Tiết lộ rằng anh trai của giám đốc điều hành của nó đã được thuê quản lý chất thải để thương lượng một hợp đồng với Carnival, tạo ra 1,3 triệu USD cho quản lý chất thải vào năm 2001. Sử dụng hai con trai và anh trai-trong-pháp luật của Giám đốc điều hành, | Financial Fine Print cash to other uses. Companies that can t come up with the cash have to pay a penalty to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. PBGC a federal agency that guarantees pension benefits. Most companies try to avoid this at all costs because the PBGC doesn t give the money back once the plans come back into compliance. Pension rules also can require some companies with underfunded plans to take a charge to equity yet another reason why shareholders need to pay attention to this footnote. In 2002 approximately 325 companies in the S P 500 90 percent of the companies that offer pension plans reported underfunded plans up from 240 in 2001 and 118 in 2000 according to CSFB accounting analysts David Zion and Bill Carcache. As a result companies in the S P 500 ponied up approximately 46 billion in cash more than three times as much as the 15 billion contributed in Of course in Pension-land even this additional cash infusion can be confusing because companies that have the money to pump into their pension funds get a tax break and also can book the added income at whatever rate of return they re using. At GM for example using its announced 10 percent return on the billion it added to its pension funds in 2002 automatically generates an additional 482 million in operating income for the company. At IBM which said in December 2002 that it was pumping billion into its pension funds the contribution was expected to add about 350 million in operating income. Indeed despite their big funding gaps Pat McConnell senior accounting analyst at Bear Stearns says that neither GM nor IBM was required to pump additional money into their pension funds in 2002. They get a tax deduction when they make a contribution and the earnings grow tax-free says McConnell. Some analysts 110 Pensions in Wonderland compare such contributions to individuals making extra payments on their home mortgages. But analysts note that companies that don t have the cash to spare .
