Hodgson has been called “one of the foremost authorities in the field of compensation,” so if he is calling this a joke and laughing, it is with knowledge of how outrageous that it. He is a senior research associate at GMI Ratings.

“In addition to these units, Mr. Manning received over $92 million in cash distributions based on the economic income of the prior companies (compared to $79 million in 2010). Also, he received over $53 million from net proceeds from the . . . Manning also received a salary of $1.4 million and around $75K in perks and benefits,” Hodgson says.

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Part 1

Nobody is claiming straightening out the Lehman mess was an easy job. One law firm alone, Weil, Gotshal & Manges had more than 40 partners each earning at least $1,000 an hour. That does not include overtime, bonuses and incentives. As of last moth this law firm is on track to earn $431.6 million in fees as of March, plus $11.2 million in incentives, according to The Wall Street Journal.

This does not even include the lead attorneys in the case. Alvarez & Marsal has already earned $535.5 million and is not stopping there. They are on course to bump that to more than $620 million soon reports Jacqueline Palank.

All this work has paid off – not just for the lawyers but for the jilted investors. Lehman Brothers has just exited bankruptcy as a literal shell of its former self. Now it exists to increase available funds to pay the creditors. To their credit the law firms have pulled together many billions more to go towards restitution of the investors than anyone imagine. Apparently the lawyers also feel they deserve the credit and have appointed themselves as the officers of the new Lehmans.

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Graphic courtesy Damon Hart-Davis

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation filed a $600 million lawsuit last year against former IndyMac Bancorp chief executive Michael W. Perry. The suit charged negligence against bank officers resulting in $13 billion in costs to the FDIC as they were forced to bail out depositors.  The bank was a star player in the dicey mortgage funding which led to the near-collapse of the U.S. financial system in 2008. IndyMac specialize in what were called “liar loans,” where borrowers were not required to prove their income or provide much documentation.

Unlike CEO Perry, the man behind this debacle, the families who got caught in the liar loan snare were personally responsible to pay whatever they needed to in order to resolve their issues.

Shareholders settled for a $6.5 million payment for their class-action lawsuit. “The lawsuit accused the defendants of making statements that concealed the true extent of IndyMac’s deteriorating capital and liquidity as well as its growing exposure to regulatory action, among other claims,” according to an AP report in the Kansas City Star.

ThinkStrategy apparently put no thinking into investing with Arthur Nadel, who died in a North Carolina prison recently at age 79 after his fraudulent  funds collapsed in 2009. Nadel’s Florida-based hedge funds bilked investors out of $529 million.

“The SEC claimed Kapur falsely told investors he conducted ‘rigorous’ examinations of the hedge funds where they risked money,” according to John Hielscher in the Sarasota, Fla.’s Herald-Tribune. “The agency said Kapur and his firm never performed a background check on Nadel, which would have revealed Nadel was a disbarred attorney with little investment experience.”

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Feeley is leaving his post as chief executive of the country’s Serious Fraud Office, which he also announced Tuesday while leaving the public titillated about coming attractions. “The revelation is likely to spark furious speculation as to the target of the investigation,” analyzed One News of TVNZ. They reported this case “would rank among the country’s largest and substantially exceed the $103M case against infamous Datasouth manager Gavin Bennett.”

In the scope of fraud arrests around the globe, a $250 million dollar bust will likely not get you on the medal stand. Just this week, an Iranian court convicted 39 people of a complex fraud case. It included the forging of documents to realize $2.6 billion gain. The Iranians play hardball — four bankers were sentenced to death.

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It has become clear the former chairman of Goldman Sachs had kept a more careful watch on what he got paid.  It was revealed CEO Corzine’s pay was set at more than $8 million during the same year the firm used the assets of its investors for their own purposes. It took former FBI director Louis Freeh to find much of the $1.6 billion MF Global could not account for. The continuing investigation into the failed futures traders has led to an announcement yesterday that most U.S. investors “eventually will be made whole.” The company is now going through bankruptcy proceedings.

Corzine’s salary for 2011 was set at $3 million. In addition he was to receive stock options worth $5.35 million. Because of the company’s implosion, the stock is now worthless.

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The industrial equipment leader has been at war with their union workers in order to keep profits sky high. They awarded their chief executive officer  a raise of $6.5 million since our last report in March. A $4.9 million cash payment Doug Oberhelman received was “an 81 per cent increase from his 2010 cash award,” according to Pat Garofalo in ThinkProgress. In total his compensation is now $16.9 million annually.

Caterpillar has engaged in tough union-busting battles, in one case closing a plant rather after workers would not accept hourly wage cuts from $35 to $18 per hour. Now the company wants to impose “a six-year wage freeze for most of the 780 production workers” at an Illinois plant where they have been engaged in a fierce strike, according to a New York Times report referenced by Garofalo. “Several labor experts told the Times that Caterpillar is a pioneer in tough labor negotiations meant to drive down workers’ wages.”

“The practice of raising executive compensation to obscene levels while making it harder for working families to pay for basic medical expenses is impossible to justify at a company as successful as Caterpillar,” International Association of Machinists President Tom Buffenbarger told ThinkProgress.

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Since that April meeting both Bob Diamond and Marcus Agius were forced to resign in shame, having been key players in the Libor rate-rigging scandal which has rocked the financial world. Barclays received a £290M fine for their culpability.

“Ms Carnwath (had) argued that the banker should be awarded a zero annual bonus  for 2011. However, the majority of the committee was persuaded by the arguments of Mr  Agius, who also sat on the committee, that Mr Diamond might leave the bank if he  received no bonus,” according to Patrick Jenkins in the Financial Times. ”‘Everyone bought the argument that Bob needed something for  his ego,’ said one person close to the situation.”

Alison Carnwath, who took heat from fellow board members for her principled stand, does indeed have a full plate. She is chairman of a property group called Land Securities.

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“Witty is paid considerably less than his predecessor, JP Garnier, and is seen to be doing a good job,” wrote Guardian financial editor Nils Pratley. “Those with longer memories will also recall that, boss of SmithKline Beecham, had accumulated a share option package worth $100M at the time of the merger with Glaxo Wellcome in 2000.”

This month the pharmaceutical giant agreed to pay $3 billion for fraudulently promoting two of their most popular drugs, the largest fine in U.S. history. In a company statement, Witty said the company will not repeat “the mistakes that were made.” The Justice Dept. charges originated before Witty was appointed CEO in 2008. Still, after all the recent focus by U.K. shareholders on CEO compensation, the huge hit may not have helped his prospects for a raise.

Andrew Witty’s was a story-book corporate rise, working his way up to the chief executive’s office after starting as a management trainee. Now he is paid less than other top British CEOs, including those at pharmaceutical firms. Pratley comments, “What can be said, though, is that we’ve reached the point where the chief executive of a top FTSE 100 company can expect to earn about £10m-a-year.”

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Lynch is credited with creating and implementing a successful plan to transition the book business into the digital future. He led the successful growth of the Nook product line and revamped the entire business. To reflect these achievements, with the granting of a million shares of stock he was given an increase from his 2011 compensation of $1.6 million to a total of $15.3 million for fiscal 2012.

Unfortunately the B&N corporate rules prohibited this award the company disclosed “in a regulatory filing yesterday. Half of these options would now be deemed ‘ineffective,’ giving Lynch compensation of $10 million in fiscal 2012, it said,” according to Reuters. This has caused Lynch to not receive half of the stock benefits and limit his raise to $10 million, losing the $5.3 million difference as of now. The company hopes to change that.

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