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J. Ezra Merkin to give up control over hedge funds
Financier and philanthropist J. Ezra Merkin assented Tuesday to step down as manager of his hedge funds and to place them into receivership.
The step was demanded by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who brought civil charges against Merkin last month, accusing him of fraudulent concealment and misrepresentation for steering his clients’ money to Bernard Madoff without their knowledge or permission.
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MAP HINTS: Boxes with + signs can be expanded by doubleclicking. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For more options, right-click on a box or click on the map tools to the left. (Requires Flash)Merkin, the former chairman of GMAC and the scion of a prominent Jewish family, funneled $2.4 billion into Bernard Madoff Investment Securities, including millions from prominent institutions like Yeshiva University.
Some of his investors, including New York University, New York Law School and Mort Zuckerman’s charitable trust, have brought suit against him, as has the trustee liquidating Madoff’s firm.
The agreement, announced Tuesday in New York State Supreme Court, means that Merkin will no longer control his three hedge funds, Ascot, Gabriel and Ariel, from which he reportedly collected more than $470 million in fees over the last decade.
“Mr. Merkin is working closely with the New York Attorney General,” his attorney, Andrew Levander, said in a statement, adding that Merkin had agreed in principle to appoint Guidepost Partners as receivers for the funds while he remains available to consult regarding the wind-down.
Justice Richard Lowe gave Cuomo and Merkin until May 28 to finalize the agreement.
Despite his legal and financial woes, the Jewish Week reported that Merkin is the frontrunner expected to be elected chairman Wednesday of the tony Fifth Avenue Synagogue, which his father helped found.
Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, who lost most of the funds of his humanitarian foundation, as well as his personal savings, after investing with Madoff, will become one of two honorary chairmen.
Despite consternation in some quarters, the Jewish Week said that Merkin has not been publicly opposed, perhaps because he has been one of the synagogue’s primary benefactors.
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Related stories on Muckety- J. Ezra Merkin sued for civil fraud in Madoff probe – April 6, 2009
- J. Ezra Merkin helps wipe out father’s legacy – December 17, 2008
- Feds rescue GMAC despite Ezra Merkin’s leadership – December 31, 2008
- Muck tracker – Ezra Merkin and Bernard Madoff – December 13, 2008
- Elite New York synagogue shaken by Madoff scam – December 22, 2008
- AIG gave $1M-plus ‘retention’ bonuses to some who left firm – March 17, 2009
- While Grasso toasts victory, Spitzer gets burned again – July 2, 2008
- Muck tracker – NYU sues Ezra Merkin – December 24, 2008
- Muck tracker – Madoff trustee sues Ezra Merkin for $557.8M – May 7, 2009
- Muck tracker – Ezra Merkin’s hedge fund to close – December 19, 2008
This post is tagged with: , Andrew Cuomo, Ariel, Ascot, Bernard Madoff Investment Securities, Elie Wiesel, Fifth Avenue Synagogue, Gabriel, GMAC, J. Ezra Merkin, Madoff, Mort Zuckerman, New York University, Recent StoriesRead related stories: Madoff · Recent Stories
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Spitzer’s mood darkens during state testimonyMay 21, 2009 at 9:48am
Two sides of former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s personality are revealed in recently released transcripts of two interviews he gave on the same subject under oath last year.
NY Fed’s Stephen Friedman resigns over ties to Goldman
His nickname at Goldman Sachs was “Mr. Inside,” and for decades, Stephen Friedman’s extensive contacts and expertise made him a go-to player on Wall Street.
But it was precisely that web of connections that raised conflict-of-interest issues in his latest job as non-executive chairman of the powerful Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
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MAP HINTS: Boxes with + signs can be expanded by doubleclicking. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For more options, right-click on a box or click on the map tools to the left. (Requires Flash)Friedman, 71, resigned from the post Thursday amid questions about his continuing ties to Goldman Sachs, which were first raised in a Wall Street Journal story Monday.
“Although I have been in compliance with the rules, my public service motivated continuation on the Reserve Bank Board is being mischaracterized as improper,” he wrote in a letter to New York Fed President William Dudley. “The Federal Reserve System has important work to do and does not need this distraction.”
