Millionaire Michele Rollins Takes Bonus from Wilmington Trust TARP Funds
Michele Rollins was elected to the Wilmington Trust Board of Directors in 2007. During the market collapse in 2008, Wilmington Trust, like many other financial institutions, received a $330 million bailout from TARP. Unlike many other financial institutions, Wilmington Trust has as of yet failed to pay that money back. Instead, it payed its top executives $31.5 million in bonuses, including to Michele Rollins. Indeed, she saw her compensation she received from her position on the Wilmington Trust Board quadruple AFTER Wilmington Trust took the TARP funds.
From a just now issued press release from the DCCC:
“Multi-millionaire Michele Rollins is shamefully lining her pockets with taxpayer dollars while families across Delaware are struggling during these tough economic times,” said Shripal Shah, Regional Press Secretary for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “Michele Rollins is a living and breathing example of all that is wrong with corporate greed and her profits at the expense of taxpayers proves that she is grossly out of touch with the best interests of Delaware families.
“The last thing Delaware needs in Congress is Michele Rollins, the poster child for the anger and animosity that has been rightfully directed at multi-millionaire executives in recent years.” […]
[Michele Rollins] received $20,000 Annual Compensation in 2007 and 2008. According to a Forbes profile of Rollins published in 2009, she received more than $20,000 for each of the previous two years by virtue of her role as a member of the Board of Directors for Wilmington Trust. [Forbes, 2009]
2008: Wilmington Trust Corporation Received $330 Million in TARP Money. In 2008, Wilmington Trust Corporation received $330 million investment from the United States Department of the Treasury (US Treasury) as a part of Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) capital purchase program. As of March 18th, 2010, they had yet to begin repayment of those funds to the taxpayers. [Financial Deals Tracker, 12/24/08; http://bailout.propublica.org/entities/527-wilmington-trust-corporation]
Rollins Compensation Quadrupled. According to a 2010 report filed by Forbes on Wilmington Trust Corporation revealed that Rollins’ compensation in 2009 skyrocketed to $92,991.00 – an increase of more than 400 percent over the previous year. [Forbes, 2010]
Wilmington Trust Gave out $31.5 Million in Executive Bonuses in 2009. Despite making no effort to reimburse the federal government for the $330 Million in TARP money they received, Wilmington Trust handed out $31.5 Million in ‘Incentives and Bonuses’ to its top executives in 2009, according to their filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. [SEC 10-K Form pg. 65, filed 12/31/09]
This is disgusting. That $31.5 million should have been paid back to U.S. Treasury. Instead, millionaire Michele Rollins, who aspires to become Delawarean’s representative in Congress, and who is already rich enough, mind you, stole that money from the people of Delaware. If she hopes to remain a candidate for Congress, she better open her checkbook and pay back any compensation she received from Wilmington Trust over her starting annual compensation of $20,000. As should every single one of Wilmington Trust’s executives and directors who received a similar bump in compensation.
As for me, I am closing my account at Wilmington Trust on Monday.
Republican is as Republican does. This is simply outrageous.
The funny thing is, in those circles, they have $20K or $92K in their sofa cushions. So this must sound like a big to-do about nothing. They must be very irritated we would make such a big deal about it.
Wow, the DCCC must view her as a serious threat if they are firing up the opposition research team this early in the cycle.
perhaps I misunderestimated her.
Interesting that you can’t find your phoney bailouts rage for this, Phoney.
I’m in the process of evaluating banks to move my accounts to (the Move Your Money effort) and Wilmington Trust is totally off of that list now.
Not a serious threat as a candidate but she clearly can afford to buy the seat. Her money is a threat.
And we have an obligation to make sure the voters know where it came from, how she spends it, what she’s doing to buy the seat, and every other slimy thing she’s ever participated in. She needs to stay in Jamaica unless she wants to see a lot more op research along these lines. Think again Mrs. Rollins. Can your balance sheet stand the scrutiny? How badly do you want this?
OMG, I just turned into a concern troll. HAH!
don’t worry cassy, I am outraged that Wilmington Trust was forced to take TARP money by turbotax tim geitner.
rebecca, serving on the board of a local bank is now “slimey”?
a couple of minutes with google shows she was undercompensated compaired to the rest of the board for her first two years and that $92k (which includes cash, stock, and the estimated present value of stock options) is inline with what the rest of the board recieved.
