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AP Study Finds $1.6B Went to Bailed-Out Bank Execs

Banks that are getting taxpayer bailouts awarded their top executives nearly $1.6 billion in salaries, bonuses, and other benefits last year, an Associated Press analysis reveals.

The rewards came even at banks where poor results last year foretold the economic crisis that sent them to Washington for a government rescue. Some trimmed their executive compensation due to lagging bank performance, but still forked over multimillion-dollar executive pay packages.

Benefits included cash bonuses, stock options, personal use of company jets and chauffeurs, home security, country club memberships and professional money management, the AP review of federal securities documents found.

The total amount given to nearly 600 executives would cover bailout costs for many of the 116 banks that have so far accepted tax dollars to boost their bottom lines.

By now it is obvious to anyone that a royal scam has been put over on the entire world by a small number of greed and status obsessed individuals. These people, happily ensconced in their gated communities, private clubs and sea-going yachts, represent the dregs of society far more than any homeless drunkard. For to sustain their stratospheric standard of living they have fleeced all of us, either directly or indirectly, in a legal confidence game that makes Bernie Madoff's criminal operation seem like small change. They are scum.