Grasso Says a Settlement Isn’t Likely

Former New York Stock Exchange Chairman Richard Grasso said Wednesday that a lawsuit filed by New York Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer was more likely to be resolved in court than through a settlement.

Grasso, who was ousted in 2003 after a firestorm surrounding his undisclosed compensation, said his comments during an interview Wednesday with CNBC might have been misinterpreted. The network reported that Grasso was open to settling Spitzer’s lawsuit, which seeks to recover about $100 million of Grasso’s pay and benefits.

“It’s very likely that this will come to trial and that vindication will come from the jury, not from a negotiated settlement,” Grasso said in an interview outside the offices of Cravath, Swaine & Moore, a law firm in Manhattan. “We are not in here to talk about settling.”

Spitzer’s lawsuit says Grasso manipulated the NYSE’s board into granting him a pay package that violated state law governing not-for-profit organizations such as the exchange. The attorney general said in December that he had tried to settle the suit since it was filed and Grasso has showed no interest.

A report commissioned by the NYSE claims that Grasso’s “excessive” compensation had a “detrimental impact” on the Big Board’s brand and resources.

The report also said the NYSE board’s process to set Grasso’s annual compensation was “flawed in many respects.”

Billionaire Kenneth Langone, who was head of the NYSE’s compensation committee from June 1999 to June 2003 and also is a defendant in Spitzer’s suit, reiterated Wednesday that he would not settle the case until Spitzer apologizes.