“OMG, I just turned into a concern troll. ”
Now then , how about turning into a candidate Rebecca ? A real “common folk” candidate ! I’d work for you !! Oh, well, I can dream
But apparently it suited them to hang on to that TARP money and pay it out in bonuses, Phoney. They could have made the sacrifices of those bonuses and –let me think — paid it back!
But IOKIYAR, Phoney. Helping already rich people shovel taxpayer money into their pockets.
Is John Carney going to be talking about this? I have yet to even see a campaign event by Carney, and I am one of his supporters.
Rollins is an idiot. Doesn’t she know that the real handouts come from DEDO?
And does the DCCC really want to take on Wilmington Trust? Not exactly Goldman Sachs. Will John Carney publicly repudiate this disgusting criticism?
The Dems wouldn’t launch something like this without Carney’s OK. So I doubt we’re going to see it repudiated.
It’s disgusting that the bank took TARP money and then gave out a shitload of bonuses. If you can afford executive perks, you can afford to pay back taxpayers. Kind of sad that TNJ hasn’t been pursuing this.
Wondering if this is going to signal a new populist style for Carney? Should be a good campaign if so.
The woman hasn’t even announced, and you guys already start slinging the sludge? Shouldn’t your DCCC be touting all the great things your announced candidate has done, and is doing? Oh wait…..no story there. But let’s clear the path early for any roadblocks–can’t have the “Go directly to the Congress” pass punched.
This is not sludge, Joanne. This is fact. Given that she will undoubtedly try to run against the bailouts should she run, this is all perfectly fair game.
This pales in comparison to the $1.4 million Carney tried to bilk from the State of Delaware for Delawind. Remember this classic quote from a State Finance Specialist about Delawind’s accounting:
“Their original $1.4 million or so grant request seems to me would have equated to a nice pay day for those involved.”
Ouch. I can’t wait to see this story in campaign ads over and over and over again.
Is this Rollins part of the lucky sperm club?
Oh yeah? If Michelle Rollins had been one of you people’s Democrat cronies this story would never have seen the light of day. Which is also why you’ve all been so totally silent on the blatant abuse of office that impostor IC Karen Stewart is guilty of. Just substitute her name for Michelle Rollins and the story is almost identical, but Stewart deals in larger numbers. Except that Stewart was totally broke from years of unemployment when she took office. But she made up for that a long time ago already. Does that raise your interest???? Hell no. since she’s a Democrat she can do no wrong. I can’t wait to read all your flimsy excuses and your shoot the messenger bullshit.
For those who don’t know, Wilmington Trust is the historic (and current) repository of du Pont money (family and corporate) and was created for that purpose.
We have basic checking at Citizens Bank, and savings and credit cards with a credit union. The credit union has decent fixed-rate credit cards and auto loans. We don’t care too much about credit cards because we don’t carry balances. If we ever need serious consumer credit, we’d just get a regular loan from the credit union; none of this home equity crap.
Citizens works well for everyday checking because they have branches in Acme with good hours including weekends, and no-fee ATMs in every Acme, and decent web banking.
I just checked Citizens Bank and they seem OK. It doesn’t look like they got TARP money. They are a regional bank in the Northeast that was bought in 1998 by the Royal Bank of Scotland. RBS has received its own bailout in the UK, but that is not my problem.
Funny thing though; RBS is in a bit of trouble, and Citizens is in decent shape, so US banks are making noises about purchasing Citizens with TARP money. Now that would piss me off.
Except that Stewart was totally broke from years of unemployment when she took office. But she made up for that a long time ago already. Does that raise your interest???? Hell no. since she’s a Democrat she can do no wrong.
I agree. I for one am sick and tired of Karen Weldin Stewart and Tom Carper being coddled on the pages of DelawareLiberal.
“Their original $1.4 million or so grant request seems to me would have equated to a nice pay day for those involved.”
Link to this please? This seems like abit of inflation over the original 350K loan application made by Delawind.
Guess that the only jobs repubs could possible approve of are those making french fries.