In its story, the Journal had disclosed that Friedman was allowed to lead the New York Fed and remain a Goldman director and shareholder, in violation of Fed policy because of Goldman’s new status as a bank holding company. The New York Fed sought a one-year waiver of that rule, which was granted by the Federal Reserve board in Washington in January.
While the waiver was under consideration, in December, Friedman bought 37,300 more Goldman shares, the paper reported. He also bought more shares the day after the waiver came through. The purchases, which gave him a $3 million paper gain, were disclosed in Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
Friedman originally told the Journal that his role at the New York Fed wasn’t a policy-making one and that he saw “no conflict whatsoever in owning shares” of Goldman.
He noted that when he became an economic adviser to former President George W. Bush, he had had to sell nearly all his investments, in a process he described as “very costly and a difficult thing to manage.”
A longtime star of the financial world, Friedman had worked as an investment banker, a private-equity executive and an economic adviser to the president.
The bulk of his career, however, was spent at Goldman Sachs, where he held numerous executive roles. He was the company’s co-chief operating officer from 1987 to 1990, co-chairman, along with his longtime friend Robert E. Rubin, from 1990 to 1992, and the sole chairman from 1992 to 1994; he still serves as a director.
Admired for his intelligence and low-key style, Friedman has a welter of relationships in the philanthropic world as well. He is chairman emeritus of the board of Columbia University, where he attended law school, chairman emeritus of the executive committee of the Brookings Institution, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Out of work, he is said to be an avid chess player and wrestler. A wrestling center at his alma mater, Cornell University, bears his name. His son David Benioff, wrote the screenplay for The Kite Runner and X-Men Origins: Wolverine and is married to actress Amanda Peet. His brother, Richard, is a constitutional law scholar at the University of Michigan.
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Related stories on Muckety- Thain, Merrill’s new CEO, proves Goldman Sachs clout – November 15, 2007
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- Director woes at Dow Jones – July 20, 2007
This post is tagged with: Business, Columbia University, David Benioff, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Goldman Sachs Group, Recent Stories, Robert E. Rubin, Stephen FriedmanRead related stories: Business · Recent Stories0 Comments
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Dave Bing, political neophyte, will be Detroit’s oldest mayorMay 10, 2009 at 12:42pm
When pro basketball hall-of-famer Dave Bing was elected May 5 as Detroit’s third mayor in less than a year, a voter turnout of just 14 percent showed they’d prefer a duke to an emperor, and age to outrage.
Court-appointed trustee goes after Madoff family’s wealth
It looks like court-appointed Madoff trustee Irving Picard is going after the whole shebang: Not just Bernard Madoff’s Manhattan penthouse and home in the Hamptons, but also a good chunk of the wealth accumulated by his wife, brother and sons.
In his latest filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York, Picard argues that the convicted swindler used his firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities (BLMIS), “as his personal piggy bank” to support “a lavish lifestyle” for himself and his wife, as well as for his brother and other members of his family.
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MAP HINTS: Boxes with + signs can be expanded by doubleclicking. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For more options, right-click on a box or click on the map tools to the left. (Requires Flash)“Madoff used BLMIS to siphon funds which were, in reality, other people’s money, for his personal use and the benefit of his inner circle,” Picard says in the filing submitted Tuesday evening. “Plain and simple, he stole it.”
Picard, who is charged with returning as much money as possible to burned investors, contends that Madoff used money stolen from investors, for instance, to buy country club memberships for himself, his wife and one of his sons.
He also loaned $9 million to his brother, the firm’s chief compliance officer, in 2007, from one of the firm’s accounts, according to the papers. Picard said there is no evidence the loan was ever repaid. Peter Madoff’s wife, Marion, was also listed on the firm’s payroll with a salary of $163,500 in 2008, although there is no indication she did any work.
The firm also gave money to ventures begun by Madoff family members, including $1.7 million to Madoff Energy Holdings LLC, owned by Madoff’s sons Andrew and Mark, and his niece, Shana Madoff, the filing said.
The firm paid out $4.5 million to support Ruth Madoff’s real-estate-related investments through various entities under the name “Sterling,” with no benefit to Madoff’s firm or his customers, according to the papers.
