Ex-GM boss yanks $10 million ripcord
For steering General Motors into bankruptcy, wiping out the shareholders he worked for and sticking taxpayers for billions in bailout costs, Rick Wagoner gets a $10 million golden parachute, says AP.
Wagoner, 56, who was ousted by the Obama administration on March 30, will get $1.64 million in benefits annually for each of the next five years, plus an annual pension of $74,030 for the rest of his life, according to company documents filed Tuesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.The former CEO, who spent 32 years with the company, can also choose to cash out his company-provided life insurance policy at $2.6 million, according to the filing.
The benefits are worth about half the $22.1 million value that the company placed on Wagoner's retirement package at the end of 2008. The severance package is also far smaller than those afforded to many other large-company CEOs in the past, before the market meltdown made compensation practices a touchstone for public and congressional outrage.






