Medtronic CEO received 80% raise thanks to inversion deal with Covidien

Medtronic ($MDT) CEO Omar Ishrak took home $40 million for the fiscal year ended April 30, an increase of nearly 80%. His base salary is only $1.5 million, while some of the money was from bonuses like stock options. And more than $25 million was from a tax gross-up payment as a result of the inversion deal between Medtronic and Covidien. The feds installed penalties to deter inversions by penalizing the executives with a special tax, but Medtronic's board of directors opted to pay the tax on behalf of the executives using company money to protect various executives' take-home pay. More