Dive Brief:
- Suspended Archer Daniels Midland CFO Vikram Luthar — who was placed on administrative leave in January pending an investigation into the company’s accounting practices — landed a $4.5 million pay package last year, according to a proxy filing by the company on Wednesday. That compares to $4.4 million in the year earlier period.
- The bulk of Luthar’s 2023 compensation was made up of $3.4 million in stock awards and $770,840 in salary, according to a summary pay table in the filing. He did not receive any payment in the non-equity cash incentive category, with the company tying its indecision on that matter to Luthar’s employment status.
- “As of the date of this Proxy Statement, the Compensation and Succession Committee had not made a determination regarding any payment to Mr. Luthar related to his 2023 annual cash incentive as he remained on administrative leave,” the filing states. In 2022, Luthar received $1.2 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation.
Dive Insight:
In contrast to Luthar, ADM CEO Juan Ricardo Luciano saw his total pay tick down last year. Luciano took home $24.4 million, largely comprised of $17.9 million in stock awards, $3.6 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation and $1.4 in million salary, according to the filing. Meanwhile, R.B. Jones, senior vice president, general counsel and secretary who joined the company last year, received total compensation of $7.03 million, including a one-time signing bonus of $630,000.
According to an earlier filing this year, the grain trading giant is paying interim CFO Ismael Roig a $35,000 monthly stipend and a one-time grant of restricted stock units valued at $1 million in association with being named as its temporary finance chief back when Luthar was placed on leave, CFO Dive previously reported.
In January, investors were rattled by the one-two news punch of the internal accounting probe sparked by a Securities and Exchange Committee document request plus the CFO’s forced leave, with shares falling about 24% to close at just over $51 on Jan. 22, CFO Dive previously reported. The stock has since risen off those lows and was trading above $62 on Thursday even as potentially further fallout from the accounting scandal looms.
Last month ADM confirmed that it was cooperating with SEC and Department of Justice investigations into its accounting practices while also asserting it corrected certain intersegment sales and that those adjustments were not “material” to the company’s consolidated finance statements for any period.
ADM and top executives also face a proposed class action complaint filed in January that asserts they concealed “adverse facts” related to its nutrition business, painting a misleading positive picture of the segment as a profit-driver “with the ability to capitalize on healthier eating trends and rising consumer demand for natural ingredients and flavoring,” CFO Dive previously reported.
Luthar joined the company in 2004 and held multiple senior roles before being named CFO in 2022. He previously spent nearly a decade in various financial positions at General Motors.
ADM did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
