When the Merrill Lynch board refused to give John Thain his cut you just had to know that was going to get his bonus somehow. Recall that while Bank of America refused a line of credit for Republic Windows & Doors Company in Chicago forcing it to suddenly shut it doors and causing hundreds to loose their jobs and stage a sit in, Thain was yelling gimme, gimme, gimme so loud he could be heard on the battlefield. Now Thain can be excused for being single minded stupid in the callous pursuit of his precious bonus, but someone on Merrill's compensation committee was not.
Merrill Lynch Chief Executive John Thain has suggested to directors that he get a 2008 bonus of as much as $10 million, but the battered company’s compensation committee is resisting his request, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the situation.
The compensation committee has not reached a decision, but is leaning toward denying Mr. Thain and other senior executives bonuses for this year, The Journal said.
But Thain seeing the writing on the wall and without even the veneer of sincerity moved first.
Merrill Lynch & Co Inc (MER.N) said on Monday that Chief Executive John Thain, who agreed to sell the brokerage to Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) earlier this year, has requested that he not receive a bonus for 2008.Thain told a board meeting Monday the decision was appropriate "given current economic and market conditions."
And you thought what silly, that Thain was not going to get his bonus? Think Again! Neither write-downs in the billions, nor taxpayer toil and trouble, nor the public outting of his personal greed could stop this appointed payout.
When John Thain became Merrill Lynch’s CEO in early 2008, he hired Michael S. Smith Design to revamp his office suite, spending approximately $1.22 million according to documents.
Additionally, documents showed that Thain signed off on the purchases personally, and that he used another $5,000 to pay the expenses Smith incurred in doing the work.
The following is a list of the items in his suite:
- Area Rug $87,784
- 19th Century Credenza $68,179
- Pendant Light Furniture $19,751
- 4 Pairs of Curtains $28,091
- Pair of Guest Chairs $87,784
- George IV Chair $18,468
- 6 Wall Sconces $2,741
- Parchment Waste Can $1,405
- Roman Shade Fabric $10,967
- Roman Shades $7,315
- Coffee Table $5,852
- Commode on Legs $35,115
Commode on Legs?? Well of course Thain was right to reward himself for his cunning! And surprise surprise the compensation committee and Bank of America, they both went along for the ride.
Merrill Lynch paid billions of dollars of bonuses to its employees, three days before completing its life-saving sale to Bank of America Corp (BAC.N), the Financial Times reported on its website on Wednesday.The money was paid as Merrill's losses were mounting, forcing Bank of America Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis last month to seek additional government support for the deal. Merrill's compensation committee agreed to pay bonuses on December 29, at least one month earlier than usual, the paper said.Yet within days of that committee meeting, the FT said, BofA officials became aware Merrill's fourth-quarter losses would be much greater than expected.Bank of America, in a statement, told the paper, "Merrill Lynch was an independent company until Jan 1. (Merrill CEO) John Thain decided to pay year-end incentives in December as opposed to their normal date in January. BofA was informed of his decision."
That additional government support came from Goldman Sach's man in the Treasury going directly to Goldman Sach's man in Merrill Lynch with Bank of America acting as the cash conduit and everybody knows that everybody knew what was going on and who was paying for it. So finally the excess of excesses exceeded tollarable limits and Lewis fired Thain as a convenient scapegoat, but not before he blackmailed another hundred $138 billion big ones from us little ones to pay for Thain's bonus. But poor Thain.
Being ousted by Lewis “isn’t the outcome Thain wanted,” said Roy Smith, a former Goldman partner who teaches at New York University’s Stern School of Business. “He’d rather be known as someone who saved the organization than someone who salvaged a little bit of money before it went over a cliff.”Nope, got that wrong Roy! The money's all he wanted, if Thain managed Merrill nearly as well as his bonus they'd be profitable now.
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