On May 24, 2004, Grasso was sued by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer demanding repayment of the majority of the $140 million pay package. Prior to being dismissed Grasso had been in line to receive an additional $48 million over the $139.5 million he had already received; he was not paid the additional funds. Grasso has sued to be awarded those funds. According to the suit, Grasso, along with former NYSE director Kenneth Langone, misled the NYSE board about the details of his pay package. It was allegedly well beyond that of comparable chief executives. The NYSE was a non-profit institution during Richard Grasso's reign, and as such was governed by State of New York rules governing executive compensation for same. That the NYSE was NON-profit goes to the heart of the matter of Grasso's compensation. This is because FOR-profit companies have traditionally received much greater leeway in executive compensation matters, even when the compensation might appear to be excessive to stockholders. In addition, there were issues concerning premature withdrawals of Grasso's retirement compensation. Retirement packages often have strict timetables as to when withdrawals can be made.