NCB, Patrick Hylton and Dennis Cohen negotiating $13.8 billion payment
Published:Tuesday | July 18, 2023 | 1:23 PM
The question of what to do about $13.8 billion is at the centre of negotiations between the NCB Financial Group and two top executives now separated from the company they both worked for nearly 20 years.
In July 2021, President and Group Chief Executive Officer Patrick Hylton and his deputy Dennis Cohen surrendered and returned to the company over a total of 95 million shares worth some $13.8 billion.
With their exit from the company, the men are entitled to their payouts.
This is in addition to their yet-to-be-settled severance packages.
In a joint statement breaking their silence since being sent on leave on Monday, Hylton and Cohen said they are professionals who have carefully built their careers and reputation over decades of service in the financial sector in general, and at NCB in particular.
They said insisted that they do not want this to be sullied in any way.
“We have established a stellar record of performance over those years which speaks for itself. We cannot sit quietly by and allow our integrity to be impugned by speculation and a misinterpretation of the facts and circumstances,” the joint release said.
Hylton and Cohen say they've done nothing wrong regarding their compensation and that all they've done is accepted payments as approved by the board.
Jamaica's financial sector was rocked by news on Monday that Hylton and Cohen, the two top executives at the NCB Financial Group, were sent on leave following a board decision on Sunday.
At the same time, Chairman Michael Lee Chin returned to work on Monday from his leave of absence one month early, saying he had been able to attend to the matters that had occasioned the leave in less time than he had anticipated.
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