CEO Richard Fuld got $483,800,000 to Bankrupt Leheman — Transcript

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1. 0:00Mr fold uh the committee our committee
2. 0:02requested all the documents relating to
3. 0:05your salary bonuses and stock sales and
4. 0:08the committee staff put together a chart
5. 0:10which I hope will come up on the screen
6. 0:13uh this chart
7. 0:15U uh will show your compensation for the
8. 0:18last eight years it shows your base
9. 0:21salary your cash bonuses and your stock
10. 0:23sales in 2000 you received over $52
11. 0:28million in 2001 that increased to $98
12. 0:31million it dipped for a few years and
13. 0:33then in 2005 you took home $89 million
14. 0:38in 2006 you made a huge stock sale and
15. 0:41you received over $100 million in that
16. 0:44year alone are these figures basically
17. 0:50accurate so if those are the documents
18. 0:54that we provided to you uh I would
19. 0:57assume they are okay the the bottom line
20. 1:00is that since 2000 you've taken home
21. 1:03more than $480 million that's almost
22. 1:06half a billion dollars and that's
23. 1:09difficult to comprehend for a lot of
24. 1:11people your company is now bankrupt our
25. 1:13economy is in a state of Crisis but you
26. 1:16get to keep $480
27. 1:18million I I have a very basic question
28. 1:21for you is this
29. 1:28Fair a little bit Limited Ward joins us
30. 1:30Vicki what's been your impressions so
31. 1:32far as you watch Mr fold well Dennis I
32. 1:34don't see why you thought he was
33. 1:35contrite I thought he was Shameless I
34. 1:38thought it was appalling he blamed
35. 1:40everyone he blamed as you say naked
36. 1:41short sellers over and over in case we
37. 1:43didn't get the point when in fact uh
38. 1:45hedge funds like Harbinger had money
39. 1:47locked up in Leman and was shorting it
40. 1:48to try and make the most of the money
41. 1:50that they already had he blamed
42. 1:52everybody but himself and frankly I sat
43. 1:55there and listen and I'm with the guy
44. 1:56who apparently the day before Barkley's
45. 1:58announced they were coming in and Neeman
46. 2:00had already filed for bankruptcy went
47. 2:02over to him in the gym and punched him
48. 2:04because that's how I feel when I you
49. 2:06know I watched that I didn't think he
50. 2:07was conted at all I thought he was
51. 2:08arrogant he talked about the company as
52. 2:10if it was some disembodied entity that
53. 2:13had nothing to do with him he was
54. 2:14supposed to be in charge have you
55. 2:17confirmed that F because we we've seen
56. 2:18some reports about that online but that
57. 2:20he was at the gym on a Sunday and
58. 2:22somebody punched him yeah I've
59. 2:24absolutely from a very two very senior
60. 2:26Source One incredibly senior source that
61. 2:29he went to the Jim after the F the that
62. 2:31that Leman was announced was going on
63. 2:33there he was on a treadmill with a har
64. 2:35monitor on someone was in the corner
65. 2:37pumping on he just walked over and he
66. 2:38knocked him out cold and frankly having
67. 2:40watched this I'd have done the same too
68. 2:42leman's demise was brought on by many
69. 2:44destabilizing factors the collapse of
70. 2:47the real estate market naked short
71. 2:49attacks false rumors widening spreads on
72. 2:52credit default swaps rating agency
73. 2:55downgrades a loss of confidence by
74. 2:57clients and counterparties and buyers
75. 3:00sitting on the sidelines waiting for an
76. 3:02assisted deal in December of 2007 at the
77. 3:05end of that year um there were payments
78. 3:08made out both cash and stock bonuses uh
79. 3:11to your employees uh and they total
80. 3:13about $4.9 billion so is there any
81. 3:16thought given at that point in time to
82. 3:17say to your employees this isn't the
83. 3:19time to be handing out $4.9 billion in
84. 3:22cash we've got a liquidity issue here
85. 3:24we've been seeing it coming for all year
86. 3:26long and we're going to keep that money
87. 3:28in the company liquidity for the benefit
88. 3:29of our shareholders for the benefit of
89. 3:31the public with whom we deal and for the
90. 3:33economy Mr
91. 3:35chairman your first question was about
92. 3:37this slide are those numbers accurate
93. 3:41they are accurate the way you
94. 3:44have put them up on that
95. 3:50slide
96. 3:52but I believe your number of cash and
97. 3:56salary bonuses are accurate
98. 4:00the option
99. 4:02exercises uh the way you have them
100. 4:05portrayed here I
101. 4:07believe represent the full option
102. 4:10without the strike
103. 4:13price uh and the only reason I exercised
104. 4:16those options was because they came do
105. 4:19at
106. 4:20maturity and if I had not exercised
107. 4:23those I would have lost
108. 4:26it there was that stock sale
109. 4:30well I I'll I'll leave the I'll leave
110. 4:32the record open for you to give me any
111. 4:35changes in that list but basically
112. 4:37didn't you take home
113. 4:40around4 to $500 million as the head of
114. 4:44uh uh Leman Brothers for uh the last um
115. 4:48since two 2000 to
116. 4:50now the majority of my stocks are
117. 4:54came uh excuse me the majority of my
118. 4:56compensation came in stock
119. 5:00the vast majority of the stock that I
120. 5:04got I still owned at the
121. 5:08point of our filing the stock is in
122. 5:11addition to the numbers that I've uh uh
123. 5:13indicated because those were your salary
124. 5:16and your
125. 5:18bonuses now uh you had bonuses and in
126. 5:21addition to that you had some stock
127. 5:23sales you've lost some money on the
128. 5:25stock that you've received as
129. 5:26compensation what you received as
130. 5:28compensation on top top of these other
131. 5:30figures so you've been able to pocket
132. 5:33close to half a million dollars and my
133. 5:35question to you is a lot of people ask
134. 5:38is that fair for the CEO of a company
135. 5:40that's now bankrupt to have made that
136. 5:42kind of money it's just unimaginable to
137. 5:44so many people