SEC Delves Deeper Into Execs' Pay

Bank triples profit last year, sets $5.3B aside for pay, bonuses

(NEWSER) - Goldman Sachs is even more golden than we'd thought. The top firm on Wall Street posted a record third-quarter profit of $3.19 billion, a billion dollars higher than expected, thanks to returns on advising on takeovers and more aggressive investing. That quarterly result more than triples the $845 million it posted this time last year. As for the big question of compensation, the bank said $5.35 billion was going to salaries and the year-end bonus pool, up from last year. More»

(NEWSER) - The judge who has refused to sign off on Bank of America's settlement with the SEC over $3.6 billion in bonuses paid to Merrill Lynch delivered a stinging rebuke to both parties in a hearing yesterday, the New York Times reports. The firms "effectively lied to their shareholders" over the pre-merger bonuses, and the SEC's proposed $33 million settlement seems "strangely askew," said Judge Jed Rakoff. More»

Planned rules may apply to banks that weren't bailed out

(NEWSER) - The Obama administration has begun an ambitious project to overhaul compensation practices across the financial sector, including at firms that received no bailout, reports the Wall Street Journal. The government may use the powers of the Fed or the SEC, as well as congressional legislation, to prevent banks from rewarding damaging practices, such as making dangerous loans or offering inaccurate risk ratings. More»

Bank may have illegally misled investors over pre-takeover Merrill payouts

(NEWSER) - The SEC is looking into whether Bank of America violated federal law by failing to let investors know Merrill Lynch planned to pay its execs $3.62 billion in bonuses before it was taken over by BofA last year, the Financial Times reports. The regulator is reviewing the bank's disclosure to judge whether there was any dereliction. More»

SEC complaint shows CFO used printouts to fool auditors

(NEWSER) - Sometimes high-stakes fraud doesn’t have to be high-tech. The former chief financial officer at a company now called Voyager Learning allegedly cooked the company's books by entering figures as white text on white background—the equivalent of invisible ink, Adam Jones notes in a Financial Times blog. More»