LOL@anon
Well, first reaction: $20,000 is the BASE pay? I’ve been doing this wrong. I’ve served on dozens of boards and never gotten more pay than the occasional coffee cart. Generally, board members are responsible for getting money IN. *scribbles memo, get on bank board*
Second, however, and more seriously, this morning, so far, I’ve read two articles on Delaware electoral Politics. In one, Michelle is in trouble for having money. In the other, Christine is in trouble for NOT having money. Both running for office. Is anyone else seeing a problem with this? Because it looks like, to me, that if we don’t get some REALLY strong limits on campaign spending, we’re sunk.
If the game is rigged so that the only people who can afford to run for office are the ones who inherit money and never work a day, never mind the Constitution, we can just kiss the Magna Carta goodbye. We can rename our states as Teabaggistan, with no stupid limits on guns, and no secular education, and DuPontistan, with only chemistry training, but no research, and Purdueistan, no longer hobbled by those pesky environmental issues, and Insuristan (run by the Liebermans) and, if we’re lucky, we have a six month grace period to relocate into the “stan” that suits us best, for our children to be raised in.
This is unsustainable. We, as a country, cannot continue, and in fact INCREASE, our political focus on funds over policy. It just can’t result in anything but graft while in office and prostitution until, and prevent us from EVER addressing, as a nation, the policy issues that need to be addressed to solve our challenges.
Happy Equinox, y’all. *sponsored by Rita’s water ice*
Good comment Brooke and thanks for the vote of support Frieda.
For Phony and the other Republicans (and Democrats) who don’t understand how this works, Michelle Rollins is on the board because she has a truckload of money in their vaults. The bonus is a pittance compared with the interest/investment revenue she earns as a depositor/investor. It’s walking-around money they dole out so she doesn’t think about switching her banking to someplace in Bermuda.
As for whether this is in some way “crooked,” Republicans, you’re going to have to stew in your own juices here — the ones cited above for John Carney’s application to DEDO. That’s hardly the crookedness you folks claim it is — hell, if he was a Republican you’d have spurted in your underwear about his attempt to “create jobs.” Dish it out, take it — you fill in the pronouns.
“Their original $1.4 million or so grant request seems to me would have equated to a nice pay day for those involved.”
Link to this please? This seems like abit of inflation over the original 350K loan application made by Delawind.
Guess that the only jobs repubs could possible approve of are those making french fries.”
http://resolutedetermination.wordpress.com/2009/12/02/transparency-at-work-would-you-get-this-kind-of-access/
RD published the emails that were obtained through a FOIA request. You’ll see the link in the post and the email in question is the very first one.
BTW,the french fry company was Bob Venables, also a Democrat.
“I agree. I for one am sick and tired of Karen Weldin Stewart and Tom Carper being coddled on the pages of DelawareLiberal.”
You must not read this blog too much.
Brooke, you are confusing serving on the board of a non-profit and serving on the board of a profit making company.
I am sure you have all forgotten that Hillary served on the board of Walmart… was that slimey too?
No, I wasn’t confusing. Just quasi-humorously observing. 😉
And still the *loan* request — as shown by those emails — was 350K. Which is fine, we know our republican by their lack of numeracy still — but if this is what counts as an attack ad, well, you *would* need to recreate reality to get there. But that is another thing you people are good at.
And as for the french fry thing — it was you guys who got the vapors over the fact that they were moving their non-existent business to Virginia.
Phuny: Where is your evidence that Wilm. Trust was “forced to take Tarp money”. As I recall they got that money and the Pres was immediatley put on the fed board! Why would Wilm Trust need a “loan”? They were giving the money away.
Delaware banks: Wilmington Trust raising $250M
Proceeds of stock offering may repay government
By ERIC RUTH • The News Journal • February 24, 2010
Buzz up!Twitter FarkIt Type Size A A A Wilmington Trust has begun the process of raising $250 million through a public offering of common stock, and may use the proceeds to effectively “pay back” the federal government for its cash infusion during the start of the financial crisis.
Delaware’s largest hometown bank has said for months that settling its “TARP” obligations with the government is a priority, but executives have repeatedly cautioned that the timing and nature of the payback would need to be “shareholder friendly.”
