The Treasury Department approved large compensation packages for executives at three firms that received bailout funds, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program found in a new report.
The New York Times reports:
The report comes from the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the bank bailout law passed at the end of the George W. Bush administration. The watchdog, commonly called Sigtarp, found that 68 out of 69 executives at Ally Financial, the American International Group and General Motors received annual compensation of $1 million or more, with the Treasury’s signoff.
All but one of the top executives at the failed insurer A.I.G. — which required more than $180 billion in emergency taxpayer financing — received pay packages worth more than $2 million. And 16 top executives at the three firms earned combined pay of more than $100 million. [...]
The report charges that Treasury has failed to rein in excessive pay at the three firms. It found that Treasury approved all pay raises requested for A.I.G., Ally and General Motors executives last year, with individual compensation increases of $30,000 to $1 million. It also faults the Treasury overseer for allowing pay packages above what comparable executives at other firms receive.
The Treasury unloaded its share in AIG late last year (at a positive return), and is currently preparing to sell off its remaining stake in GM (at a loss in the billions) over the next 12 to 15 months.
The federal government still owns 74 percent of Ally, once the auto-lending arm of GM and the worst performing bailout recipient.