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How Exxon and Trump Are Helping Rex Tillerson Put Off a $71 Million Tax Bill
How Exxon and Trump Are Helping Rex Tillerson Put Off a $71 Million Tax Bill
Stephen Gandel
Updated: 1:41 PM Eastern
Rex Tillerson's nine-figure Exxon exit payout is even sweeter than it sounds.
Earlier this week, in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Exxon Mobil said it plans to cut financial ties with its former CEO Tillerson, who has been picked by President-elect Donald Trump to be the next secretary of state. Tillerson also detailed how the separation will work in a letter released by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.
It involves a very big payout. Under the deal, Tillerson will be getting $180 million, in exchange for giving up his restricted stock units. This comes on top of the $54 million that Tillerson already had coming to him in Exxon stock he already owned.
Nonetheless, a number of ethics professionals have praised the deal, because it eliminates Tillerson's main conflict of interest: his enormous stock holding in a global energy company that does business in nearly every part of the world, including some of the areas with the most heated conflicts. Richard Painter, a former ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush who has been an outspoken critic of the financial ties of the President-elect, called the Exxon deal a model for resolving Trump's own conflicts of interest. A hometown website of sorts, the Houston Press—Tillerson grew up in Wichita Falls, Texas, about 130 miles from Exxon's headquarters in Irving, Texas—praised the deal, saying that Tillerson is "showing how you are supposed to do things," and that he and the oil giant are "doing their best to steer clear of anything that even meanders toward ethical gray areas."
Stephen Gandel
Updated: 1:41 PM Eastern
Rex Tillerson's nine-figure Exxon exit payout is even sweeter than it sounds.
Earlier this week, in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Exxon Mobil said it plans to cut financial ties with its former CEO Tillerson, who has been picked by President-elect Donald Trump to be the next secretary of state. Tillerson also detailed how the separation will work in a letter released by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.
It involves a very big payout. Under the deal, Tillerson will be getting $180 million, in exchange for giving up his restricted stock units. This comes on top of the $54 million that Tillerson already had coming to him in Exxon stock he already owned.
Nonetheless, a number of ethics professionals have praised the deal, because it eliminates Tillerson's main conflict of interest: his enormous stock holding in a global energy company that does business in nearly every part of the world, including some of the areas with the most heated conflicts. Richard Painter, a former ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush who has been an outspoken critic of the financial ties of the President-elect, called the Exxon deal a model for resolving Trump's own conflicts of interest. A hometown website of sorts, the Houston Press—Tillerson grew up in Wichita Falls, Texas, about 130 miles from Exxon's headquarters in Irving, Texas—praised the deal, saying that Tillerson is "showing how you are supposed to do things," and that he and the oil giant are "doing their best to steer clear of anything that even meanders toward ethical gray areas."
