
Equifax CEO pushed out after data hack getting nearly $20M in bonuses - LopRabbit
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/equifax-data-breach-settlement-disgraced-former-ceo-getting-nearly-20-million-in-bonuses-after-the-hack/
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tmd83
This is the guy who said to Sen. Katie Porter that his SSN is privileged
information leaking of which result in identity fraud and significant damages
while his lawyers were arguing that their own leak didn't cause any harm? Few
people rarely gets caught in their own lie so blatantly. And he even claimed
he has no idea what his lawyers were arguing in court about the biggest
debacle under his oversight. What a competent CEO.

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koolba
Here's the exchange with Rep. Porter (she's in the House, not Senate):
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUo2ujb0Adc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUo2ujb0Adc)

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tmd83
I'm not an American and get confused with the specifics. But thanks for
sharing the link itself. I myself saw the same video and some of first timers
in House and their to the point questions a lot.

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b_tterc_p
> On top of the stock awards, Equifax has agreed to cover Smith's medical
> bills for life, a benefit the company estimates is worth another $103,500,
> according to a company filing.

I guess Equifax assumes death will come swiftly for this man.

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Ididntdothis
I always like it when CEOs get the benefits they claim are too expensive to
keep for regular employees. Things like pension and health insurance. At this
income level they should get a paycheck and no other benefits. They have
enough money to buy other things.

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tialaramex
It's a brilliant subversion of the Protestant Work Ethic.

Work is inherently good (I don't agree with this proposition but it's popular
even among atheists) and so therefore we must reward workers.

It therefore stands to reason we should reward people more the harder they
work

And your income is an adequate proxy for how hard you work

And your wealth is an adequate proxy for income

And so we should reward people for being wealthy

And this ends up with the situation where being an heiress sat on her ass
doing nothing but owning an investment portfolio means you deserve tax breaks
and above inflation raises, whereas if you put 60 hours per week in as an
"independent contractor" for unprofitable new "sharing economy" businesses
owned by that portfolio you don't even deserve a living wage.

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luxuryballs
work is meaningless without productivity, I could work really hard carrying
rocks around my yard all day with nothing to show but a sore back

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tialaramex
The Protestant Work Ethic says that's fine, you were working and that's what
God cares about. Of course your labour is not producing anything, since God is
omnipotent all the stuff you might think of as being produced by your labour
is actually gifts from God anyway, your work is not valuable for what it
produces since God could make everything effortlessly.

And indeed historically this was the actual rationale for a variety of
punishments that really were carried out on huge numbers of convicts,
including carrying heavy objects from one place to another and back or being
forced to raise and lower weights that serve no purpose. "Arbeit Macht Frei"
doesn't appear from nowhere as a unique evil idea.

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Ididntdothis
"Arbeit Macht Frei" was just a cynical use of language by the nazis. It
shouldn’t be mentioned in this context.

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ptah
"The directors of such [joint-stock] companies, however, being the managers
rather of other people's money than of their own, it cannot well be expected,
that they should watch over it with the same anxious vigilance with which the
partners in a private copartnery frequently watch over their own....
Negligence and profusion, therefore, must always prevail, more or less, in the
management of the affairs of such a company." \- Adam Smith

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gen3
What ever happened to that one IT guy everything got blamed on?

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g051051
Later reporting seemed to move away from that claim. The official government
report didn't mention the "lone IT guy" at all that I could see.

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notTyler
I mean, I'm not taking the blame away from him and this is a terrible look to
be getting paid so much after a colossal screwup, but, in a company that size
does the CEO really have any idea of the day to day or inner workings of the
company? I worked at a much smaller company and it was pretty clear that they
didn't.

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close04
Of course not. They're there just for the paycheck...

But on a more serious note his approach on dealing with the fallout was
borderline illegal (saying this since he's not in prison). When you take the
lion's share of the payouts (between salary and bonuses) you should have to
take the lion's share of responsibility.

Every commentary I have read about the situation says it was entirely
preventable. This starts at the top, with picking the right people and setting
a strategy that creates the perfect conditions for that prevention. Obviously
he failed. And once he failed he tried to hide it. We shouldn't read about how
much money he's taking home but how much he's paying back and how many years
of prison he gets.

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luxuryballs
calculated golden parachute, it’s worth it to cut ties quickly for a big
company compared to the risks of getting tied up in court, and compared to the
potential losses of keeping them around, pretty typical, no financier would
spend money they didn’t think they had to spend

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tyingq
Not enough, but at least some palpable penalty that might resonate with
others.

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soneca
He _earned_ $20M in bonus, it was not $20M in fines.

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la_barba
A Japanese client of ours ran into some trouble with the Japanese government
due to some financial irregularities, and there was a huge shakeup.. the
entire top management was sacked by the owners of the company. Not saying
Japan is perfect, there is a lot of crony capitalism there too, but I found it
amusing to observe nonetheless. Maybe we need a bit more of that here..

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papito
"Survival of the fittest" capitalism only applies to us mortals.

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GrumpyNl
Crime pays well.

