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@POTUS Look, I think you should be able to be a billionaire if you can earn it, but just pay your fair share. I think you ought to pay a minimum tax of 25%. It’s about basic fairness. @ElonMusk Replying to @POTUS I paid 53% taxes on my Tesla stock options (40% Federal & 13% state), so I must be lifting the average! I also paid more income tax than anyone ever in the history of Earth for 2021 and will do that again in 2022.

At the beginning of this week, the Eastman Kodak Company handed its chief executive 1.75 million stock options. It was the type of compensation decision that generally wouldn’t attract much notice, except for one thing: The day after the stock options were granted, the White House announced that the company would receive a $765 million federal loan to produce ingredients to make pharmaceuticals in the United States. The news of the deal caused Kodak’s shares to soar more than 1,000 percent. Within 48 hours of the options grants, their value had ballooned, at least on paper, to about $50 million.

Even as economic losses and unemployment levels mount, America's most effective engine for wealth and job creation is being dangerously -- perhaps fatally -- compromised.

<p>If there were a Hall of Fame for those who've done the most to pad the pay of top CEOs, Carl Levin would be a first-ballot shoo-in. Strangely, however, the Michigan Democrat seems unhappy with his own political handiwork.</p> <p>The Senator was chief architect of the biggest single boon to stock-option issuance back in the 1990s -- the change in the tax code that limited the tax deductibility of executive pay to $1 million, unless that pay was "performance based." Stock-option grants have since soared, and executive pay has climbed to even greater heights. The difference is that now close to half that CEO compensation comes from options, which avoid his $1 million cap because the options are in the money only if the stock goes up. Ergo, they are "performance-based."</p>

Excerpt - SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- Apple Computer Inc. cleared Chief Executive Steve Jobs and the rest of its current management of misconduct involving stock option grants, despite Jobs' awareness of favorable grant dates. The company said Friday it has "complete confidence" in the executive team, though it also acknowledged the backdating of thousands of option grants and restated past earnings due to the results of its probe of options practices. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission detailing its probe, Apple said Jobs was aware of, or recommended the selection of, some favorable grant dates but...

RICHMOND, Va. - For the past five years, Sen. George Allen (news, bio, voting record), has failed to tell Congress about stock options he got for his work as a director of a high-tech company. The Virginia Republican also asked the Army to help another business that gave him similar options. Congressional rules require senators to disclose to the Senate all deferred compensation, such as stock options. The rules also urge senators to avoid taking any official action that could benefit them financially or appear to do so. Those requirements exist so the public can police lawmakers for possible conflicts...

Apple's Special Committee Reports Findings of Stock Option Investigation Fred Anderson Resigns from Apple Board of Directors CUPERTINO, Calif., Oct. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Apple® today announced that the special committee of its board of directors has reported its findings after a three month investigation into Apple's stock option practices. The special committee of outside directors, together with independent counsel and accountants, examined more than 650,000 emails and documents, and conducted interviews with more than 40 current and former employees, directors and advisors. Apple initiated this voluntary independent investigation after a management review discovered irregularities in past stock option grants....

Excerpt - SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Cablevision Systems Corp. awarded options to Vice Chairman Marc Lustgarten after his death in 1999, but backdated them to a date when he was still alive, according to a Thursday evening media report. ~ snip ~

Excerpt - Everyone knows the former Veep is on Apple's board, but he's also on the board's compensation committee. That raises the odds that he could land on the hot-seat if it turns out that Apple's stock options "irregularities" are of the sort that lead to civil or even criminal charges. In fact, former members of the comp committee at Mercury Interactive were notified by the SEC in June that they're likely to face civil charges. With that instance in mind, one SEC expert who requested anonymity says: “If there’s a problem at Apple, Gore's globe is going to be...

See for example this thread first. Some high-tech CEO's complain the SEC's causing them pain But despite all they say-- (you can go thank Ken Lay) we don't care much if "they can explain."

Letter follows Apple telling regulators it will delay its 10-QSAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Apple Computer Inc. said late Friday that the Nasdaq Stock Market has warned the company its decision to delay filing its most-recent quarterly financial report puts Apple in violation of Nasdaq's stock-listing requirements. The letter came on the same day Apple officially notified federal securities regulators that it would delay filing its quarterly report, or 10-Q, for the quarter ended July 1, until an outside legal counsel completes an investigation into how the company accounted for employee stock options. The company reiterated to the Securities and Exchange...

