Six firms receiving funds
from bailout continuing
with costly form of travel
By Stevenson Jacobs
NEW YORK -- Crisscrossing the coun-
try in corporate jets may no longer
fly in Detroit after car executives got
a dressing down from Congress. But
on Wall Street, the coveted executive
perk has hardly been grounded.
Six financial companies that
receivedbillionsinbailoutdollarsstill
ownandoperatefleetsofjetstocarry
executives to company events and
sometimes personal trips, according
to an Associated Press review.
The jets serve as airborne offices,
time-savers for executives for whom
time is money -- lots of money. And
some companies are cutting back,
either by selling the planes or leas-
ing them.
Still, Wall Street's reliance of the
rarified mode of travel has largely
escaped the scorn poured on the Big
Three automakers.
InsurancegiantAmericanInterna-
tionalGroupInc.,whichhasreceived
about $150 billion in bailout money,
has one of the largest fleets among
bailoutrecipients,withsevenplanes,
accordingtoareviewofFederalAvia-
tion Admnistration records.
"Our aircraft are being used very
sparingly right now," AIG spokes-
man Nicholas J. Ashooh said. "I'm
not saying there's no use, but there's
very minimal use."
Five other financial companies
that got a combined $120 billion in
government cash injections -- Citi-
group Inc., Wells Fargo & Co., Bank
of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase
& Co. and Morgan Stanley -- all own
aircraft for executive travel, accord-
ing to regulatory filings earlier this
year and interviews.
A cross-country trip in a mid-
sized jet costs about $20,000 for
fuel. Maintenance, storage and pilot
fees put the cost far higher. -- AP
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Best-selling books
FOR THE WEEK ENDED DEC. 19
FICTION
Title Author
1 Scarpetta Patricia Cornwell
2 The Christmas Sweater Glenn Beck
3 Cross Country James Patterson
4 Edgar Sawtelle David Wroblewski
5 The Host Stephenie Meyer
6 Just After Sunset Stephen King
7 Arctic Drift Cussler & Cussler
8 The Hour I First Believed Wally Lamb
9 The Lucky One Nicholas Sparks
10 A Mercy Toni Morrison
NONFICTION
Title Author
1 The Last Lecture Pausch & Zaslow
2 Dewey Myron & Witter
3 Outliers Malcolm Gladwell
4 American Lion Jon Meacham
5 Purpose Of Christmas Rick Warren
6 A Bold Fresh Piece ... O'Reilly
7 Multiple Blessings Gosselin & Carson
8 Too Fat To Fish Lange & Bozza
9 World Records 2009 Guinness
10 Back to Basics Ina Garten
-- AP/Bloomberg News
Box office
FOR DEC. 19-21, IN MILLIONS (ESTIMATED)
Title Total
1 Yes Man $18.2
2 Seven Pounds 16.0
3 The Tale of Despereaux 10.5
4 The Day the Earth Stood Still 10.2
5 Four Christmases 7.7
6 Twilight 5.2
7 Bolt 4.3
8 Slumdog Millionaire 3.2
9 Australia 2.3
10 Quantum of Solace 2.2
Album sales
FOR THE WEEK ENDED DEC. 27
Artist Title
1 Taylor Swift Fearless
2 Britney Spears Circus
3 Beyonce I Am ... Sasha Fierce
4 Nickelback Dark Horse
5 Soundtrack Twilight
6 Kanye West 808s & Heartbreak
7 Various Now 29
8 AC/DC Black Ice
9 Soundtrack High School Musical 3
10 David Cook David Cook
AMERICA'S TOP 10
Knight rider:
"The Dark Knight"
sped to the top
of the rental and
sales charts in
its first week on
shelves.
DVD rentals
FOR THE WEEK ENDED DEC. 14
Title (Weeks out) Last week
1 The Dark Knight (1) New
2 Wanted (2) 1
3 Step Brothers (2) 2
4 Horton Hears A Who! (1) New
5 Hancock (3) 3
6 The Chronicles Of Narnia (2) 4
7 Fred Claus (3) 6
8 Tropic Thunder (4) 7
9 X Files: I Want To Believe (2) 5
10 Wall-E (4) 8
DVD sales
FOR THE WEEK ENDED DEC. 13
Title (Weeks out) Last week
1 The Dark Knight (1) New
2 Horton Hears A Who! (1) New
3 Narnia: Prince Caspian (2) 1
4 Wanted (2) 2
5 Step Brothers (2) 3
6 Kung Fu Panda (5) 6
7 Wall-E (4) 5
8 Lost: Season 4 (1) New
9 Hancock (3) 4
10 Tropic Thunder (4) 9
COURTESY PHOTO
| A Z
15MON DAY, DECEM BER 22 , 2008
BUSINESSFOR BREAKING BUSINESS NEWS, VISIT SFEXAMINER.COM
Walgreen Co. releases first-
quarter financial results; court
hearing on the bankruptcy filing
by Circuit City Stores, Inc.;
weekly Treasury briefing, auction.
RETAILERS
Swirling snow,
packed parking
lots and massive
markdowns greeted
many shoppers
across the country
this weekend as re-
tailers tried to woo
consumers to open
their wallets during the final holiday
countdown. From flagship department
stores to main street shops, consumers
found extended hours -- in some places,
around-the-clock shopping -- and even
some extra-cheery customer service as
merchants hope to salvage one of the
worst shopping seasons in decades,
brought on by the recession and growing
economic uncertainty.
NEWSMAKERS
ROUNDUP
COMING TODAY
Wall Street still flying corporate jetsWall Street looks
for year-end rally
NEW YORK -- Investorsheadintoaholi-
day-shortened week with optimism
that recent moves to prop up the ail-
ing auto industry and slash interest
rates might trigger a year-end rally.
Like the deep discounts luring hol-
iday shoppers to the malls, the steep
drop in stocks over the past year has
made many blue chip shares more
attractively priced. And big institu-
tional investors might use the last
seven trading days of the year to
snap up some bargains.
SEC has been slow to react
to Madoff fraud claims
WASHINGTON -- Beforehisdownfallin
anallegedfraudthatmayendupcost-
ing investors $50 billion, Wall Street
money manager Bernard L. Madoff
circulated a promotional message
extolling his service to clients.
The brochure called attention to
thehigh-techtradingsideofhisbusi-
nessthatwassupposedlyhonestlyrun
andlegitimate,butitalsoshowedwhy
the Securities and Exchange Com-
mission was unable to stop Madoff
despite repeated warnings.
One small slice of the SEC's
responsibilities is to regulate the
industry's 10,800 financial advisers,
one of whom was Madoff. The agency
was warned several times of possible
fraud going on at Madoff's operation,
but nothing happened. -- AP
Banks that are getting taxpayer
bailoutsawardedtheirtopexecu-
tivesnearly$1.6billioninsalaries,
bonuses, and other benefits last
year, an AP analysis reveals.
The rewards came even at
bankswherepoorresultslastyear
foretold the economic crisis that
sentthemtoWashingtonforagov-
ernment rescue. Some trimmed
theirexecutivecompensationdue
to lagging bank performance, but
still forked over multimillion-dol-
lar executive pay packages.
The total amount given to
nearly 600 executives would
cover bailout costs for many of
the 116 banks that have so far
accepted tax dollars to boost
their bottom lines. -- AP
Bailed-out bank execs receive $1.6B
















































PHOTO: AP FILE, GRAPHIC: SEC PROXY FILINGS/AP
Coveted perk: Crisscrossing the
country in corporate jets has hardly
been grounded on Wall Street.

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