Business

Geithner leaves Treasury with parting gift: fat paychecks for Street bailouts

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Tim Geithner left Wall Street at least one parting gift: fat paychecks.

The watchdog tasked with overseeing the government’s bailout of Wall Street said Geithner’s Treasury Department was lax in enforcing rules intended to curb executive pay at firms rescued by taxpayers.

The report by Christy Romero, the special inspector general for the government’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, lacked much bite as it hit yesterday — after Geithner had stepped down as Treasury secretary on Friday.

Romero’s report said officials at Ally Financial, GM and AIG were among the worst offenders when it came to generous pay.

“These are companies owned by taxpayers, and it’s taxpayers who are funding them,” Romero said.

“Geithner’s responsible because it’s ultimately Treasury’s responsibility to oversee pay” at bailed-out firms, she said.

Treasury has direct oversight over the Office of the Special Master, which was created to keep exec pay at TARP firms in check.

Romero’s report found that the OSM, run by Patricia Geoghegan, blessed pay packages of $3 million or more for 54 percent of 69 top employees at Ally, GM and AIG.

AIG paid back its taxpayer debt about a month ago, while GM still owes Uncle Sam more than $21 billion. Ally is on the hook for roughly $11 billion.

Former OSM head Ken Feinberg said exec compensation should be in the $500,000 range.

The report follows a similar one issued last year that called for pay curbs and for compensating employees with restricted stock and other securities that vest over time.

Apparently, those recommendations fell on deaf ears.

“With the companies exercising significant leverage, the acting Special Master rolled back OSM’s application of guidelines aimed at curbing excessive pay,” the report said.