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Yesterday morning (Friday, April 8), I was doing my regular surfing of news sites, after once again not finding any jobs in my daily job search when I came across this story from Reuters on the pay that JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon received for 2010. The thing that caught my eye most of all however was not the $20.8M in total compensation. Nor was it the $5M cash bonus on top of the $1M cash salary for the year. No, the items that caught my eye were at the bottom of the article on the “perks” Dimon received:
His 2010 compensation also included $579,624 worth of perks, including $421,458 of “moving expenses,” $95,293 to use company aircraft and $45,730 for personal automobile use. Most of the rest went toward home security.Like many Americans who have had trouble selling their homes, Dimon did too. The moving expenses relate to the sale in 2010 of Dimon’s Chicago-area home, in which he had lived while heading Bank One Corp that was sold to JPMorgan in 2004.
CNN/Fortune’s Wall Street Blog puts the total cost of Dimon’s “move” since 2008 at:
JPMorgan forked over $421,458 last year to compensate Dimon for moving costs incurred as he moved his family from Chicago to New York. Yes, moving is hell, but you don’t know the half of it.This is the second time in three years that the bank picked up a six-figure sum for Dimon’s relocation – which ended up taking five costly years from end to end. The bank has kicked in $617,734 since 2008 to cover the move.
Now back in the days when I was gainfully employed, I moved a bunch of times for my then employers. I’m single with no dependents other than my feline companion and I’ve always rented so I have not had to worry about selling a home but still, how the hell do you rack up $617k in moving expenses for one move?
I’ve moved myself and the rental truck, time out of the office, overnight lodging and everything when I’ve moved myself hasn’t even reached $1,500 total. I had one employer that paid bonuses to us when we voluntarily relocated for a job and covered the professional moving companies. In those moves, the costs for out of office time, food and lodging, trips to find a new apartment and the actual movers were still under $10K and with the bonuses, added up to a total of $25K. Granted, my household goods fit into one half of one 18 wheel moving truck and the apartments/town homes/houses I’ve rented were generally in the 1,200 to 1,700 square foot range rather than nine bedroom mansions.
As well, I do wonder how a person racks up $45,730 worth of “personal automobile use” in a year’s time. The 2010 IRS mileage rates were 50¢ per mile and I seriously doubt that Dimon actually drove himself 91K miles during the year (45,730 divided by .5). Maybe this is what they paid for Dimon to have a personal chauffeur? Is this figure deductible by JP Morgan Chase on their corporate taxes? Since tax payers have already subsidized the bank bail outs, it would not surprise me that we continue to subsidize them and their lordly ways.
We can probably start a new countdown to the next fine whine from Mr Dimon on how no one loves him. You would think that someone who is supposed to be such a smart Master of the Universe could actually buy a clue but I’m not holding my breath.
And because I can:
Cross posted from Just A Small Town Country Boy
53 Comments
Just another day in the plush life of a “savvy businessman”. Good thing he can sleep at night knowing the DOJ is pulling out all the stops going after all those war protesters and downloaders who brought down the economy.
By the way, although I don’t always comment, I always read your diaries. Keep ‘em coming.
There’s one thing that Jamie Dimon will never have: enough.
It says it relates to selling his house in Chicago in 2010, it seems he moved in 2007, so the house sat on the market for several years, they probably compensated him for his mortgage payments or something like that during that time.
I’m guessing that “moving expenses” are interpreted widely so as to include a lot of redecorating at the new home.
I dunno but I never ever knew of any firms I worked for being legally able to cover mortgage payments for folks trying to sell their homes.
But then, I and my former co-workers could never be considered MOTU either so who knows?
The numbers are gobsmacking. The perennial game with top executive comp is to shoehorn as much into generic categories as possible, as part of the broader game of hiding as much comp or its details from shareholders and the government as possible, and to make sure they fit into tax deductible categories, so the company doesn’t pay twice for them.
Sales people call that game, “Find the hat”, which refers to manipulating reimbursement for non-reimbursable expenses by hiding them in reimbursable categories. That brings up another aspect of top executive comp: It includes everything, especially the costs not reimbursed to lowly directors or VP’s. (See, Find the hat.) That’s where the inevitable recitations of company policy get shaved by half-truths and sometimes outright lies, which is why top HR people get paid what they do.
