One business day after Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Chief Executive Officer John Hunkin officially retired, taking with him about $52-million (Canadian) in stock and other securities on top of nearly $15-million in salary and bonuses since he took over as CEO in 1999, CIBC announces that it has agreed to pay $2.92 billion to resolve allegations that it participated in some of the fraudulent accounting deals within Enron Corp. The massive settlement will cost the bank more than it’s entire ($1.99-billion) profit for last year and represents the biggest settlement so far for former investors of the disgraced energy trader, who have filed a $25-billion class-action lawsuit against several of the most powerful financial institutions in the United States and Canada. For CIBC, the Enron settlement is a costly and painful culmination of various regulatory problems that have afflicted the bank in recent years. In late 2003, the bank paid $80-million to U.S. regulators to settle allegations it aided and abetted the accounting fraud at Enron. It also struck a $125-million deal in 2005 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to settle its alleged role in a mutual fund trading scandal.
Jan 01