If it is the practice of corporate big-whigs to make payoffs underground, then it is the duty of the SEC to make whatever regulations are necessary to prevent such robbery. Your response is a non-sequitur. Why should the shareholders not have a say in the compensation of the CEO?
Have you ever heard the old saying...the better you are the more you get screwed? These guys need to make as much as quickly as possible before they get the axe. Things move quick on the market and Ceo jobs go just as fast. Unless you are an owner as well as a Ceo, you are still an employee. How many people will risk their entire life's income and career on running one company without getting a potential lifetime of pay?
No one will take these jobs if the money is not enormous, be it legal or otherwise.