Part of the deal with being a CEO is that you’re never off the clock, you get blamed for everything that goes wrong and you have no control over the outside forces that can absolutely wreck your business. But in exchange, you get a fat paycheck and a bunch of perks, like access to a private jet.
Just make sure there’s a legitimate business reason for that jet trip. And make sure your accountants know about those trips, so they can disclose it to federal regulators. Or, in the case of the former CEO of fashion retailer Express, just take the jet and hope no one notices.
Express, the source of all your best going-out tops for Y2K parties, was sliding into bankruptcy. Its CEO at the time, Tim Baxter, was taking advantage of nearly a million dollars’ worth of C-suite perks, including “certain expenses associated with the CEO’s authorized use of chartered aircraft for personal purposes.” And Express didn’t tell investors about it like it was supposed to.
Express filed for Chapter 11 in the spring and was later acquired by a joint venture led by WHP Global and three of the retailer’s landlords. The SEC settled the charges against Express and declined to impose a civil penalty, citing the company’s cooperation with its investigation.
The SEC said it did so with a cease-and-desist order, without admitting or denying the allegations. Express didn’t respond to CNN’s request for comment.
If you do happen to be a CEO who’s engaging in a bunch of off-the-books company-funded rides, you might be in luck under the incoming Donald Trump administration. Under President Joe Biden, the SEC has taken an aggressive approach to rule-making and enforcement, trying to make sure companies don’t take investors’ money and squander it. However, come January, Trump’s SEC is expected to hit the brakes.
“We expect the next Trump administration will return to a more traditional, conservative enforcement agenda,” wrote lawyers for Arnold & Porter, the multinational white-shoe law firm, in an advisory last month. That includes a return to “garden variety enforcement cases” and a focus on “egregious fraudulent conduct that harms investors.”