Amaya Gaming CEO David Baazov’s pay packet topped C$1m last year, but it was interim CEO Rafi Ashkenazi who really made out like a bandit.
In corporate documents filed ahead of Amaya’s annual shareholder get-together in Montreal on June 26, Amaya says Baazov (pictured) received a base salary of $1m last year, plus an extra $41k in option-based awards. The sum compares quite favorably with the total $640k Baazov earned in 2014 and $620k in 2013.
Ashkenazi, who assumed Baazov’s role when the CEO took an indefinite leave of absence in March to defend himself against insider trading charges filed by Quebec securities regulators, earned base pay of just under $769k, along with nearly $815k in option-based awards and a further $554k via his annual incentive bonus for a total haul of $2.1m compared to just $665k in 2014.
Ashkenazi came over to Amaya via its 2014 purchase of the Rational Group, the parent company of PokerStars and Full Tilt. Two other Rational holdovers, Michael Hazel and Israel Rosenthal, each earned a total payday of around $1.85m in 2015, although Hazel has since left the company.
Amaya also detailed what type of compensation Baazov could have collected had the company decided to terminate his employment for reasons other than for cause. Baazov would become a six million dollar man if Amaya kicked him to the curb, which is $2.3m more than the severance package Hazel received when he hung up his spurs.
Should he stick around, Baazov’s incentive plan has him sitting on 200k share options that expire in July 2017 and which are currently worth about $3.3m, with a further $3.3m in options he must exercise by September 2019. Not bad for a high school dropout, huh?
Baazov is scheduled to contest his insider trading case in a Quebec court on September 7.
