So it's impossible for ABB's public shareholders to know whether the executives are getting too good a deal (see story page 50).
The federal investigation into ABB's involvement in the alleged corrupt scheme started in April 2005 when ABB made a voluntary disclosure to the Department of Justice regarding possible FCPA violations.
An ABB spokesman declined to answer whether the federal investigation extends to ABB's business in countries other than Mexico.
One of ABB's specialties is high-voltage direct current links, so-called HVDC.
ABB's managers did a dreadful job of protecting their owners' assets.
It was ABB's link between Connecticut and Long Island that allowed Long Island to get power back hours before Manhattan did after the August 2003 blackout.
"When you have equity participation, it encourages an entrepreneurial attitude among managers, " says ABB's chief executive, Gran Lindahl, 53, who says the program has been a big success.
ABB's best trick is its ability to take electric current of any voltage and frequency, chop it up into tiny bits and reassemble it into the form needed.
ABB's now-glaring over-reliance on financial, as opposed to material, activities.
ABB's humiliation, there are echoes of other recent corporate mishaps.
But even as ABB's mining and manufacturing customers are postponing or canceling projects, Hogan can afford to be confident because the need to build and upgrade grids worldwide will keep ABB busy.
Hogan says he will stay away from big acquisitions for now, but he is on the hunt for companies that would help boost ABB's presence in places like the U.S. and Japan.
Quoting former chairman Christian Bjelland who negotiated the Kvaerner pension deal, the paper said that Kvaerner's intention had been that it should only have been responsible for the period after Mr Almskog's ABB career.
ABB, one of Switzerland's largest companies, recently described the franc's strength as a headache.
Then, last week, after controversy over his ABB pension, he resigned from his post as chairman of Investor, the powerful Swedish Wallenberg-family's industrial holding company which is also a major ABB shareholder.
Mr Almskog held the top job at Kvaerner for three years after a long career with ABB where he was one of former chairman Percy Barnevik's most loyal senior executives.
On the other hand, ABB is one of many companies under the umbrella of Sweden's Wallenberg family, who control, directly and indirectly, over 40% of the Swedish stock market's capitalization.
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