Other Global executives also profited handsomely from a wave of stock sales.

To ensure that executives profited from newly issued options, companies would pretend that the options had in fact been issued at an earlier date, when the stock price was lower.

In this time when the government enforces austerity on the 99 per cent, these executives are profiting.

The issue of whether executives and trustees are profiting unreasonably from such transactions has been highlighted by the case of Green Point, based in Flushing, Queens.

But the fact that companies and their executives profited from investments in fledgling suppliers may help solve a mystery that dogs the industry: why there was such a gross misallocation of capital in the sector.

Repricing is controversial because it allows executives to profit from options even after they have failed to reach earlier goals.

And if their acquisitions truly create value, executives holding a significant amount of the company's stock will profit from higher share prices.

While each company's Bermuda strategy differs in details, chief executives always profit because their compensation is based partly on the profitability of the company or its stock price.

To some investors and outsiders, however, the notion that executives profited from their own mistakes is deeply unfair.

Other executives at WorldCom profited from the offerings they received from Salomon.