The stock options saga continues at UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH). U.S. District Judge James Rosenbaum has issued an injunction against William McGuire, departing CEO of the company. The injunction freezes all of McGuire's stock options in the company and any payments related to his supplemental retirement package. The injunction should allow enough time for the Special Litigation Committee (SLC), created by the board of directors earlier in June, to complete its investigation.
Unfortunately, UnitedHealth Group has spent too much time on something that shouldn't have happened in the first place. With incoming CEO Stephen Hemsley taking charge today, it seemed that the company would finally move on. The board of directors has strengthened internal controls and brought management compensation packages back from the stratosphere. The board also rectified many of the previous backdated options by re-pricing those options to the highest possible price for each grant year in question. That's why I find it amazing that McGuire himself feels compelled to drag this on.
McGuire must have decided that he wasn't ready to give up his estimated $1.1 billion retirement package, so he became a joint filer requesting the court injunction along with CalPERS. He must be hoping that the SLC report will vindicate his position and that the shareholder lawsuits will be dismissed. I find it ironic that at the same time that McGuire is trying to enrich himself at the expense of shareholders, we get a recent report from the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation saying that the U.S. is losing its competitiveness due to too much regulation.
With the increasing list of CEOs ousted because of options backdating scandals, it seems that the executive officers are the ones losing. It's not surprising that, as reported by Floyd Norris of The New York Times, the Capital Markets report was partially funded by Maurice Greenberg, ex-CEO of AIG (NYSE: AIG), who himself was ousted by regulators. Now, I am Foolish enough to realize that the increased regulations can be costly and inhibitive at times, but we also can see what happens when you leave the cookie jar open.
Consider some of what I believe to be excessive executive retirement or severance package grants: Lee Raymonds, ex-CEO of Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), $400 million retirement package; Hank McKinnell, ex-CEO of Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), $83 million pension package; and Carly Fiorina, ex-CEO of HP (NYSE: HPQ), $21 million severance package.
While McGuire's package takes the cake, I hope he gets what he deserves, and that UnitedHealth Group can drop this saga once and for all.
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