WORLD PROPERTY CHANNEL ®

How would you like to be kicked out of a multi-million-dollar job and receive other multi-millions for doing nothing?

Ian McCarthy, the former CEO at Atlanta-based Beazer Homes USA Inc., is in that enviable position today.

In a prepared statement, Beazer said it will pay the 57-year-old McCarthy an exit package valued at more than $5.2 million over three years.

McCarthy had been CEO since the company's 1994 initial public offering. He was terminated by the board without cause June 10 and replaced with Allan Merrill, who had been chief financial officer for four years.

The exit of McCarthy occurred three months after he agreed to repay $6.5 million and return company stock as a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

According to the SEC, McCarthy was unduly compensated during a period in which the SEC said Beazer filed fraudulent financial statements for the year ended Sept. 30, 2006. Beazer admitted no wrongdoing.

McCarthy also admitted no wrongdoing in the SEC matter.

According to a company filing, Beazer will give McCarthy $3.6 million, three times his annual base salary.

He will get an additional amount based on his average annual bonus for fiscal 2008 through 2010 that totals about $1.6 million. He will get medical benefits for up to three years and up to $10,000 to pay legal fees associated with his termination.

Paul Hodgson, a spokesman with GMI, a Bellevue, WA-based corporate governance research organization said the amount McCarthy is receiving "is at the upper end of cash severance."

Hodgson says the current average is two times salary and bonus. He said "most companies have been trying to bring that down."  

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