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Sweet Surrender
,----[ Quote ]
| Chris Liddell made out well at both ends of
| his recent job transition from CFO of
| Microsoft to the same post at General
| Motors. Besides getting a boost to his base
| salary â $750,000 at GM, up from $561,667 in
| 2009 at Microsoft â Liddell also received
| from Microsoft a parting gift of $1.9
| million. The sum, to be paid in two equal
| installments on December 31, 2009, and March
| 31, 2010, comes in exchange for promising
| not to sue or otherwise disparage Microsoft
| after his departure, the tech giant recently
| disclosed in its most recent quarterly
| filing with the Securities and Exchange
| Commission.
|
| Such payouts are often written into
| employment contracts at the outset of a
| CFO's tenure as protection from the career
| risks of making big gambles on corporate
| strategy. But some experts say Liddell's was
| out of the ordinary since he did not have an
| employment contract or other explicit
| promise of such a sum. In fact, Microsoft's
| most recent proxy, filed at the end of
| September, claims its top executives "are
| not entitled to any payments upon
| termination of their employment or following
| a change of control of Microsoft" except
| under certain conditions that did not apply
| to Liddell. (Speaking through a GM
| spokesperson, Liddell said he would have no
| comment.)
|
| [...]
|
| While that raises questions about why
| Liddell might have left Microsoft after four
| and a half years there, at least part of the
| "quo" is spelled out in the extremely
| detailed resignation letter Liddell signed,
| also filed with the SEC.
|
| The letter contained all the standard
| promises, such as that Liddell would not sue
| or disparage the company or disclose any of
| its secrets, but with some language that is
| highly specific for such contracts.
`----
http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/14474891/c_14475974?f=home_todayinfinance
Sounds familiar? Microsoft did this when an employee blew the
whistle on corruption (see below).
Related:
Microfraud?
,----[ Quote ]
| THE ALLEGATIONS WERE shocking: For years, Microsoft has systematically
| distorted its profit figures in an effort to consistently beat Wall Street
| expectations and keep its stock price steadily rising. The false reports
| would violate SEC regulations, and amount to outright fraud.
|
| More shocking was the source of the allegations: Microsoft's chief of
| internal audits, Charlie Pancerzewski, who reported directly to the company's
| chief financial officer.
|
| Most shocking of all was what happened to Pancerzewski when he reported the
| suspicious bookkeeping to his supervisors, Microsoft CFO Mike Brown and chief
| operating officer Bob Herbold, in the spring of 1995. Soon afterward,
| Pancerzewskiâwho for nearly five years had received stellar performance
| evaluationsâreceived his first-ever unsatisfactory one, and was eventually
| forced to resign.
|
| Two months ago, Microsoft quietly settled a lawsuit containing these
| allegations, filed in 1997 by Pancerzewski under the Whistleblowers
| Protection Act. The auditor claimed he was wrongfully terminated after
| telling his supervisors that Microsoft might be breaking securities and tax
| laws. The lawsuit made its tortuous way through several rounds of pretrial
| motions until last fall, when US District Judge Carolyn Dimmick denied
| Microsoft's final plea for summary judgment, finding credible evidence that
| Microsoft may have violated SEC rules, as Pancerzewski alleged. Shortly
| thereafter, Microsoft and Pancerzewski settled out of court. Terms of the
| agreement were sealed, but one source who claims familiarity with the case
| says that Microsoft paid Pancerzewski $4 million.
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http://web.archive.org/web/20070308032343rn_2/www.seattleweekly.com/1999-01-06/news/microfraud.php
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