In For a Penney, Out For $2.5M

According to a report in Crain's Chicago Business, former Montgomery Ward & Co. ceo Roger Goddu was offered the top job at J. C. Penney Co. in May 2000, as a struggling Wards was headed for bankruptcy.

The Crain's report, which it said was based on bankruptcy court documents, said that Jack Welch, chairman of General Electric Co. (which owned Wards), told Goddu. “Don't you [bleeping] leave me.” A month later, Welch reportedly gave Goddu $2.5 million worth of GE stock.

The allegations were part of a bankruptcy court filing in Delaware by the retailer's unsecured creditors.

A GE spokesman commented that, “In our opinion, those passages are taken out of context from the full transcript and documentary record.”