Cheniere CEO Risks Losing $133 Million Amid Investor Suit

Cheniere Energy Inc. (LNG) Chief Executive Officer Charif Souki, the highest paid executive in the U.S., stands to lose 89 percent of his 2013 compensation if a shareholder lawsuit against his company succeeds. The natural gas export company, which has never generated an annual profit, granted Souki 6.3 million stock units valued at $133 million in 2013. An investor alleged in a lawsuit filed May 29 in Delaware that a February 2013 vote allocating 25 million shares into a bonus pool, including 6 million awarded to Souki last year, was miscounted. “The proxy doesn’t determine what the voting rule will be,” Keith P. Bishop, a partner at Allen Matkins and the former commissioner of corporations for the state of California, said in a phone interview. “It’s determined by the company’s articles, bylaws and applicable state law.”