A golden parachute is a very large bonus given to a person usually a company executive or CEO when they are replaced. These are often very controversial since the executive is often replaced because the company is going under or lost lot money in the past years. These executives often have salaries in the millions and so are destitute by no means.

Washington Mutual the largest bank to fail in history was taken over by the FDIC September 25, 2008. CEO Alan Fishman who had been on the job only 17 days was given severance pay of 11.6 million for those few days.

Failed insurance behemoth AIG offered it's CEO Robert Willumstad 22 million after just three months on the job. He declined this bonus.