As CEO of NYSE Euronext, John Thain had won a heroic battle to restore the tarnished reputation of the Big Board in the wake of a high-profile executive compensation scandal. He had also successfully instituted reforms that catapulted the exchange into the 21st century as a global electronic trading platform. Our cover story, “The Adventures of SuperThain,” used comic strip illustrations to depict the ex–Goldman, Sachs & Co. veteran as a caped crusader and applauded his displays of integrity and his victories over the forces of greed. But yesterday’s superhero has become in some eyes today’s villain — a symbol of Wall Street excess. Recruited as CEO of Merrill Lynch & Co. to help the firm recover from big subprime losses, he was forced to sell it in September to Bank of America Corp., then became enmeshed in his own compensation scandal when Merrill, which had received $10 billion in TARP funds, paid $4 billion in bonuses at the end of December despite having posted a $15.3 billion loss in the fourth quarter. Last month Thain resigned under pressure from BofA, and New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo issued a subpeona summoning him to testify about the bonus payments. Now Thain may need a superhuman effort to restore his own tarnished reputation.
