Good Riddance, Dr. McGuire

From the Wall Street Journal:

"William McGuire, chairman and chief executive of UnitedHealth Group Inc., faces mounting boardroom pressure to leave the giant health insurer after an internal probe found evidence that stock options were improperly backdated to benefit insiders, people familiar with the matter said.

Dr. McGuire's fate, along with that of general counsel David Lubben, could be decided at a board meeting scheduled to take place Sunday, these people said.

Directors received a detailed briefing on the results of the months-long internal probe Friday in Washington. The probe was conducted by law firm WilmerHale. The meeting included a lengthy presentation by Dr. McGuire and his attorney.

UnitedHealth, one of the nation's largest health insurers with a market value of $66 billion, is among the most prominent of the more than 100 companies caught up in the stock-options scandal. Dr. McGuire has been among the highest-paid executives in U.S. corporate history, amassing an enormous, options-based fortune over his 15 years running UnitedHealth. At the end of 2005, his unexercised cache of options was valued at $1.78 billion, far and away the largest sum held by any U.S. executive, according to Standard & Poor's ExecuComp."

It's time to say good-bye.

-Wes