Grasso Memos Can Be Released

The judge presiding over the excessive-compensation case against ousted New York Stock Exchange Chairman Richard Grasso said that notes used to prepare a report on Grasso’s pay were not confidential.

The report itself was made public already, but Monday’s decision deals with the “interview memoranda” used for the report.

The decision by New York state Judge Charles Ramos makes it likely that more background on the pay-setting process used for Grasso will come to light. However, it does not appear that the memos will be made public in their entirety. Instead, lawyers for Grasso said, information from the memos will be used in court filings and released as those filings are made.

Some of this has started to happen, as Grasso’s legal team seeks to counter the so-called Webb Report.

The report, by former federal prosecutor Dan Webb, concluded that Grasso’s pay was “excessive” and “far beyond reasonable levels,” the Wall Street Journal reported this year.

The NYSE commissioned the report from Webb after Grasso was ousted from the exchange in September 2003, after an outcry over his hefty pay package.

In a filing dated last week but released to reporters Monday after Ramos ruled, Grasso’s lawyers included several quotes culled from the interview memos that cast Grasso in a good light. For example, several former NYSE directors were quoted praising Grasso’s stewardship of the Big Board.

New York Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer has sued Grasso, alleging that the compensation he was awarded was unreasonable under the law governing nonprofit institutions such as the NYSE. Grasso has denied Spitzer’s claims.