More Bank Robbery

In a recent post, http://www.scottsrandombits.blogspot.com/2006/01/ridiculous-compensation.html, I highlighted the best way to get rich: "get a good safe job with a corporation...hold it hostage for money." Wallace D. Malone, Jr. exemplified this with his $135 million payoff for handing of $14 billion SouthTrust over to Wachovia, amounting to a 1% seller's fee. Now, less than two months later, fees appear to have gone up.

North Fork Bankcorp (NFB) CEO John Kanas will receive about $185 million for handing $14 billion NFB over to Capital One Financial Corp. (COF), amounting to a 1.5% seller's fee. In today's WSJ, CEO Kanas called it "an egregious amount of money, " but defended it since it monetized a life's work. As he puts it, "It's not like I flew in here on a private jet three years ago and prettied up the company and then booted it out of here."

From his comments, it appears that his $5 million plus annual compensation (for at least the past three years, according to the latest proxy) has not appropriately compensated him - entitling him to finally get paid. When asked about plans for his proceeds, he volunteered that he "intends to use a portion of the money to replace his Dodge pickup" and will "try to get more of that money into a charity if we can." (My italics). I guess he's not making any charitable commitments until he knows how much that pickup replacement will cost.