned with the stimulus package, and will be looking into whether big banks paid their top executives too much. Among other Wall Street firms, Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) was specifically mentioned.
Gasparino sees Goldman as having one of the biggest targets on its back considering that the firm made a billion dollars in 2008 while paying out more than $4 billion in manager's bonuses. Goldman, like other banks, would not have been profitable without bailout funds.
He added that over the next two weeks, Feinberg “is going to decide whether or not he should go to the firms and say ‘you must pay that back’ but he has no legal authority… But if he finds there are problems here… he’s going to try and shame them.”
The government’s so-called "pay czar" is trying to appease an American public that is angry at the banks for taking taxpayer dollars and then paying out exorbitant amounts in bonuses. The public sees this as a slap in the face.
“This is an outraged public right now,” Gasparino admitted. “We bailed these guys out in 2008 in an unprecedented fashion. At the firms there is a lot of anxiety because if you think about it 2008 if it weren’t for those bailouts Wall St. would be gone… yet after the bailouts, they all paid bonuses.”
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