5 ms·

Equifax CEO pushed out after data hack getting nearly $20M in bonuses

102 points by LopRabbit 7y ago

gen3 7y ago
What ever happened to that one IT guy everything got blamed on?
- g051051 7y ago
  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.
b_tterc_p 7y ago
> 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.
- Ididntdothis 7y ago
  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.
  - tialaramex 7y ago
    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.
    - luxuryballs 7y ago
      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
      - tialaramex 7y ago
        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.
        Ididntdothis 7y ago
        "Arbeit Macht Frei" was just a cynical use of language by the nazis. It shouldn’t be mentioned in this context.
        dta5003 7y ago
        This is a ridiculous representation of Protestant Work Ethic.
      - lmpostor 7y ago
        Cool story, but I don't see how your example has anything to do with anything previously mentioned. Obviously the entire point the prior statement is that we are applying rewards to "states" rather than actually applying it to any productivity metric.
  - mikeash 7y ago
    Better yet, give them the same benefits as other employees and pay them a reasonable amount instead of paying them more money in a year than most of their underlings will make in their lifetimes.
  - thatfrenchguy 7y ago
    Arguably they should not earn that kind of money.
tmd83 7y ago
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.
- koolba 7y ago
  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
  - JustSomeNobody 7y ago
    Wow, thanks for sharing. She handled that very well.
  - tmd83 7y ago
    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.
tyingq 7y ago
Not enough, but at least some palpable penalty that might resonate with others.
- soneca 7y ago
  He earned $20M in bonus, it was not $20M in fines.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
ptah 7y ago
"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
notTyler 7y ago
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.
- clintonb 7y ago
  The CEO does not, but the CEO should ensure a subordinate is doing a competent job. In this case, if I recall correctly, a web server was not properly patched. Security audits might have caught this. The CEO and board ultimately should have ensured these audits were done. They are a data company. They should protect said data.
- close04 7y ago
  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.
- rolltiide 7y ago
  As long as investors and fans derive confidence from a frontman, this kind of entertainment will keep paying well
luxuryballs 7y ago
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
GrumpyNl 7y ago
Crime pays well.
la_barba 7y ago
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..
- papito 7y ago
  "Survival of the fittest" capitalism only applies to us mortals.

102 points by LopRabbit 7y ago

gen3 7y ago

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

g051051 7y ago
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.

b_tterc_p 7y ago

> 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.

Ididntdothis 7y ago
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.
- tialaramex 7y ago
  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.
  - luxuryballs 7y ago
    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
    - tialaramex 7y ago
      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.
      - Ididntdothis 7y ago
        "Arbeit Macht Frei" was just a cynical use of language by the nazis. It shouldn’t be mentioned in this context.
      - dta5003 7y ago
        This is a ridiculous representation of Protestant Work Ethic.
    - lmpostor 7y ago
      Cool story, but I don't see how your example has anything to do with anything previously mentioned. Obviously the entire point the prior statement is that we are applying rewards to "states" rather than actually applying it to any productivity metric.
- mikeash 7y ago
  Better yet, give them the same benefits as other employees and pay them a reasonable amount instead of paying them more money in a year than most of their underlings will make in their lifetimes.
- thatfrenchguy 7y ago
  Arguably they should not earn that kind of money.

tmd83 7y ago

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.

koolba 7y ago
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
- JustSomeNobody 7y ago
  Wow, thanks for sharing. She handled that very well.
- tmd83 7y ago
  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.

tyingq 7y ago

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

soneca 7y ago
He earned $20M in bonus, it was not $20M in fines.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

ptah 7y ago

"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

notTyler 7y ago

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.

clintonb 7y ago
The CEO does not, but the CEO should ensure a subordinate is doing a competent job. In this case, if I recall correctly, a web server was not properly patched. Security audits might have caught this. The CEO and board ultimately should have ensured these audits were done. They are a data company. They should protect said data.
close04 7y ago
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.
rolltiide 7y ago
As long as investors and fans derive confidence from a frontman, this kind of entertainment will keep paying well

luxuryballs 7y ago

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

GrumpyNl 7y ago

Crime pays well.

la_barba 7y ago

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..

papito 7y ago
"Survival of the fittest" capitalism only applies to us mortals.