For the rest of his life…
What do you give a top executive who is being investigated by the company’s own board over "allegations relating to improper payments to foreign government officials" and suddenly decides to resign? How about a quarter of a million dollars? For the rest of his life.
That’s exactly what’s going on at Pride International (PDE), which filed this retirement agreement with outgoing Chief Operating Officer John Blocker Jr. yesterday. Blocker, who was only named COO in January 2005, used to oversee the company’s Latin American operations. Though Pride hasn’t provided many details, a former employee has made allegations about bribes going back a number of years, which has prompted Pride to delay filing both its 10-K for 2005 as well as its first quarter Q.
No matter how the investigation is resolved, Blocker, who has been at the company for 13 years, won’t have much to worry about. That’s because his retirement agreement will pay him $258K for the rest of his life. Given that he’s only in his early 50′s — the last proxy listed his age as 53 — that could mean that Pride will be on the hook for millions. Even if Blocker dies unexpectedly early, Pride will still be required to pay his wife $129K a year for the rest of her life.
Not bad work if you can get it.
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June 1st, 2006 at 2:46 pm
I cannot believe.
Why on earth company may agree to such kind of payments?
I wish I can get job there. I am in my early 30s, will work for next 15 years and will retire happily after…….Can anyone help me;)
June 1st, 2006 at 4:55 pm
What’s the chance that he’s being paid to keep his mouth shut concerning some aspect of the bribery allegation that will cost the company mucho bucks?
It’s unfortunate but when given a choice, many companies would rather pay for silence then forcing an executive to take responsibility for their actions and face the music.
One national known company that I worked for, decided to accept whatever money their controller had left after he stole a few million from the company. I guess they figured that the threat of having him arrested would be enough to convince him to turn over the money. Too bad that he didn’t have anything left because rumor has it, that it all went up his nose. And the only reason that the police got involved was because the controller committed suicide.
June 1st, 2006 at 5:20 pm
And a guy like this has got to have a (second? third?) wife who’s 25.
June 2nd, 2006 at 1:25 pm
Have you ever done an article on CEO’s that are paid in the bottom quartile in the compensation committee work? Have reviewed 40 reports in the past month and have typically only noticed that the target is 2nd or 3rd but we paid him in the 4th quartile this quarter.
The only exception to this is Warren Buffett who makes less than his administrative assistant. But he has a few $ in the bank.
June 5th, 2006 at 3:09 am
Wow, now that’s outrageous executive compensation.
Great site, I just found it via Technorati. Very cool accounting-related niche!