Sandy Weill Isn't Smiling Much These Days
Sandy Weill presided over Citigroup until 2006 when he stepped aside and handed the reigns to his self-appointed successor Chuck Prince (who, in turn, was replaced by the bank's current CEO, Vikram Pandit). When Weill left the company, he departed with hundreds of millions in Citi stock and a very generous golden parachute to boot. So how much is he worth now that the U.S. government owns a third of the company and Citi shares can be had for a buck and a quarter? Charlie Gasparino does the math: "The last public filing for Weill stock ownership came out in February 2006. It said he held 16.555 million shares. With a stock price hovering off its highs but at a still healthy $46 dollars, Weill's holdings in Citi were worth more than $760 million. If he hadn't sold a single share, those same holdings would be worth a tad more than $20 million today."
There's no way to know if Weill sold any of his shares after leaving the company, although it's reasonable to assume he did. Gasparino says that one of Weill's friends informed him that the former Citi CEO had "lightened up" on his holdings, while a former Weill employee thinks he would have sold the bulk of his shares long ago. And why does it matter? "In my view, if Weill sold out sometime in 2007, when Chuck Prince was still in charge and the company was beginning to reel, he knew the end was near. It would have nice to let the rest of us to know as well." Of course, if he'd expressed his doubts back then, it's unlikely he would have been able to stay on as chairman emeritus up until now, which means he wouldn't have been able to take his family on a Mexican vacation this past Christmas aboard Citigroup jet, now would he?
Fuming: Sandy Weill [TDB]
Related: Citi Crumbles, Sandy Watches From the 46th Floor