Response From Grasso Spokesman
February 2, 2005 3:25 p.m.

The following is a statement issued Wednesday by Grasso spokesman Eric Starkman regarding the release of the Webb report.

The NYSE fought the release of the Webb Report for more than a year, and now we know why. As the Webb Report clearly states (on page 44), not one person on the Compensation Committee or Board of Directors heard from Dick Grasso on the subject of his own compensation.

Every dime of compensation was voted on unanimously by a Compensation Committee that, working with its consultants, decided that Dick Grasso was worth a great deal to the NYSE. The Webb Report does not take issue with Dick Grasso's exemplary performance as CEO of the NYSE, but questions the business judgment of some of the most sophisticated men and women in the financial world. The Report charges that some members of the NYSE's Board of Directors did not bother to read two-page handouts detailing the compensation at issue, and that the Chairman of the Compensation Committee (Carl McCall) did not even read the contract that he signed on behalf of the NYSE -- but none of that has anything to do with Dick Grasso. As the Webb Report admits, Dick Grasso performed his job with distinction.

The Webb Report does answer the question "Why didn't the NYSE bring this lawsuit, instead of hiding behind the Attorney General?" The answer is that, of course, the NYSE could not very well blame its own directors for the actions described by its lawyer.

Instead, it enlisted the help of Attorney General Spitzer, who would claim that he is acting for the benefit of the People of the State of New York (when in fact he is committed to handing over anything he recovers to the same organization that supposedly made the errors charged by Mr. Webb). And, the Attorney General has focused his lawsuit exclusively on Dick Grasso and Ken Langone, rather than on prominent Democrats like Mr. McCall, who plays such a leading role in Mr. Webb's Report but faces no liability from the Attorney General.