United directors sued over ousted CE’s severance package

United Continental Holdings directors were sued by a pension fund for granting a US$37m severance package to the carrier’s former CE, who was ousted in a bribery scandal. The airline’s board erred in signing off on “lavish golden parachutes” for ex-CE Jeff Smisek and other officials forced out after investigators found a public official strong-armed United into scheduling twice-weekly flights to an airport near Smisek’s vacation home, the fund said in a lawsuit. Directors also harmed investors by refusing to demand that Smisek return severance payments, the City of Tamarac Firefighters Pension Trust Fund said in the complaint. The board “put the interests of Smisek and the other officers ahead of the company’s best interests,” the fund’s lawyers said in the suit, which was unsealed Wednesday. <br/>