The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are expecting new leadership put in place by the Trump administration to usher in different enforcement priorities and a shift in how firms and individuals pay fines.
Many companies stack the deck in ways that often help their executives get big annual bonuses no matter how the business performs, Bloomberg Tax research shows. They “adjust” and boost the earnings numbers they use, or lower their own performance goals—making it more likely they’ll hit the targets that trigger bonus awards.
