Equifax CEO Dick Smith to Retire With Up to $90 Million Severance ⇥ fortune.com

Jen Wieczner, Fortune:

Equifax said Tuesday that as a condition of [Richard Smith’s] retirement, he “irrevocably” forfeits any right to a bonus in 2017, an amount that under normal circumstances would have totaled more than $3 million — the bonus he received in 2016 — according to the company’s retirement policy.

But the CEO is still set to collect about $72 million this year alone (including nine months’ worth of his $1,450,000 salary), plus another $17.9 million over the next few years. That’s when the rest of Smith’s stock compensation hits a few important milestones or “vests,” allowing Smith to essentially put it in his bank account. Altogether, it adds up to a total potential paycheck of more than $90.1 million, according to Fortune’s calculations based on Equifax securities filings.

Smith is the third Equifax executive who has been allowed to “retire” instead of being fired for allowing the exposure of personal information of virtually every American who has ever applied for a cellphone contract, a credit card, a mortgage, or any other loan. Wieczner reports that Equifax may still retroactively change the conditions under which Smith’s employment was terminated, but no executive who oversaw a breach of trust as serious at this should be allowed to “retire” and collect their severance. That’s outrageous.