If someone called you up and asked you to give back the money you had gotten as part of your salary or as a bonus under company contract, what would you say?
What if you then said thanks but no thanks and they said well, we’ll just take it anyway. What would you do then?

If you are a Wall Street executive, now may be the time to figure out where you stand on that kind of a question.

Kenneth Feinberg, the pay czar for the Obama administration, is still in the midst of consulting with seven companies who have not paid back the government money that they received through TARP. Some companies, like JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, have already paid back their loans and do not need to be consulting with Feinberg as they decide the fate of bonuses and pay packages with borrowed money. Feinberg commented on his jurisdiction during a recent public forum at Martha’s Vineyard, specifically commenting on whether he has jurisdiction over Andrew Hall, whose possible reported earnings could exceed $100 Million in bonuses.  

"Whether I have jurisdiction to decide his compensation or not, we will take a look and decide over the next few weeks," said Feinberg.

What he did say was that any decisions he makes are “binding” and that he in fact has the power to “claw back” money already paid by any company that received money from TARP.

"I have the discretion, conferred upon by Congress, to attempt to recover compensation that has already been paid to executives not only in these companies, but in any company that received federal assistance.”

These companies each had to submit proposals as of last week for their top 25 employees in regard to how much would be paid. Feinberg has been consulting with all of the companies nearly daily in his role that presides over the companies who received TARP money.

Many of the companies are worried that if they do not pay their top employees their full money that those employees will go to rival firms in New York City or straight over to foreign banks in Switzerland or even London where they could be paid without restriction by the federal government.

While Feinberg said most of the meetings with companies had been “amicable,” “There have been some tough disagreements, but everyone is trying to get to an end place in compensation that makes sense in a post-TARP world.”

The post-TARP world for many of these Wall Street players means tight scrutiny of how they spend their money and consultations with the government about strategy. None of which can be much fun or all that good for business in a world that often seems like it is the powerful conduit of the money that truly runs the world.

And while different banks, namely Citigroup, have major concerns about losing executives if they don’t pay the going rate, Feinberg basically said well, yeah, but I’m making this call.

"The officials can't run to the Secretary of Treasury. The officials can't run to the court house or a local court. My decision is final on those individuals."

Feinberg has not spoken with Obama about his role.