Thread: GM's Rick Wagoner Drives Away with $20M Retirement

GM's Rick Wagoner Drives Away with $20M Retirement

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FROM ABCNEWS.COM

PAYDAY: GM's Rick Wagoner Drives Away with $20M Retirement

Critic Calls Multi-Million Package "Perfect Example" of Frustration with Industry

By MICHELLE LEDER and JUSTIN ROOD

March 30, 2009-

Rick Wagoner will leave his post as CEO of bailed-out General Motors with a $20 million retirement package, the company's financial filings show.

Although the Treasury Department has barred GM from paying severance to Wagoner or any other senior executive, Wagoner is eligible to collect millions in retirement benefits from his former employer, according to the documents reviewed by ABC News.

The Obama administration asked for Wagoner to resign Sunday, as part of its restructuring of the auto industry. President Obama said this morning that forcing Wagoner out indicated it was a time for new leadership.

Under Wagoner's leadership, GM lost tens of billions of dollars, took billions in taxpayer-financed aid, and announced plans to cut 47,000 employees by the end of 2009.

Wagoner's Private Jet Trip to Washington

Wagoner was one of the three auto industry CEOs who inflamed Congressional ire by flying to Washington in private jets to ask for taxpayers to bail out their beleaguered businesses. They returned a month later in hybrid cars.

Upon his departure, Wagoner becomes eligible for both a "Salaried Retirement Plan" and an "Executive Retirement Plan" with General Motors. The combined value of the plans at the end of last year was $20.2 million, a GM spokesperson confirmed.

"Most of that will be paid out as an annuity over five years, the remainder is a small lifetime annuity," said GM spokeswoman Julie M. Gibson.

"I think it's another perfect example of why there's so much frustration among working people," said Tiffany Ten Eyck of Labor Notes, a Detroit-based independent publication covering unions. "I wouldn't mind retiring out of an industry in crisis with a $20 million package."

GM has received billions in loans from the U.S. Treasury Department, and recently asked for billions more. Under its agreement with Treasury, it cannot pay severance fees to senior executives. That ban does not appear to apply to retirement benefits, however.

After Wagoner's Private Jet Trip to DC, GM Sells Luxury Fleet

Wagoner, 56, began his career at GM in 1977, working as an analyst for its New York treasurer's office. Wagoner was promoted to several positions within the company, including managerial roles in Europe and South America, before being named CEO in 2000.

Last November, ABC News cameras spotted Wagoner in Washington, D.C. arriving on GM's $36 million luxury aircraft. He had come to the nation's capital to tell members of Congress that the company was burning through cash, and needed over $10 billion in U.S. taxpayer funds to stay afloat.

In a followup visit to Washington in December, Wagoner arrived in a Chevy Malibu hybrid. GM announced plans to sell its corporate luxury jet fleet that same month.

Contributor Michelle Leder writes at the financial blog footnoted.org.

Copyright 2009 ABC News Internet Ventures

http://www.foxnews.com/urgent_queue/ind ... 2009-03-30

GM gets a bailout to stay afloat and the CEO is fired. THe U.S. is getting a bailout from China to stay afloat....apparently Obama thinks he can run GM better than the country which he has buried in debt for generations to come. It makes GM look like a success in comparison.