The New York Times prints a resignation letter from Jake DeSantis, an EVP of the AIG’s financial products unit after being hounded for his three quarters of a million dollar bonus.
Imagine DeSantis was in a gold medal winning Olympic relay team, where several of the members cheated.
From his letter:
I am proud of everything I have done for the commodity and equity divisions of A.I.G.-F.P. I was in no way involved in — or responsible for — the credit default swap transactions that have hamstrung A.I.G. Nor were more than a handful of the 400 current employees of A.I.G.-F.P. Most of those responsible have left the company and have conspicuously escaped the public outrage.
Translation: Its not my fault, why should I give up my medal, I didn’t cheat. Take the other guy’s medal back. I don’t care about the team, what about me.
After 12 months of hard work dismantling the company — during which A.I.G. reassured us many times we would be rewarded in March 2009 — we in the financial products unit have been betrayed by A.I.G. and are being unfairly persecuted by elected officials. In response to this, I will now leave the company and donate my entire post-tax retention payment to those suffering from the global economic downturn. My intent is to keep none of the money myself.
Translation: Although I knew other members were taking reckless risks, this meant our team might win big, it was the best team to be in. I didn’t do anything at the time, but when they were caught, I helped with the doping enquiry, therefore I should keep my medal and be awarded another one. Its so unfair, everyone is against me, its nothing to do with me, I trained well and ran well. I’m not giving my medal back so you can decide who to award it to, I’m giving it to whoever I want.
DeSantis is someone who thinks of himself as being isolated from the organization and team that rewarded him. Its less a case of the ‘I was only following orders’ excuse as: ‘I worked in the barracks not the gas chambers’.
If DeSantis had been working for a boutique ‘eat what you kill’ hedge fund, then selfishness would not be an issue, but he wasn’t.
I’ve no optimism whatsoever that the financial community will show any remorse. It’s prompting me to reverse my position on the death penalty and specifically the guillotine for society to return to an healthy equilibrium.