Madoff placed his boat captain, his maid and his house-sitter in Florida on the firm’s payroll, and used the firm to provided corporate credit cards to his son’s wife and brother’s wife, even though they didn’t work for him, according to the filing.
More than $11.5 million was used to buy two yachts for the Madoff family, the filing said. Another $4.4 million appears to have been used by Andrew Madoff last October to purchase an Upper East Side apartment, while $6.5 million was loaned to Mark Madoff and his wife, Stephanie, last spring to purchase property on Nantucket, again with no evidence that any money was repaid.
Bernard Madoff, 71, was arrested Dec. 11 and pleaded guilty March 12 to running a $65-billion Ponzi scheme in which early investors were paid with the money of new clients. He is in jail, awaiting sentencing, and faces as much as 150 years in prison for various counts of securities fraud and other crimes.
Picard made the allegations in connection with his attempt to consolidate the bankruptcy proceedings of Madoff’s companies with those filed against Madoff by a group of investors.
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Related stories on Muckety- Ruth Madoff got $2M from husband’s UK office – March 27, 2009
- Ruth Madoff seeks to keep NY penthouse, $62M in assets – March 3, 2009
- Lymphoma foundation escapes Madoff wrecking ball – December 20, 2008
- Beverly Hills manager Stanley Chais sued by Madoff trustee – May 5, 2009
- Sen. Lautenberg’s family sues Madoff’s brother – February 26, 2009
- Charges against Madoff leave many unanswered questions – March 11, 2009
- Schapiro likely to be questioned about Madoff ties – December 19, 2008
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This post is tagged with: Andrew Madoff, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, Bernard Madoff, Irving Picard, Madoff, Madoff Energy Holdings LLC, Mark Madoff, Peter Madoff, Recent Stories, Ruth Madoff, Shana MadoffRead related stories: Madoff · Recent Stories0 Comments
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Judge rejects hardship plea from ex-Detroit mayorMay 8, 2009 at 6:36pm
Convicted felon and former Detroit mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick today lost a hardship bid to reduce $6,000 in monthly restitution payments to the city for his crimes.
Citigroup, Goldman Sachs recruit lawmakers’ ex-aides
Lavishing lawmakers with six-figure campaign donations is not the only way banks and investment houses influence the legislative process.
They also hire the top aides of those lawmakers, who can trade on relationships with their old bosses to pick up the phone and, say, arrange an impromptu session with Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, or Chris Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.
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MAP HINTS: Boxes with + signs can be expanded by doubleclicking. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For more options, right-click on a box or click on the map tools to the left. (Requires Flash)In the past year, top bailout recipients, including Goldman Sachs Group and Citigroup, have dispatched dozens of former congressional staffers and ex-government officials to lobby their former bosses on the financial rescue package, Mother Jones reports.
Besides one-time aides to Democratic and Republican leaders, the magazine found that many of the lobbyists hired by financial institutions are ex-employees of congressional committees on banking, finance, and commerce, former Treasury officials and in one case, a top aide to Rahm Emanuel, now the White House chief of staff.
Goldman Sachs, which has more than 30 ex-government officials working as registered lobbyists on staff, also tapped one-time House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) to represent its interests on issues related to the Treasury Department’s Troubled Assets Relief Program.
Other insiders lobbying for Goldman Sachs include Faryar Shirzad, a former top economic aide to President George W. Bush and also Republican counsel to the Senate Finance Committee; as well as former SEC commissioner Richard Y. Roberts, now a principal at lobby firm RR&G LLC.
Citigroup, which spent nearly $8 million on lobbying in 2008, is particularly adept at recruiting government insiders.
Leading its huge in-house staff is Nicholas E. Calio, senior vice president of global government affairs, who worked for both George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush as assistant to the president for legislative affairs assistant.
James “Jimmy” Ryan, former senior counsel to Majority Leader Reid, is another heavy hitter on the Democratic side. Ryan accompanied CEO Vikram Pandit to a recent meeting with Reid – although the senator’s spokesman Jim Manley discounted the notion that Pandit received any special treatment.
Another star on the Democratic side is Robert Getzoff, a vice president for federal government affairs who until 2007 served as senior counsel to then-Rep. Rahm Emanuel.
