Govt Rewarded Incompetent Bank Auditors With Big Bonuses

As banks gambled on the risky mortgages that helped create the worst financial crisis in generations, the U.S. government handed out millions of dollars in bonuses to regulators at agencies that missed or ignored warning signs that the system was on the verge of a meltdown.

The bonuses, detailed in payroll data released to The Associated Press, are the latest evidence of the government's false sense of security during the go-go days of the financial boom. Just as bank executives got bonuses despite taking on dangerous amounts of risk, regulators got taxpayer-funded bonuses for doing "superior" work monitoring the banks.'

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MoD Bonuses Anger Bereaved Families

British civil servants at the Ministry of Defense have received huge bonuses this year, making families of soldiers killed in Afghanistan angry.

According to the ministry, 50,000 bureaucrats will receive average annual bonuses of about £1,000 by the end of the year, totaling over £47 million ($77.9 million).'

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A $100 Million Bonus

Citigroup (C) is considering paying a $100 million bonus -- to one guy.

This is the same Citigroup that received $45 billion in bailout money. The same Citigroup that will soon be 34% owned by the U.S. government. The same Citigroup that has lost 95% of its share value since 2007.

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AIG Bonuses Four Times Higher Than Last Year

The 2008 AIG bonus pool just keeps getting larger and larger.

In a response to detailed questions from Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the company has offered a third assessment of exactly how much it paid out in bonuses last year.

And the new number, offered in a document submitted to Cummings on May 1, is the highest figure the company has disclosed to date.

AIG now says it paid out more than $454 million in bonuses to its employees for work performed in 2008.

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The Obama Government: Take From the Poor and Give to the Rich

These past several weeks have witnessed a stunning attack on working people, with the Obama administration leading the charge.It started with Larry Summers, Obama’s chief economic adviser, responding to the A.I.G. bonuses by pontificating about the sanctity of contracts: “We are a country of law. There are contracts. The government cannot just abrogate contracts.” Like a mad dog pursuing its prey, he pounced on the conclusion that absolutely nothing could be done about the bonuses.

Unfortunately, Summers voiced no similar outcry when the Obama administration, only weeks earlier, insisted that the U.A.W. contracts be renegotiated as a condition for the auto industry receiving a bailout, suggesting that a different set of rules applies to the rich than to the rest of us who constitute the majority and work for a living.

However, when a public uproar swept the country in response to these bonuses, many of which were ear-marked for the financial wizards who helped drive the economy over the cliff, the Obama administration executed a hasty about-face. Suddenly, they too were “outraged,” along with everyone in Congress who wanted to keep alive any chance of re-election.

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Glove Puppet Obama Manouvers to Protect Wall Street Bonuses

Following the passage Thursday of a bill by the House of Representatives that would tax some bonuses at a handful of companies that have received government bailout money, the Obama administration is seeking to discourage passage of a similar bill by the Senate, even as Obama feigns indignation over $165 million in bonuses awarded by the bailed-out insurance giant American International Group (AIG).

Obama is attempting to navigate between placating public anger over AIG and similar outrages by Wall Street firms that have received hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer funds and satisfying the demands of the financial elite, which will brook no government interference in its drive for self-enrichment.

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Obama Recieved a $101,332 Bonus From AIG

Senator Barack Obama received a $101,332 bonus from American International Group in the form of political contributions according to Opensecrets.org. The two biggest Congressional recipients of bonuses from the A.I.G. are - Senators Chris Dodd and Senator Barack Obama.

With the anger and rage that is being exhibited against A.I.G., perhaps the bonuses Obama received from A.I.G. explain Obama's A.I.G crocodile tears.

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Bank of America Says Bonus Disclosure Will Cause ‘Grave’ Harm

Disclosing the identities of Merrill Lynch & Co. employees who were paid $3.6 billion in bonuses just before the firm merged with Bank of America Corp. will cause “grave and irreparable harm,” said lawyers for the companies.

