The Plane Truth: IGT CEO Appeared to Use Company Jet for Private Use
In Grave Turmoil: That’s not what IGT, the world’s largest slots manufacturer, stands for, but it may as well be.
Forbes.com on Wednesday published a scathing report that seems to suggest IGT CEO Patti Hart may have used a company jet for her own personal use.
Hart is currently embroiled in a nasty proxy fight with investor Jason Ader, who is seeking to wrestle away control and plant three of his own executives upon the board.
Eric Jackson of Forbes noted a sampling of irregularities regarding the private company jet, purchased last summer under the guise of having “sales people to close deals or travel to state capitals”.
Instead, the jet appears to have been used solely for Ms. Hart’s own personal pleasure, or at least that is what Jackson has uncovered.
- Patti made over a dozen flights to the Bay Area on the private plane after getting it. She maintains a primary residence in the Bay Area. IGT does have an online support office in San Francisco. The contact I spoke to estimated it was responsible for perhaps $60 million in revenues. IGT did $2.24 billion in revenues last year. When Patti did go to San Francisco, according to the contact, she would often go into the IGT office for an hour or two to put in some face time before going off “to meet with customers.” These private plane costs were then all charged to IGT shareholders.
- According to the 2012 proxy from IGT, Patti was paid just under $27,000 for personal use of the aircraft by IGT as part of “all other compensation.” This is typically for a company to “top up” an executive who has to pay taxes to the IRS for use of a private plane for personal use as a taxable benefit to make them whole.
- One time, the plane flew to Nice, France, before Thanksgiving last year where there was a tech conference. IGT is not a tech company, although many say Patti likes to think of herself as a tech executive. The IGT plane remained in Europe until the middle of December. Patti’s husband owns an apartment in Paris, France. The trip appears to have been mostly for personal purposes.
Hart may not have known that her flights could be tracked via FlightAware.com. She would later request that all future flights be made anonymous.
Institutional Shareholders endorsed Ader’s attempt to take three seats on the IGT board Tuesday, which should help Ader’s efforts….and quite possibly ground the company private jet.
Late Wednesday, the Ader Group released the following press release, blasting IGT for what it called “blatant and misleading” statements:
The Ader Group announced today that IGT has released patently false and misleading information relating to ISS’ recommendation to shareholders as to how to vote at the company’s upcoming annual meeting. In a press release issued on February 19th, IGT alleged that “ISS recommends that IGT shareholders vote to elect seven of IGT's eight director nominees.” The ISS report, in fact, contains no such recommendation. The ISS report unambiguously recommends that shareholders vote only on Ader’s GOLD proxy card for Mr. Silvers and the five company nominees that the Ader Group did not oppose. ISS definitively did NOT endorse the election of the three incumbent directors that the Ader Group has targeted for replacement. The Ader Group urges all shareholders to vote for each of Messrs. Brooks, Mathewson and Silvers on the GOLD proxy card.
Jason Ader commented, “We are disappointed that the company would resort to blatantly falsifying, in a widely disseminated press release, the recommendation of an institution so highly-regarded as ISS. We encourage shareholders to carefully evaluate all statements made by the company and focus only on the facts.”
- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