“To the best of our knowledge there has not been direct contact between Getzoff and Rahm in several months,” an Emanuel aide told Mother Jones.
Other in-house lobbyists include Robert Schellhas, a chief of staff to former Rep. Rob Portman, a Republican from Ohio, and Michael P. Andrews, formerly of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Besides its own staff, the banking giant has also hired more than a half-dozen lobbying firms, who themselves depend on hiring veterans of the legislative and executive branches.
Robert Cogorno, a Citigroup lobbyist who works for Elmendorf Strategies, is a former Gephardt aide and one-time floor director for Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), the No. 2 House Democrat.
(Cogorno also lobbies for Goldman Sachs, as does his boss, Steven Elmendorf, Gephardt’s former chief of staff.) A Hoyer spokeswoman told Mother Jones that Cogorno has not lobbied the House majority leader on banking matters.
Also on Citigroup’s lobbying team is DC attorney Robert Barnett, a former chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
Another new addition to Citigroup’s forces is DC Navigators, which registered in January to lobby for the bank on TARP issues. Handling the account is Cesar Conda, former Vice President Dick Cheney’s domestic policy chief.
Under current lobbying rules, lobbyists are only required to disclose if they lobby the House, the Senate, or the executive branch, and, in general terms, which bills or issue areas they lobbied on. They don’t have to identify the legislators or aides they contacted, or what they discussed with lawmakers.
The Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 strengthens some limitations on aides-turned-lobbyists, but former congressional staffers still need only wait a year before returning to the Hill to lobby their former bosses and colleagues.
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Related stories on Muckety- Goldman Sachs’ network extends around the world – October 10, 2008
- Thain, Merrill’s new CEO, proves Goldman Sachs clout – November 15, 2007
- Another lobbyist, Thomas Loeffler, leaves the McCain campaign – May 20, 2008
- Howard Baker markets services to Japanese companies – October 31, 2008
- Warren Buffett investing $5 billion in Goldman Sachs – September 24, 2008
- VP vetters for McCain and Obama have had similar career paths – June 3, 2008
- Kendrick Wilson III, Bush’s former classmate, will advise Treasury – July 24, 2008
- Citigroup to buy Wachovia’s banking assets – September 29, 2008
- Lobbyist Black defends McCain on lobbyist issue – February 24, 2008
- Rahm Emanuel agrees to be chief of staff – November 5, 2008
This post is tagged with: Cesar Conda, Chris Dodd, Faryar Shirzad, Goldman Sachs Group, Harry Reid, Jimmy Ryan, Lobbying, Michael P. Andrews, Nicholas E. Calio, Rahm Emanuel, Recent Stories, Richard Gephardt, Richard Y. Roberts, Robert Barnett, Robert Cogorno, Robert Getzoff, Robert Schellhas, Vikram PanditRead related stories: Lobbying · Recent Stories1 Comments
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#1. Pat 04.17.2009
America must curb its obvious threat that allows politicians and now their staffs to rope off the areas that permit them to be first at the till of taxpayers taken hostages.
Like the preferred beneficiaries of the United States Taxpayer Trust fund rather than elected representatives, it is what caused the first American revolution, and there is no reason to suspect that humanity is not capable of creating the conditions that necessitate another.
Term limits and lobbying limits may be the only cure for this egotistical affliction.
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Bush’s homeland security team hangs out shinglesApril 17, 2009 at 7:44am
Nearly every top member of the Bush Administration’s homeland security team has gone through the revolving door and re-emerged as a private consultant, where they can be expected to make big bucks off their expertise and contacts.
Fannie Mae Chief Herb Allison in Line to Oversee Tarp
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Former NY Rep. Vito Fossella pleads guilty to DUI
Vito Fossella, the former GOP congressman from Staten Island, NY, pleaded guilty to a drunk driving charge in a Virginia court Monday, in a change of heart which his lawyer said was prompted in part by the drunk driving death of a Major League Baseball player last week.
Fossella was pulled over after running a red light on May 1, 2008, and subsequently charged with driving while drunk. The arrest led to revelations that the married father-of-three had had a fourth child with a longterm girlfriend in suburban Virginia.