The easy one is automobile transport. That would include limo plus driver, gas, parking, tolls, and what not, nearly $4K a month. And that’s accounted for separately from moving costs.
Moving expenses include actual packing, unpacking, insurance and transport. Even for a household of antiques, that’s only several tens of thousands. Temporary housing in NYC was probably on the order of $20K/month for an Upper East Side penthouse. Assume that accounts for about $100K. There would also be temporary housing in Chicago, probably about half that for a shorter period. Such costs would often include shuttling back and forth several times to keep in touch with the family and to arrange moves.
JPM, like other employers, probably doesn’t expect an exec to put up all his own money into expensive urban homes, which means the costs to arrange a hefty mortgage loan are probably in there, too. Since the interest is tax deductible, that’s often an advantage for a high-income earner, because s/he can can invest their money for much more than it costs to borrow it to pay for an expensive home.
Broker fees are the biggee, 3-6%. The rate generally declines as values skyrocket. That Upper East Side penthouse for a top CEO could easily run $10 million, meaning about $400K in commissions. Related legal and closing costs, in NYC and Chicago, make up the difference.
It’s absurd. Those costs could pay the annual employment costs of half a dozen people. But that’s not how the egos who make CEO often think.
My guess is that the moving expenses included insurance for theft & damage on art & antiques, which can be quite expensive, depending on the value, size, fragility of the object d’art.
Driving was prolly chauffeur pay on his personal car for the times it was used for biz transport.
Would it all have been tax deductible?
$617k in moving expenses for one move?
I want to see the estimate from the moving company if I were a shareholder. If I were the IRS well moving expenses are tax deductible did he get a tax deduction for this?
I moved three times last year I think I might want to amend my tax return if Jamie can get away with this surely a Hispanic can claim a few thousand dollars worth of tax deduction.
As well, I do wonder how a person racks up $45,730 worth of “personal automobile use” in a year’s time.
Maybe he crashed a car and shareholders are getting the shaft and paying for his crashed car? Also is he claiming this as a tax deduction and getting away with it?
I don’t know.
Imagine what his funeral is going to cost. Of all the moves, that`s the biggest.
“Moving expenses include actual packing, unpacking, insurance and transport. Even for a household of antiques, that’s only several tens of thousands.” Even if he owned tens of millions of dollars (or maybe a lot more than that) of antiques & art?
I bet that it’d be allowable for them to pick up the interest portion of the mortgage payments.
When I did a move, the company picked up the remaining months of rent on my apartment and purchased the car I had leased.
All of my moves, my original lease had an out clause allowing me to break the lease if I were moving due to job requirements so I never had to worry about my employer needing to pick up the rent payments.
I’m thinking if this is tax deductible then maybe a personal veto on taxes is needed.
Like for example I refuse to let my tax money be used to bailout banks, I refuse to support the wars etc.
He shouldn’t be able to deduct anything the company paid for. With costs that high, it’s possible the company’s definition of moving expenses was broader than the IRS’s, which would create taxable income for which his accountant would have to manufacture offsetting losses.
Didn’t anyone tell about the place in the tax code where Hispanics are exempted from all tax deductions? /s
Breaking news: Obama appoints Jamie Dimon head of Consumer Protection Agency….
JP Morgan has sold zillions of ounces in silver that they don’t have. It seems right now JP Morgan is down to a mere 30,000 ounces. They have been scrambling every two months to try and get people to settle for an 80% over spot cash settlement. But soon the game will be up as enough people are standing for delivery. JP Morgan recently had to put up its stock as collateral to cover their silver shorts. A year ago, this was “just” an “internet conspiracy theory”, but now a year later even the NYT has had to cover the story. When JP Morgan and/or the COMEX goes belly up in the near future it will be a triumph of buyers of silver everywhere and something of which the oh so sophisticated FDL community was completely oblivious. This is what is keeping Jamie Dimon awake at nights. Maybe it is time for FDL to pick up the story??
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/a-conspiracy-with-a-silver-lining/
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-post-guess-whos-almost-out-silver
He who dies with the most toys, wins.
Not a bit surprised. Integral parts of bubbles & crashes.
