Dismissed Western Corporate Federal Credit Union President/CEO Bob Siravo did receive a large retirement payout in 2008, but it was from a deferred compensation plan and not a golden parachute severance payout, former WesCorp Board Member Diana Dykstra said.
Dykstra, president/CEO of the $610 million San Francisco Fire Credit Union, was also dismissed from WesCorp's board of directors when the NCUA seized the corporate on March 20. She broke her WesCorp-related silence and addressed rumors that former president/CEO Siravo received as much as $6 million after the conservatorship.
WesCorp announced it had paid nearly $7 million on a "nonqualified defined benefit plan" when it released its 2008 annual report in late May. The amount was much higher than the $293,000 paid out in 2007. WesCorp also added another $4 million worth of "plan amendments" to the 2008 budget (CU Times, June 10, 2009).
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The corporate also provided a timetable for future payouts in its annual report. They include nearly $2 million due to be paid out this year, $5.25 million in 2011 and $1.3 million in 2014. No payouts are scheduled in 2010, 2012 or 2013.
Dykstra cleared up some of the mystery surrounding the line item, saying Siravo selected 2008 as his payout date for the 457F compensation plan, which requires enrollees to set a date at the time of enrollment.
"It doesn't qualify as a 457F if you change the payout date," she said.
Siravo had planned to retire in 2008 and completed his original contract with WesCorp in early 2008. At that time, the board asked him to stay another two years. Upon conservatorship, Siravo was 13 months into the new contract and lost all retirement benefits associated with that contract, she said.
Furthermore, the 2008 payout went to a few employees, Dykstra said.
"The bottom line is neither WesCorp nor the NCUA paid him out after things turned south," she said.
The NCUA has stated that all executive contracts, for both dismissed and retained executives, were repudiated at WesCorp and U.S. Central Federal Credit Union.
Fired executives Siravo, former WesCorp Chief Investment Officer Robert Burrell and former U.S. Central President/CEO Francis Lee "did not receive severance payouts of any kind," NCUA spokesman John McKechnie said.
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