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While Merrill Was Sinking, CEO Kept Personal Luxuries
By
Billy Parker
Published Jan 22, 2009
Modified Jan 22, 2009
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By
Billy Parker
Published Jan 22, 2009
Modified Jan 22, 2009
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New documents show was Merrill Lynch was in its final days before getting swallowed up by Bank of America last year, its CEO John Thain was spending lavishly on all sorts of personal expenses—hello $87,000 rug! The Daily Beast reveals that Thain hired celebrity designer Michael Smith to refurbish his office for $800,000—eight times what Smith is getting paid to redesign the White House right now. While telling employees to spend with self-control, Thain paid his driver a total of $230,000 in salary, overtime and bonus—double what many executives paid their drivers. One luxury Thain scaled back on during the year Merrill Lynch lost $12 billion was his usual multi-million dollar annual bonus, after heavy pressure from Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. Now, Thain has just announced that he will step down as CEO a month after the merger takes place.
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Merrill Lynch
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