Lawyer: SC banker would discuss retirement pay
By The Associated Press Thursday, November 27, 2008GREENVILLE, S.C. - A retired banker whose departing pay has been questioned by the governor and at least one South Carolina congressman doesn’t want to be an obstacle to his former company getting federal bailout funds, his attorney said.
Attorney William “Billy” Wilkins told The Greenville News for a story Wednesday that his client Mack Whittle is willing to discuss with Treasury Department officials the $18 million retirement pay package he got when he left Greenville-based The South Financial Group Inc. last month.
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis, R-S.C., asked Treasury officials to review of Whittle’s retirement pay. Sanford has criticized the government’s plan to stabilize the U.S. financial system, especially when companies getting money have executives who are getting “golden parachutes” despite poor financial performance.
Wilkins said that was not the case with his client, who negotiated his retirement package from the company he founded in the 1980s before the federal government unveiled its Troubled Asset Relief Program in September.
“If anything, he got nothing more than that to which he was entitled to, pursuant to his employment contract negotiated several years ago,” said Wilkins, the former chief judge of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Wilkins said Treasury officials knew about Whittle’s retirement package when The South Financial Group received preliminary approval earlier this month on its application for $347 million as part of the federal bailout program.
Still, Whittle said in a Nov. 12 letter to Treasury officials that he was willing to discuss his pay “if the only item standing in the way of TSFG’s receipt of a TARP capital allocation is my retirement agreement.”
Treasury Department spokeswoman Jennifer Zuccarelli said Wednesday the agency does not comment on whether a company has requested bailout funds. But she said a company must agree to adhere to certain executive pay requirements before the government will invest money in that business.
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