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MAP HINTS: Boxes with + signs can be expanded by doubleclicking. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For more options, right-click on a box or click on the map tools to the left. (Requires Flash)Although he had been convicted in October, Fossella, 43, had been appealing that decision on the basis that he said police had used a faulty breath-test machine.
But his attorney Barry Pollack told the Associated Press that attempts to obtain information about the breath-test machine were unsuccessful. And then Fossella had a change of heart, he said, after the death last Thursday of Nick Adenhart, a 22-year old pitcher with the Los Angeles Angels, whose car was hit by a suspected drunk driver.
“With that in the news, Mr. Fossella thought it particularly appropriate for him to acknowledge his own wrongdoing and not to fight over the issue of the accuracy of the reading in this particular case,” Pollack said. “The fact of the matter is, he had something to drink.”
Fossella entered a guilty plea today in Alexandria District Court. He has four days remaining on the five-day sentence issued in December and will serve them beginning this Friday over two weekends in Alexandria. He was given credit for the day he served when he was arrested.
Fossella was the only Republican member of the New York City congressional delegation before he stepped down at the end of his term, on Jan. 3, 2009. Democrat Michael McMahon won the seat last November against another Republican.
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Related stories on Muckety- Frank Powers, GOP candidate for Congress, dies of heart attack – June 22, 2008
- Ruth Madoff got $2M from husband’s UK office – March 27, 2009
- Are Madoff’s attorneys cutting a deal? – January 13, 2009
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- Madoff ordered to jail after pleading guilty – March 12, 2009
- Larry Craig racks up legal bills – April 24, 2008
- Madoff to face his victims in court Thursday – March 8, 2009
- Muck tracker – Chris Brown pleads not guilty – April 6, 2009
- Ted Stevens found guilty of all seven felony charges – October 27, 2008
- Madoff aide said to have ordered up fake trading tickets – March 9, 2009
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Citigroup, Goldman Sachs recruit former Congressional aides to gain accessApril 15, 2009 at 12:52pm
In the past year, top bailout recipients including Goldman Sachs and Citigroup have dispatched dozens of former congressional staffers and ex-government officials to lobby their former bosses on the financial rescue package.
Murtha seeks earmarks for PMA clients; Visclosky steers clear
Consider it a tale of two congressmen in the crosshairs.
One, Pennsylvania Democrat John P. Murtha, proudly embraces his ‘King of Earmarks’ nickname, and has requested dozens of new earmarks for 2010, including millions for former clients of the PMA Group, which shut its doors last month in the fallout over a federal probe into campaign finance irregularities. The lobby firm, which was founded by a former Murtha aide, had donated millions to Murtha’s campaigns.
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MAP HINTS: Boxes with + signs can be expanded by doubleclicking. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For more options, right-click on a box or click on the map tools to the left. (Requires Flash)The other, Indiana Democrat Peter J. Visclosky, another longtime ally of the PMA Group, released his earmark list late last week without a single request for a former PMA client. Visclosky also announced that he is returning donations from the defunct lobby firm – although so far, he has given away $18,000, just a fraction of the $369,750 he collected from the firm and its clients in 2007 and 2008, according to the New York Times.
The names of both lawmakers have repeatedly come up since the FBI raided the PMA Group’s offices last November, apparently on suspicions that founder Paul Magliocchetti had funneled donations to lawmakers through straw donors to circumvent campaign finance laws. The Justice Department has declined comment on its investigation of the firm. which specialized in winning earmarks and government contracts for clients such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin and MTS Technologies.
Murtha, a 76-year-old former Marine, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and PMA’s best-known ally, insists he is not a target and that he has not hired a lawyer.
“I don’t have a clue what it’s all about,” he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last month.
What Murtha says he does know is that without earmarks, “Johnstown [PA] would have been like Detroit is today. We would have been a ghost town.” At another point, he declared: “If I’m corrupt, it’s because I take care of my district.”
To that end, he has sought new earmarks for several companies once represented by PMA Group and which are located in his district, including Advanced Acoustic Concepts, Argon ST, MTS Technologies and Mobilvox.
“Every request is properly reviewed and vetted through a lengthy and thorough process,” he said in a note accompanying the entire earmark list.
