No Deception in Huge Grasso Pay Deal? (Corp. Parasite or Hardworking Employee?)

Newsweek ^ | 02/17/2005 | Charles Gasparino

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New information shows that New York Stock Exchange board members were aware of the chairman’s lucrative package—possibly damaging Eliot Spitzer’s case against him. Newly released documents from an internal New York Stock Exchange investigation into former chairman Dick Grasso’s massive pay package show that some board members were aware of the details of the compensation deal and that at least one said he didn’t believe there was deception involved in awarding the money, NEWSWEEK has learned. The revelations could complicate efforts to force Grasso to repay some of the money.

The documents concern a series of interviews conducted by NYSE attorney Dan Webb in preparation for his investigation and eventual report, released two weeks ago, of Grasso’s $140 million pay package, which led to his ouster as Big Board chairman in 2003. The report concluded that Grasso’s pay package was excessive and “was based on incomplete and inaccurate information.” Webb’s report, which helped spur a civil suit brought by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer against Grasso and former board member and compensation committee chief Ken Langone, also said the deal “was made without adequate deliberation” by the NYSE board, and that that size of the package had “a detrimental impact on the NYSE.” Spitzer is demanding that Grasso return a chunk of his pay package under a state law that says compensation for executives at non profits, like the exchange, must be reasonable.....