One of the more entrenched principles in business is "pay for performance," the rewarding of executives with raises, bonuses and other forms of compensation if they meet or exceed expectations. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, now wards of the federal government, are negations of that principle. The troubled secondary mortgage lending giants, already having received more than $110 billion in federal subsidies since the fall of 2008, are set for another major feed at the public trough. On December 24, the U.S. Treasury Department, facing a December 31 deadline, approved a no-limit hike in the publicly-traded companies' combined $400 billion credit line. Were that not enough, regulators approved an annual compensation package of up to $6 million for each chief executive officer. Welcome to pay for performance, Obama-style - not that the Bush version was a bargain.
On November 17, Michael Williams, former president of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 780, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Middle District Court of Alabama to 16 months in prison and three years of probation for embezzling funds from the Eufaula, Ala. union. He also was ordered to pay $2,826 in restitution and a $100 special assessment. Williams had been indicted in March on 10 counts of embezzlement totaling $4,906 and four counts of making a false entry in union financial records. He pleaded guilty to one count of embezzlement in June. The actions follow an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards.
On March 23, Michael Williams, former president of Local 780 of the International Association of Electrical Workers, was indicted in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama on ten counts of embezzlement totaling $4,906 and four counts of making false entries in financial records of the Eufaula union. The charges follow a probe by the U.S. Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards.