So what exactly does Jamie Dimon’s salary and bonus pay for? $20.8 million and you still get your company to pay for your moving expenses?
Geez, imagine what schoolteachers must pull down for THEIR moving expenses. Seeing as how everyone knows they’re the real fat cats.
On one biz trip to Austin, the salesman I was traveling with was talking about precisely that. Without skipping a beat, the aging student taxi driver turns his head slightly and sez: He who dies with the most toys still dies.
Yep. we’re all worm food in the end
Maybe the cost was for moving all the silver???
They’re short silver, not long.
It’s not uncommon for executives, there is nothing illegal about it as long as it’s counted as taxable income.
http://hr.cch.com/hhrlib/issues-answers/Mortgage-assistance-is-business-deduction-for-employers.asp?date=June-15-2009
So they might have done this on his new house, though it seems doable on his old as well.
Jamie Dimon’s ‘Biggest Disaster’ Is Waiting…
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-17/jamie-dimon-s-biggest-disaster-is-waiting-commentary-by-simon-johnson.html
Can we please break up these mega-zombie criminal enterprises? I said please…
As you know from working in the den of thieves, CEO’s like Dimon don’t do much personal driving in Manhattan.
The point is that JPM undoubtedly spent more than half a million tax deductible dollars on moving one executive less than a thousand miles. And Dimon’s total comp for 2010 went up 51%.
The Street is back to its old thieving, subsidized by a “socialist” government that just cut tens of billions more from the welfare of the middle class taxpayers who actually pay taxpayers. That’s corporate fare, not socialism, as the propagandists who spread such dreck know.
Whatever happened to demanding changes in staffing and business practices, in exchange for massive bailouts? Whatever happened to reducing systemic risks by isolating investment banking and securities issuance and trading from consumer banking? Nada.
In a few years, the Street will demand another bailout. The then president will again squeeze blood from the stone of the middle class. Isn’t it time to get a tad angrier and demand the changes that are touted then quickly shelved as “unpragmatice” or “unSerious”?
And by the by, I still find it entertaining that a “former” SVP of JP Morgan-Chase is the current WH COS. And let’s take a SWAG about who he traffic-copping for. Any ideas? (Hint: I’m pretty sure it ain’t us…)
I know, I know. I’m easily amused. Simple minds, simple pleasures. What can I say?
In Manhattan, it’s easy and common. Take a chauffeur driven limo everywhere. There are hundreds of them.
What do you say to a guy who spent $1200 on a waste paper basket for his new office?
bummer! waste paper baskets just went on sale at Target!
What about to the lady who spent stratospherically on the CA gov election?
Woah!! You should have run for governor in South Dakota!! The votes only cost 50 cent a piece
And for the doleful boy who spent too much on his move? to him I say: the RENT, I mean the move is just “TOO DAMN HIGH.”
there is a recession on, don’t move, they’ll understand, telecommute instead.
Only a populist movement comprising left and right can stop these people;
key to success: don’t let the distractions of “social issues” fray the coalition; it is for systemic change only, don’t let the Cognitive Dissonance operatives “poison the well”.
And has the MSM been screaming about this in articles & news stories far & wide?
I thought not.
“You would think that someone who is supposed to be such a smart Master of the Universe could actually buy a clue but I’m not holding my breath.”
Dimon wouldn’t buy a clue unless it was tax deductable.
When you work for this type you can not stand in the way of their greed – I’ve tried – once questioned the tax reporting for buying a sub’s CEO several rooms of furniture as “furnishing an office in the home” just because we threw in several state of the art computers and a plasma TV that could be used to display what was on a computer – did not question the spending of the money – just the idea of treating it as something other than compensation – I was gone 90 days later. I had earlier in a different company questioned my CEO redoing a corporate office building lease to add a million to the annual cost – receiving free furnishings from the lessee for his personal homes in return – didn’t get fired but lost my raise and bonus and decided to quit.
These CEO’s own their Boards of Directors – and can not be stopped as to their greed as long as the company makes money.
When I started CEO’s were just “hired management” with the profits reserved for the owners of the company – a lot has changed since IKE!
“Those costs could pay the annual employment costs of half a dozen people. But that’s not how the egos who make CEO often think.”
