Executives for banks receiving bailout money have continued to fly corporate jets to exotic vacation destinations, raising questions about whether the firms have been responsive to public concerns about the proper use of federal funding.
A detailed analysis of flight records by the Wall Street Journal found numerous examples of such flights, sometimes in the immediate wake of promises to curtail such activity.
In one instance, Sanford Weill, the former chief executive of Citigroup Inc., took a corporate jet to a small airport in New York's Adirondack region, where he owns a vacation home. Just two days earlier, facing criticism from President Barack Obama, who noted that the government had spent billions of dollars bailing out the financial giant, the firm had contritely cancelled an order for a new corporate jet.
Experts say the trip to the Adirondacks cost the company approximately $33,500. The day he returned, Mr. Weill announced he was voluntarily abandoning his contractual rights to use corporate jets at his leisure, the Journal reported.
The issue of the use of corporate jets and other perks by the nation's executives has been red hot since the bailout began. A number of executives were seen as making serious public relations stumbles when they flew to Washington on their own jets to plead for aid from the Treasury department. Afterward, a few auto executives made a show of driving from Michigan for future meetings.
BailoutSleuth's review of proxy statement filed by the big banks that got TARP money found that many require top executives to use corporate aircraft on business trips for security purposes. Some of those executives also are allowed to use the aircraft for personal trips, with the cost either reimbursed to the company or reported as a perquisite in annual compensation packages.
Many executives say that the use of corporate jets is actually economical because it allows them to focus on managing their businesses rather than suffer the vagaries of commercial travel. The use of the jets to ferry executives to vacation spots, however, casts doubt on the claim that their use always has a legitimate cost-saving purpose.
Bank of America executives also used corporate jets for vacation purposes despite receiving $45 billion in funding under the Troubled Asset Relied Program, the Journal reported. Last year, the firm's Gulfstream V jet was tracked numerous times as it flew from the company's home base in Charlotte, N.C. to Hilton Head, S. C. Kenneth Lewis, Bank of America's chief executive, has a vacation home near Hilton Head.
Other bailed-out banks that permitted the use of corporate aircraft for vacation use include Morgan Stanley, PNC Financial Services Group Inc., and Regions Financial Corp.
A detailed analysis of flight records by the Wall Street Journal found numerous examples of such flights, sometimes in the immediate wake of promises to curtail such activity.
In one instance, Sanford Weill, the former chief executive of Citigroup Inc., took a corporate jet to a small airport in New York's Adirondack region, where he owns a vacation home. Just two days earlier, facing criticism from President Barack Obama, who noted that the government had spent billions of dollars bailing out the financial giant, the firm had contritely cancelled an order for a new corporate jet.
Experts say the trip to the Adirondacks cost the company approximately $33,500. The day he returned, Mr. Weill announced he was voluntarily abandoning his contractual rights to use corporate jets at his leisure, the Journal reported.
The issue of the use of corporate jets and other perks by the nation's executives has been red hot since the bailout began. A number of executives were seen as making serious public relations stumbles when they flew to Washington on their own jets to plead for aid from the Treasury department. Afterward, a few auto executives made a show of driving from Michigan for future meetings.
BailoutSleuth's review of proxy statement filed by the big banks that got TARP money found that many require top executives to use corporate aircraft on business trips for security purposes. Some of those executives also are allowed to use the aircraft for personal trips, with the cost either reimbursed to the company or reported as a perquisite in annual compensation packages.
Many executives say that the use of corporate jets is actually economical because it allows them to focus on managing their businesses rather than suffer the vagaries of commercial travel. The use of the jets to ferry executives to vacation spots, however, casts doubt on the claim that their use always has a legitimate cost-saving purpose.
Bank of America executives also used corporate jets for vacation purposes despite receiving $45 billion in funding under the Troubled Asset Relied Program, the Journal reported. Last year, the firm's Gulfstream V jet was tracked numerous times as it flew from the company's home base in Charlotte, N.C. to Hilton Head, S. C. Kenneth Lewis, Bank of America's chief executive, has a vacation home near Hilton Head.
Other bailed-out banks that permitted the use of corporate aircraft for vacation use include Morgan Stanley, PNC Financial Services Group Inc., and Regions Financial Corp.
published June 19, 2009, 0 Comments
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