A quick survey of failed companies.....fraud, huge distortions of profits resulting in incredible pay and bonus's, then when the lies are caught the company is broke and the stockholders lose all. Enron, Countrywide, etc... Remember Ken Lay and Skillings claiming they were not responsible, they just sign the paperwork??
Stockholder initiatives to limit executive pay are quickly trounced, I know of no stockholder initiatives to greatly increase the top pay.
Anyone should be aware that pay (greed) at the top has increased the top pay from 60 time to over 1000 times the average workers pay.
Sadly it is often a fraud....Countrywide execs knowingly sold bad loans, promoted them, eliminated any real credit checks and wrote so many loans that they received well over 250 million in bonus's. Then, when the loans failed Countrywide went broke, losing over 70 BILLION.
Yeah, you guessed right, the execs still kept their fraudulently earned bonus. One..... with a 100 million bonus got a 5 million dollar fine from the SEC.
If I robbed a bank... and got 10 grand, then got caught would the courts take 500 bucks from my haul and send me on my way??