And I am reminded once again that after Chase and Bank One merged – the name stayed Chase, but the truth was it became BankOne – everythhing changed for employees. Little benefits like time for nursing mothers to nurse or express milk were eliminated (you can do all that on your 10 min. break!), rules for performance were tightened, rules for “bonuses” (there were never raises for most people) began to change every few months – and new hires starting pay dropped $2 to $4/hr.
I am so glad not to work there anymore, even though I really need a real job (have a temp one at the moment).
Oh, and may I mention, if a lowly call center employee needs to move, s/he ain’t getting nothiing reiumbursed. Of course, if a call center is closed and a new one opened, it’s unlikely a person making $10/hr will move to the new one, althugh a few have in my experience. Ours, actually, was opened in 2002, and one on Long Island was closed. A small handful of New Yorkers, mostly managers, came along.
Another JP Morgan-Chase White House tie-in…
http://baselinescenario.com/2011/01/09/the-bill-daley-problem/
Buncha fuckin’ criminals…
Execs are paid enough that they ought to be able to afford all that on their own dime. It’s the rest of us, who might have to move to take or keep a job, who need the corporate compensation for moving.
I’m expecting pitchforks and torches about then, as more people figure out how badly the MOTUs are screwing the rest of us. Or as people decide they have nothing left to lose but their lives.
yeah, but 91K miles worth?
“The perennial game with top executive comp is to shoehorn as much into generic categories as possible, as part of the broader game of hiding as much comp or its details from shareholders and the government as possible…”
Bingo. Disgusting. The financial auditors dealing with the records at that level of detail are most often rookies and don’t recognize what they’re looking at. And on the outside chance that they do, they raise the issue with a manager (or maybe even further up the food chain), whereupon the matter is invariably sucked into a black hole, never to be seen or heard from again. (The size of the black hole is in direct proportion to the magnitude of fees that the firm is able to bill to the client.)
I’m sorry, did that sound cynical? I’ve seen it up close and personal. Long time ago, but I’m sure it’s just the same now, if not worse.
Well since the rich-ster/banks-ter types are so hep on nuclear, I want to show the contrast of J. Dimon’s cushy life with that of the people whose lives have been destroyed by it– some of whom have been secretly studied in their poisoned state by the USG (see “Nuclear Attack on the Yakama Culture,” Feb 6, 2010, with video).
{ snip }
(excerpt from “Chernobyl’s Tragic Legacy, ” Apr. 8, 2011)
You can see the photo gallery Chernobyl Legacy by Paul Fusco (warning: the photos are graphic).
Dimons a Sun King.
Sun King Bankers don’t have to live the way you little people do.
He will live a life of priviledge like all Sun Kings.
I forgot what I learned in history class….what happened to the first Sun King?
I see. It was about 13 years ago for me but if I remember correctly, the break clause in my rental would have left me with 3 months of rent to pay.
As for the car, I was headed overseas so the lease would have been a pure loss for me.
All told, it might have cost the company about 25,000 to move me but they got a decent company car in the process.
Coverage of moving costs makes sense to me but I don’t see why they have to spiral into the hundreds of thousands.
Very true. The public needs to listen to the better angels of their nature and push aside other disagreements to focus on restoring rule of law in the financial sector.
Also see comment #9 on Apr. 4, 2011 and comment #15 regarding JP Morgan Chase and COMEX.
Feb. 12, 2011 comment on copper commodities shenanigans by JP Morgan Chase in the UK in Dec. 2010.
“A Single Trader, JP Morgan, Holds 90% Of LME Copper” (Dec. 21, 2010)
Are you thinking of the headless Louis the 16th?
Louis the 14th was the one they called the Sun King. IMO, a far more enlightened individual than any of our banksters.
Thers is upstairs!
Late Night: Big Bird’s Hate for America Cannot Be Stopped
Ahhh whoops.
I thought that the guy that called himself the sun king was the one that took shits in the palace wherever he felt like it and made his servants clean up after him.
I so thought he was the beheaded one. ****.
A few sedan chairs here. A few litter bearers there. Soon you’re talking real money.
Who says CEO’s are limited to the IRS rate? Goodness me, that’s for peons and the self-employed.
and how much money will Obama be getting from Chase for a job well done?