Today SynergyBlog learns that despite the economic woes that many American’s feel, the executives of AIG have decided that they deserve $165 million in bonuses.
This behavior is alarming, outrageous, and it’s the reason my dissertation will seek to understand the drivers of trust and distrust in brands and corporate leaders – and how to restore that trust once it is broken.
The executives at AIG should do a little research of their own. They should look into the lives of average Americans and think about whether they deserve one more cent (in addition to the $170 billion bailout money they’ve already recieved) of our hard-earned money.
According to CBS News American International Group is paying out millions of dollars in executive bonuses to meet a Sunday deadline. But the troubled insurance giant has agreed to administration demands to restrain future payments.
The Treasury Department determined that the government did not have the legal authority to block the current payments by the company that has already received more than $170 billion in U.S. support.
AIG declared earlier this month that it had suffered a loss of $61.7 billion for the fourth quarter of last year, the largest corporate loss in history.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has asked that the company scale back future bonus payments where legally possible, an administration official said Saturday.
This official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said Saturday that Geithner had called AIG Chairman Edward Liddy on Wednesday to ask that Liddy renegotiate AIG’s current bonus structure. See full story here.
Is this ethical behavior? SynergyBlog is disgusted. How about you?
Some great information here and some intresting points, look forward to reading more
I totally agree. While I understand that there are contractual agreements by which AIG is bound, how can any self-respecting person accept such a bonus? It flies in the face of logical reason.
And, on top of that, why did this suddenly come to light within just a day or two of the contractual deadline? At least, if this had come out at the time of the bailout, that regardless of how poor the company did, there were contracts in place that would have to be honored in a few months, something could have been done or officials have been made aware.
As if AIG isn’t already reeling from the loss of brand equity, now this hits the US public right between the eyes. How do they think people are going to react – with kindness and empathy? Any remaining trust people had in their brand just went sailing out the window.