–snip–
Wilmington Trust accepted the $330 million investment at the request of the government as part of the “Capital Purchase Program,” or CPP.
cass, the $1.4 million was a *grant* request, not a *loan* request according to the financial officer, and if you read the paragraph before the “nice pay day” line, it says Delawind hid salaries in their accounting:
“I found something interesting in the line items of DelaWind’s financials: for the 12 month construction phase, compensation in the amount of $1.45 million is inappropriately booked under capital expenditures, and it’s not reflected whatsoever in operating expenses. They booked their overhead costs correctly as operating expenses; by booking salaries as capital expenses those costs never make their way down to operating losses, but it still balances on a overall cash basis.
Their original $1.4 million or so grant request seems to me would have equated to a nice pay day for those involved.”
This is way juicier than a board member getting a pay check.
Call me back when you get something. Getting paid 90K for work with a sound financial institution isn’t a scandal. Your Democrats all supported TARP as America’s salvation, and now we are to pretend it is something evil which is it?
Well, I guess you are going to continue to work pretty hard at your cluelessless here, but the email exchanges before the discussion of the *loan* were all for a *loan* of 350K.
And if you can find juicy in a loan that wasn’t granted (for which no one found financial problems with), in a company that Carney had no ownership stake in vs. Rollins taking a TARP payday in a year that you people have decided that the TARP is government evil then have at it. Certainly it will give you guys one more opportunity at the hypocrisy card — it’s all bad unless one of ours does it.
The e-mail that I posted was about a *grant* request from DelaWind for $1.4 million. Any comment on the “nice pay day”? Or the accounting?
And according to Phuny’s post, it looks like Wilmington Trust took that money at the request of the government, and plans on paying it back.
Sketchy accounting to get yourself a “nice pay day” out of the state that you presided over as it went $800 million into the red, again, way juicier.
Michelle was on the WTC board when they approved all the crappy loans and other investments that have torpedoed what was once Delaware’s strongest bank.
WTC has not repaid one penny of TARP money. She bungled a beautiful bank, saddled it with a huge troubled asset ratio, trashed investor value.
DCCC has identified the issues that would bury Rollins.
We were supposed to be afraid of Rochford, too.
The real silence on KWS comes from those who supposedly have witnessed or have evidence on all the allegations that keep being made. I, personally, can’t stand her, and you stupid trolls have failed me by failing to provide us ONE SINGLE SHRED of credible information. Stop whispering, you gutless morons, and COME FORWARD ON THE RECORD! Show me the goddamned proof! Or shut the hell up with your bullshit lying.
It’s all true. You’ll get your proof eventually, trust me.
John, board members don’t approve loans. Loan officers do that. Wilmington Trust, incidentally, never changed it’s loan policies during the whole sub prime loan fiasco.
Misun: Of course individual loans don’t go to the board for approval, but the board sets the policies that the minions carry out. When a bank’s value drops by 70 percent and is on governmental life support, such excuses are unavailing.
Does Rollins really want to blame the underlings?
John, do you have some kind of non blog evidence that WT is “on govermental life support”? They took the $330 million at the request of the government. That doesn’t smack of financial desperation to me.
Wilmington Trust is in a position to repay the $330 M. WTC hasn’t repaid a dime.
Healthy institutions, like PNC, have repaid. Even Bank of America has repaid.
Wilmington Trust, on the other hand, is on a shortening leash:
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/business/20100224_Regulators_tighten_oversight_of_Wilmington_Trust.html
Clarifying, should read:
“Wilmington Trust is not in a position to repay the $330 M. WTC hasn’t repaid a dime.
Excerpts from the article John linked to:
–Loans have been a headache for Wilmington Trust. At the end of last year, the lender reported that $264.8 million, or 13.5 percent, of its $1.96 billion real-estate construction loans were not performing as expected and accounted for more than half its troubled loans.
“Most of the company’s credit issues are tied to real estate, which will serve to lengthen the time required to resolve these credits,” Matthew Schultheis, an analyst with Boenning & Scattergood Inc. in West Conshohocken, wrote in a note to investors.
Wilmington Trust’s finances have also been undermined by investments in risky securities.
With a big chunk of losses from those so-called trust-preferred securities, Wilmington Trust in the last two years has recorded nearly $208 million in investment losses that reduced the company’s equity, weakening it as troubled real estate loans mounted.