Grasso ally still supports pay package

Former New York Stock Exchange chief Richard Grasso was, if anything, underpaid, said a one-time NYSE board member who was a key architect of the controversial $188 million compensation package that led to Grasso's forced resignation.

"This guy Grasso saved the world. We couldn't pay him anything close to what he was worth," Kenneth Langone, a NYSE board member until late last year, told The New York Times in an interview published Sunday.

Langone referred specifically to Grasso's efforts to get the exchange open just four days after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Langone's thoughts were echoed by former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who said in the article that Grasso's focus on security before the attacks and his quick response after it proved his value to the exchange.

"Grasso got the NYSE up and operating without a glitch. When billions are made, you get rewarded," Giuliani said.

Grasso's resignation came two years to the day he reopened the exchange after the Sept. 11 attacks, as public outcry mounted over the size of his compensation and lack of public disclosure.

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Langone himself is under fire for his role in the pay scandal and his friendship with Grasso. The AFL-CIO is demanding he step down from the corporate boards on which he currently serves, including General Electric Co. and Home Depot Inc.

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For his part, Giuliani defended Langone, saying, "Ken is an honest man who made an honest judgment."

Langone, chairman and chief executive of investment bank and brokerage Invemed Associates LLC, also had choice words in the article for NYSE interim chairman John Reed, criticizing him for heightening tensions at the exchange.

"He was brought in to calm the situation. Instead, he has made it worse," Langone said.