Vacation jets for bailout bank execs - report
Personal trips to Europe and the Caribbean said to be taken by officials of banks getting TARP funds.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Executives from some banks propped up by federal funds used company jets for personal purposes, according to a report published Friday.
Executives from some of the banks backed by funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program flew on company jets to resorts or their vacation homes in Europe, Mexico, the Caribbean, Florida and Aspen, Colo., The Wall Street Journal reported.
The newspaper said Dowd Ritter, chief executive of Regions Financial Corp. (RF, Fortune 500) of Birmingham, Ala., a recipient of $3.5 billion in TARP funds, flew in November with his family on two jets to a resort in West Virginia at an estimated round-trip cost of $17,700.
Last year, the Treasury earmarked $700 billion in TARP funds to prevent the total collapse of the finance sector.