Here's one to file under "money for old rope". The boss of the hipster clothes retailer Abercrombie & Fitch is getting a $4m one-off payout in return for agreeing to limit his use the firm's corporate jet for personal trips.
Abercrombie's chief executive, Mike Jeffries, is getting the lump sum to compensate him for a contractual change scrapping his entitlement to unlimited free flights on the plane, according to an SEC filing by the company. In future, he'll have to reimburse the cost of any personal travel costing more than $200,000 annually.
It's been common recently for US companies to crack down on leisure use of corporate jets, responding to corporate governance guidelines and critical headlines over lavish boardroom perks. But chief execs don't usually get multi-million dollar payments for foregoing travel.
Reuters reports that Jeffries enjoyed an average of $850,000 worth of personal travel on the company jet annually between 2006 and 2008. He was paid a total of $15.9m in 2008.
Jeffries, who is 66, says "dude" a lot, according to a profile by Salon a few years ago. He's the maestro behind Abercrombie's occasionally controversial use of young, bare-chested models for its advertising. Oh, and he was named as one of America's most overpaid bosses by research firm Corporate Library last year.