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Fat Cat Bankers Demand Pay Rises to Compensate for Bonus Clampdown

As bonuses have been cut amid public anger over the banking crisis, it is predicted that city salaries could more than double over the next few years.

Shaun Springer, chief executive of executive search firm Napier Scott Napier, said bankers are trying to make up for less generous bonuses through higher salaries.

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RBS Gets Around Promise to End Cash Bonuses

Royal Bank of Scotland is offering immediate payments to staff who are owed bonuses despite promising the Government that it would not give them cash payouts.

The Times has learnt that RBS, which is 68 per cent owned by taxpayers after a £20 billion government bailout, is offering its staff loans against the bonuses that they are owed but which have been deferred until 2010 under a deal with the Government.

RBS had lobbied hard to be allowed to pay a cash element of the bonuses and critics will see the loan scheme as a way to get around the Government’s refusal to allow it to do so. The bank, which will pay out about £1 billion of bonuses, had agreed to defer about £650 million of that after intense political criticism.

RBS employees who take up the loan offer will be entitled to upfront payments of up to 30 per cent of their bonus, spread over the next three years, with up to 12 per cent available now.

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They are proving they will do anything to stiff you the tax payer. It is so blatent, wake up and do something!

Almost 700 Merrill Executives Paid $1m-plus Bonuses

Nearly 700 Merrill Lynch executives had cash bonuses of more than $1m each for last year, New York’s top law enforcement official disclosed on Wednesday.

Andrew Cuomo, New York’s attorney-general, called the bank’s decision to bring forward nearly $4bn of pay-outs a “surprising fit of corporate irresponsibility” that raised “serious and disturbing questions”.

Mr Cuomo said the bonuses for 2008 were “disproportionately distributed to a small number of individuals”, with the top four recipients taking in a combined $121m

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Looting the nation !

Stampede by Banks to Beat Bonus Crackdown

Banks dependent on taxpayer support are planning to rush out hundreds of millions of pounds in bonuses to senior bankers and traders before a threatened crackdown.

As ministers prepared to curb excessive remuneration, it emerged that Barclays and Lloyds Banking Group were poised to follow Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) by paying bonuses within weeks.

Lloyds, which has taken £17 billion in rescue money from the Government, appears ready to give hundreds of millions of pounds to top executives and more junior staff.

Barclays, which has tapped the Bank of England for billions of pounds in loans and guarantees, is believed to be planning even larger payouts. According to the terms of its purchase of the North American division of the collapsed Lehman Brothers, Barclays is due to pay $2.5 billion (£1.7 billion) in bonuses to traders and dealmakers on Wall Street in the next few days.

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Bailed-out Royal Bank of Scotland Bankers Set for Millions in Bonuses

The troubled Royal Bank of Scotland, rescued with £20 billion of public money, is planning large bonuses for thousands of its City traders and senior bankers, The Times has learnt.

The proposed payments are expected to reach tens of millions of pounds — possibly hundreds of millions — with some star bankers in line for six-figure payouts.

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Senior Civil Servants Make £1m in Bonuses

A total of 105 payouts were given to the Cabinet Office employees at a cost of £972,500 - an average bonus of almost £9,300 each and a rise of £77,500 from the previous year.
The news has angered critics at a time when up to 8,300 private sector jobs are under threat, with many large firms preparing to announce redundancies over the course of the next year.
A spokesman for the TaxPayers' Alliance said: "It defies belief that while the economy falters and tens of thousands of people in the private sector have been losing their jobs, the big bonus culture continues as normal in Whitehall."
It also comes as Lord Jones, the former Trade Minister, said he was "amazed" by how many civil servants he met during his time in government "who frankly deserved the sack", adding that "the job could be done with half as many".
The Tories earlier this month claimed taxpayers were footing a bill of more than £100m for the salaries of nearly 5,000 bureaucrats in "non-jobs".

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