CUPERTINO, Calif., Aug. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- As Apple® previously announced, an internal investigation discovered irregularities related to the issuance of certain stock option grants made between 1997 and 2001. A special committee of Apple's outside directors has hired independent counsel to perform an investigation, and the Company has informed the SEC. As a result of the ongoing investigation, the Company will delay the filing of its Form 10-Q for the quarter ended July 1, 2006. Although the investigation is ongoing, the Company has discovered additional evidence of irregularities. In light of this, management has concluded, and the audit committee...

With Milberg Weiss on the ropes, rivals moving in Commentary: Silicon Valley faces class-action blitz over backdating options E-mail | Print | | Disable live quotes | Discuss By John Shinal, MarketWatch Last Update: 7:00 AM ET May 20, 2006 SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- This week's federal indictment of the nation's most prominent law firm dedicated to shareholder class-action suits will likely change the landscape for such securities complaints -- but not in a way non-lawyers might think. Indeed, far from fostering restraint, the government's decision to charge Milberg Weiss Bershad and Schulman with making illegal payments to clients is...

by Mark Finkelstein April 20, 2006 On the heels of MSM outrage at the retirement package granted to Exxon/Mobil CEO Lee Raymond, Good Morning America was back at the class-warfare ramparts this morning with a new target in its sights, Dr. William McGuire, head of United Health Group. As the result of share prices that have increased over 7,000 percent, stock options granted McGuire are currently worth in excess of $1 billion. ABC reporter Dan Harris narrated the segment, and GMA set the tone with its title - "You Must be Kidding!" But there was no joking about the class-warfare...

IT'S ALL LEFT UP TO PATRICKWith no Democrat in Rhode Island stepping up to challenge liberal Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee in 2006, Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer met recently with his colleague, Sen. Ted Kennedy to ask whether it would be worth approaching son Rep. Patrick Kennedy about making the challenge. Dad apparently gave Schumer at least tacit approval to make the pass at his kid. Now Patrick, known to many as "Patches," is seriously mulling a run after declining once to do so. He got his nickname from famed Boston radio host and newspaper columnist Howie Carr. It comes from...

Sensing public outrage over business corruption in America is waning, some in the corporate community are seizing on the shift in mood to try to roll back reforms, say top U.S. officials and academics. "There's clearly a rearguard action going on," said Maryland Democratic Sen. Paul Sarbanes in an interview three years after the Enron debacle that led to his co-authoring of landmark corporate governance and accounting reforms in 2002. Business scandals are now daily fare for Americans, from the prison sentencing on Friday of a former top Boeing Co. executive to revelations of abusive trading in the mutual fund...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 16 - Fannie Mae, the housing-finance giant, for years has fended off critics who contend that the company is too big, too powerful and too risky. But the Securities and Exchange Commission's Wednesday ruling, that Fannie Mae had seriously breached accounting rules, could touch off a chain reaction that results in stricter government controls, legislation limiting its growth and possibly even a change in top management. Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike demanded on Thursday that senior executives, including the chief executive, Franklin D. Raines, return tens of millions of dollars in bonuses and other compensation that they had...

If my calculations are correct, Cheney has lost over $850,000 on his Halliburton stock options since taking office. I wish this got some play on mainstream news. www.marfoeblog.com for the breakdown

<p>Lehman Brothers' carefree use of restricted stock has come back to haunt the Wall Street giant, costing the company virtually all of its 2002 cash flow, a shocking report by a leading Wall Street analyst claims.</p> <p>In 2002, Lehman Brothers had to use 90 percent of its cash flow to buy back shares so the wads of stock it had doled out to employees wouldn't dilute the stock's value.</p>

Long-Awaited Option Vote Rule About To Become Reality . By Phyllis Plitch Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--More than a year after the nation's stock exchanges went to work reviewing listing standards in an effort to restore investor confidence, the first of a batch of corporate governance reforms is finally becoming a reality. Under new market listing standards expected to be approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday, companies will have to bring most stock option plans to a shareholder vote. Once the rules are in place, companies trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and...