• Bankruptcy: The fall of Thomas Cook leaves a breakdown of 200 million to the Spanish tourism sector

The Government of the United Kingdom is preparing to initiate an investigation into the incentives that the CEOs and financial managers of Thomas Cook have gained in recent years. The former, for example, earned 34 million euros in premiums over the past decade , while the latter pocketed 8 million from 2014.

The tour operator, who has been dragging debts and a deep business model crisis for nearly ten years , has been forced to declare a suspension of payments, leaving more than 600,000 customers in the lurch and 13,000 people at risk of losing their jobs.

Andrea Leadsom, British Economy Minister, said today that she will write to the Insolvency Agency to ask her to investigate the circumstances that have led to the bankruptcy of the company and the role played by people like the executive director of the tour operator, the Swiss Peter Fankhauser.

Nine million in premiums

The CEO, who has been in office since 2014, would have since pocketed around 9 million euros in incentives, and, although at one point he took Thomas Cook back on the path of benefits, this did not last much. Fankhauser earned, in addition to his salary, 4.75 million euros in 2015, 1.36 million in 2016, 1.92 million in 2017 and finally 1.13 million last year.

On the other hand, the former executive director, Harriet Green, took 5.31 million euros, while her predecessor, Manny Fontenla-Novoa, took 19.45 million between 2007 and 2011.

The British Government, which has received criticism for having dropped the tour operator after refusing to grant the emergency package it needed to continue operating, is trying to justify that Thomas Cook's business model was not appropriate to adapt to the new times and that therefore he was bound to fail and cost the taxpayer even more money.

The Prime Minister himself, Boris Johnson, has expressed doubts about this issue since the UN summit in New York: "It is absolutely true that the Government was asked for a grant of about 170 million euros.

Taxpayer Money

Obviously we are talking about a lot of taxpayer money, which sets a moral hazard in case of future commercial difficulties of the companies. You tend to think about whether the managers of these companies are motivated enough to solve these types of problems. "

In the United Kingdom, for example, there is already legislation that allows you to revoke the incentives of executives of bank entities that are bankrupt, so as to ensure that they did everything possible to save them. That is why, both from the Government and from the opposition, voices have appeared that have demanded that these managers return their premiums as a sign of goodwill.

The case affects not only the last three executive directors, but also important board members such as financial directors Michael Healy and Bill Scott. Between them, starting the last one in the position at the beginning of last year, they have won in premiums about 8 million euros even though the difficulties that the company was going through were already becoming evident.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Thomas Cook
  • United Kingdom
  • Un
  • Boris johnson
  • Health

United Kingdom The resignation of the Minister of Labor aggravates the Boris Johnson government crisis

United KingdomHow to stop Boris Johnson: legal formulas to avoid Brexit without agreement

More than 150,000 Matterhorn operation: London is already beginning the repatriation of the British trapped by Thomas Cook, the largest since World War II