A recent news article by Forbes.com alerted me to the financial crime of bad CEO’s walking away with piles of undeserved money. I’ve complained about this many times, but the pattern never changes. Boards of corporations don’t protect the shareholders from this kind of dollar wasting.

Charles Prince CEO of Citigroup announced he was leaving the post. Of course, there is a trail of dirty laundry he leaves behind. Namely an $8 to $11 Billion write down in subprime mortgage problems. So what do you suppose a CEO who leaves this kind of trouble behind should be paid as he exits? He’ll be leaving with a pension and stock benefits worth $29.5 million. Not only that, he’s entitled to a year end bonus of some $12 million and an office, a car and a driver for five years.

Then there is Stanley O’Neal who left Merrill Lynch under a big dark cloud. He walks out with $160 million dollars including some $30 million in retirement and $129 in stock options.

Stephen Hilbert of Conseco left with some $72 million even though the corporate stock fell from $57 a share to $5 a share while he was in charge and the company ended up broke. I guess it’s OK to reward incompetence.

The man who gets the prize, however, is Robert Nardelli, whom I’ve complained about before. His Home Depot payment was $210 million who was tossed out in January of this year.

Richard Grasso formerly in charge of the New York Stock exchange walked with $140 million. But, that time there was a rebellion and lawsuits have been filled over that compensation package.

How does that look to the guy with the lunch pail trying to feed his family? And, where is the anguished outcry from the stockholders. Why aren’t members of the boards thrown out for allowing this kind of financial insanity?