For all the controversy about high pay on Wall Street and all the statistics more broadly about the growing gap between the pay of average U.S. workers and top executives, it’s still quite unusual to see high pay for an individual apparently factor in a merger transaction.
But the case can be made that the up to $100 million payday expected by successful energy trader Andrew Hall of the Phibro unit of Citigroup is why Phibro was just sold to Occidental Petroleum.
It avoids a head-on collision between Citigroup – owned 34% by American taxpayers via their government – and the pay czar Kenneth Feinberg, who has a mandate to hep set pay at companies receiving significant government aid.