Visclosky, 59, has taken the opposite tack, steering a wide berth around PMA Group clients, although in the past, he had also earmarked millions for them, and maintained a close bond with a former aide, Richard M. Kaelin, who became a PMA lobbyist. Visclosky is also a member of the Appropriations Committee.
After Murtha, Visclosky had been the No. 2 recipient of campaign contributions from the firm, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Sources told the Times that Visclosky was taking steps to prepare for legal scrutiny, including retaining lawyers to review his compliance with campaign finance laws.
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Related stories on Muckety- Donations from defense lobbyist PMA Group were a family affair – March 16, 2009
- Feds probe firms close to Rep. John Murtha – February 14, 2009
- Palin secured millions in earmarks for small town in Alaska – September 2, 2008
- Another lobbyist, Thomas Loeffler, leaves the McCain campaign – May 20, 2008
- Bernard Madoff cultivated ties to the Washington establishment – December 16, 2008
- Breaux-Lott lobby firm argues for Northrop Grumman – April 4, 2008
- Sen. Orrin Hatch’s charity in Utah is darling of Big Pharma – March 3, 2009
- Hunter Biden resigns as lobbyist – September 12, 2008
- McCain strategist Charlie Black offers clinical assessment of terrorist threat – June 24, 2008
- K Street woos Howard Dean, other Democrats – March 10, 2009
This post is tagged with: Advanced Acoustic Concepts, Argon ST, John Murtha, Lobbying, Mobilvox, MTS Technologies, Paul Magliocchetti, Peter J. Visclosky, PMA Group, Recent Stories, Richard M. KaelinRead related stories: Lobbying · Recent Stories0 Comments
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Commerce Secy Gary Locke is longtime advocate of Boeing, MicrosoftApril 10, 2009 at 8:49am
From the outset of his political career, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke was bullish about business.
Sandy Weill pumps $170M into Weill Cornell Medical College
Sandy Weill isn’t finished yet.
By the time he is done with the latest chapter of his life, which has been devoted to philanthropy, the ‘House that Sandy Built’ may become shorthand for Cornell Medical College, rather than now-teetering Citigroup, the financial supermarket Weill created in 1998 by merging his company, Travelers, with Citicorp.
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MAP HINTS: Boxes with + signs can be expanded by doubleclicking. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For more options, right-click on a box or click on the map tools to the left. (Requires Flash)The New York Times reports that the 76-year-old billionaire has pledged $170 million to the Weill Cornell Medical College so that the university can proceed with plans to build a new medical research building by 2013.
The philanthropist, who serves as the chairman of the board, is widely credited with helping to turn the college into a world-class medical school since making his first donation in 1998. (The Cornell Daily Sun estimates that Weill, who graduated from Cornell in 1955, has given the university over $720 million, along with his wife, since 1998.)
Weill had arranged to give $250 million to the medical school upon his death. But Cornell’s president, David J. Skorton, apparently convinced him to produce the money now, even if the sum was smaller, when the university was navigating difficult times. The school’s $5.4 billion endowment has lost more than a third of its value since last June and donations are dramatically down.
“The statement we’re trying to make is that this is a really important time to give money, whatever it’s for,” Weill told the Times.
But as the paper also notes, Weill may be trying to burnish an uncertain legacy after the near-collapse of the company he had built into the largest financial institution in the world. The financial supermarket model that he championed has also been widely discredited.
Weill, who stepped down as Citigroup’s chairman nearly three years ago, said he has been disturbed by Citi’s declining fortunes (and his own, as a result), but was focusing his energies on philanthropy.
Besides their donations to Cornell, he and his wife, Joan, have also given large sums to Carnegie Hall, where he is chairman of the board, the Hebrew Home for the Aged and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Foundation. Slate Magazine named him the seventh largest charitable donor in America in 2007.
“Legacies are for other people to decide,” Weill told the Times. “But my activities in the not-for-profit center seem to have a lot more staying power than what I accomplished in the for-profit arena.”
