Kerry Killinger Can’t Say He Wasn’t Warned

Kerry Killinger can’t say he wasn’t warned. From my hometown Seattle Times:

Two months before Washington Mutual failed, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson warned then-CEO Kerry Killinger that he ought to sell the Seattle-based thrift before it deteriorated further.

"Paulson said, 'You should have sold to JPMorgan Chase in the spring, and you should do so now. Things could get a lot more difficult for you,' " said one of several current and former high-ranking WaMu executives familiar with details of the call.

"Sopranos" flashbacks, anyone?  Good lord. Here’s today’s lesson for bank and thrift CEOs: When the Secretary of the Treasury tells you point blank that “things could get a lot more difficult for you,” you should take it to the bank (sorry) that things will in fact get more difficult. That should be easy to remember. . . .

Comments

[UnhappyExWa...:]

Shirley you jest KK, you were the chairman, CEO, hand picked the board and set the direction for the company.

When JPMC offered to buy the bank back in March and you rebuffed them, choosing to go with TPG group instead, that was bad enough. But when the Treasury secretary told you to sell two months before the bank failed and you ignored the warning shows unbelieveable hubris on your part.

We now know with what has been made public with the JPMC purchase that Wamu had no chance to survive as a independant entitiy. Thousands of loyal employees have lost thier jobs and thier investments in the bank are gone.

I hope you enjoy your retirement.....

2008 Nov 13 12:02 PM

[Gforce:]

Do you really think KK gives a sh*t about others.

Remember who's number one in life - me!!!

2008 Nov 17 12:32 PM

[Gforce:]

Oh yes forgot one thing - retirement is lovely with my millions still intact - screw the rest of y'all

2008 Nov 17 12:33 PM

[User 336400:]

So what is happening with the lawsuit? There is so much wrong about the way that the WaMu transactions were handled-from the failure to sell early on to another suitor to the fact that the government seized the good assets and left all the shareholders with nothin'

Jun 18 01:02 PM