white men with money

Dick Grasso Gets to Keep His $187.5 Million

Happy Dick Grasso

Photo: Getty Images


Dick Grasso, the former New York Stock Exchange chairman who received a staggering $187.5 million pay package from the organization, is free to keep all of the money after a court ruling today. The state had sued in 2004 to regain some of the funds shortly after Grasso was voted out of the NYSE. At the time, then–Attorney General Eliot Spitzer argued that such an exorbitant compensation violated a state law requiring that officers of nonprofits must be paid “reasonable” amounts. Since the NYSE is no longer a nonprofit (John Thain took it public in 2006), a state appeals court today threw out the remaining claims against Grasso. They pointed out that since any recouped money would no longer go to the state, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has no business spending public funds pursuing the matter.

The suit against Grasso was one of Spitzer’s signature ball-busting causes. We hope he doesn’t hear about it while he is on that family vacation in Southeast Asia, because it’s bound to put a real bee in his paddy hat.

Grasso Wins Dismissal of Suit Over $190 Million Pay [Bloomberg]

Related: Private Dick [NYM]

Dick Grasso Gets to Keep His $187.5 Million