John Thain Wants His "Payoff" er uh "Bonus" He Means

After heaping piles of BS on shareholders for most of the year, John Thain wants to kick them in the chops one more time.

Here is the news:
Merrill Lynch (MER) CEO John Thain has suggested to directors that he get a 2008 bonus of as much as $10 million, but the firm’s compensation committee is resisting his request. The committee and full board are scheduled to meet later Monday to hear Thain’s formal bonus recommendations for himself and other senior executives, the report said. It isn’t known what Thain will recommend, but the compensation committee is leaning toward denying the executives bonuses for this year, the report said. Merrill Lynch has been acquired by Bank of America (BAC) .

Remember when in April and then again in May Thain said Merrill was just fine and would not need more capital?

Then, in order to not raise capital, Thain instead sold assets and said he meant “through equity offerings” in his previous statements.

If that was not bad enough we get news that the assets they sold were essentially sold by them through non-recourse financing. Thain essentially paid folks to take the junk off their books.

Finally he gave up, threw in the towel and sold out to Bank of America…

I guess he is right, sounds like it is worth at least $10 million…Imagine what he would have got if he actually did a decent job?

Disclosure (“none” means no position):none
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