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Related stories on Muckety- Feds reportedly seek ouster of Citigroup’s Bischoff – January 12, 2009
- Princeton, donors’ family battle over $880 million – October 28, 2007
- James Simons gives millions to Stony Brook – February 29, 2008
- Oral Roberts University tries to regroup – November 28, 2007
- College presidents may be wearing too many hats – January 30, 2009
- Bloomberg top living philanthropist of 2008 – January 31, 2009
- Citigroup’s Pandit plays game of musical chairs with feds – February 25, 2009
- Trustees battle for control of Dartmouth College board – May 31, 2008
- Billionaire Chuck Feeney gives it all away – March 9, 2008
- Economy, Madoff scam hit Harlem Children’s Zone – January 27, 2009
This post is tagged with: Citigroup, Cornell Medical College, Joan Weill, Philanthropy, Recent Stories, Sandy Weill, Weill Cornell Medical CollegeRead related stories: Philanthropy · Recent Stories0 Comments
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Commerce Secy Gary Locke is longtime advocate of Boeing, MicrosoftApril 10, 2009 at 8:49am
From the outset of his political career, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke was bullish about business.
J. Ezra Merkin sued for civil fraud in Madoff probe
J. Ezra Merkin, who steered more than $2 billion of investors’ money into Bernard Madoff Investment Securities – including millions from prominent institutions like Yeshiva University and New York University – was sued Monday for civil fraud.
In a 54-page complaint, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo charged the financier, philanthropist and former GMAC chairman with fraudulent concealment and misrepresentation, saying that Merkin steered money to Madoff without his clients’ knowledge or permission.
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MAP HINTS: Boxes with + signs can be expanded by doubleclicking. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For more options, right-click on a box or click on the map tools to the left. (Requires Flash)The complaint charges that Merkin was not the “investing guru” he claimed to be, but instead a “master marketer,” pocketing hundreds of millions in fees from his investors and failing to disclose his own conflicts of interest. The complaint said he earned an estimated $470 million in fees from his clients for essentially diverting all their funds to Madoff.
“Merkin profited enormously from Madoff’s scheme, reaping huge commissions while investors lost all their money,” Cuomo said.
Merkin began the Ascot fund in 1992 exclusively as “feeder” fund for Madoff, according to the complaint. Ascot grew to hold $1.7 billion from 300 investors by the end of December, 2008 – earning Merkin about $25.5 million a year in fees, the complaint said.
Over 10 percent of the funds came from non-profits, including New York Law School, Bard College, and charitable trusts set up by Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel and New York Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman. Several of those investors have separately brought suit against Merkin.
Cuomo alleges that in conversations with investors, and in his quarterly reports, Merkin concealed the role Madoff played. In one presentation to a nonprofit investor, for instance, Merkin said that only 15 percent of Ascot was invested with Madoff, the complaint said. In reality, the entire fund was invested with thim.
“Merkin duped individual investors, non-profits, and charities into believing he was responsibly managing their investments, when in actuality he was dumping them into history’s largest Ponzi scheme.” Cuomo said.
Merkin sat on several prominent boards, including those of Carnegie Hall, the UJA-Federation, Yeshiva University and the Fifth Avenue Synagogue. Besides being a chairman of GMAC, the auto lender, he was a director of Cerberus, the private equity company.
The complaint contends that Merkin was aware of red-flags related to Madoff going back at least a decade, but persisted in investing with him nonetheless.
In the early 1990s, Victor Teicher, a money manager who had worked for Merkin, told him not to invest with Madoff because his steady returns were impossible, according to the complaint.
Merkin also allegedly knew of the tiny suburban New York accounting firm, Friehling & Horowitz, with one active accountant, that Madoff used – a red flag to many investors.
In his files, Merkin kept two 2001 news articles questioning Madoff’s returns – one published in Barron’s and one by a hedge fund newsletter called MARHedge, according to the complaint.
Merkin’s lawyer, Andrew Levander, released a prepared statement late yesterday, saying he was disappointed that Cuomo had filed what he called a “hasty and ill-conceived civil lawsuit, against which we intend to defend vigorously.”
Cuomo’s complaint is the second to charge a so-called Madoff feeder fund with fraud. Massachusetts regulators last week charged Fairfield Greenwich Group.
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This post is tagged with: Andrew Cuomo, Ascot Fund, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, Bernard Madoff, Ezra Merkin, Madoff, Mort Zuckerman, New York University, Recent Stories, Yeshiva UniversityRead related stories: Madoff · Recent Stories0 Comments
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