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Geithner aides made millions on Wall Street
By Tom Braithwaite in Washington
Published: October 14 2009 20:49 | Last updated: October 14 2009 20:49
Obama administration officials now working on fixing and regulating the financial system were beneficiaries of several million dollars in pay from Wall Street and private equity companies, it has been revealed.
Financial disclosure forms show that prior to joining the government, Gene Sperling, a senior Treasury adviser, was paid $887,727 by Goldman Sachs and $158,000 for speeches to companies that included Stanford Group, the company run by Sir Allen Stanford, who has since been charged with fraud.
Mr Sperling’s compensation from Goldman was for work on a philanthropic project. His overall pay, including for his main job at the Council on Foreign Relations, totalled $2.2m in the 13 months to January.
The forms, which were first obtained by Bloomberg, showed that Matthew Kabaker, another adviser in the Treasury, earned $5.8m at Blackstone, the private equity firm, in the two years before joining the administration to work on plans to support banks and spur lending. Much of the compensation was in stock.
Lewis Alexander, another adviser, was chief economist to Citigroup before joining the administration; he was paid $2.4m in the last two years.
Even though some of the officials whose previous salaries were disclosed are senior, many were appointed as “counselors”, meaning they escaped Senate confirmation hearings which could have highlighted their past remuneration and employment at a time of heightened animosity towards the financial industry.
Earlier this month the release of the telephone call logs of Tim Geithner, Treasury secretary, showed he had numerous conversations with a number of Wall Street executives, sparking allegations that the administration was too close to the industry.
Officials argued then and on Wednesday that it was important to have skilled people working for the government as it crafted complicated financial rescues and for Mr Geithner to communicate with financial sector executives. Mr Geithner, the former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, has never worked on Wall Street.
Mr Obama, however, has hit out at the culture that he said prevailed before last year’s financial crisis – at a time when many of the Treasury officials were working on Wall Street and related businesses.
“We will not go back to the days of reckless behaviour and unchecked excess that was at the heart of this crisis, where too many were motivated only by the appetite for quick kills and bloated bonuses,” he said at a speech in New York last month.
Previous releases of disclosure forms revealed the $5.2m paid to Lawrence Summers, chief economic adviser to the White House, by DE Shaw, the hedge fund, in the two years before he joined the administration.
The disclosures come during a complicated time for the relationship between the Obama administration and business, with officials accused of being too close to companies on the one hand and encountering increased criticism from business lobby groups on the other.
The US Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday launched its “campaign for free enterprise”, arguing the private sector was under threat from various over-reaching government plans, including for a Consumer Financial Protection Agency and a cap-and-trade scheme to reduce carbon emissions.
Geithner aides made millions on Wall Street
By Tom Braithwaite in Washington
Published: October 14 2009 20:49 | Last updated: October 14 2009 20:49
Obama administration officials now working on fixing and regulating the financial system were beneficiaries of several million dollars in pay from Wall Street and private equity companies, it has been revealed.
Financial disclosure forms show that prior to joining the government, Gene Sperling, a senior Treasury adviser, was paid $887,727 by Goldman Sachs and $158,000 for speeches to companies that included Stanford Group, the company run by Sir Allen Stanford, who has since been charged with fraud.
Mr Sperling’s compensation from Goldman was for work on a philanthropic project. His overall pay, including for his main job at the Council on Foreign Relations, totalled $2.2m in the 13 months to January.
The forms, which were first obtained by Bloomberg, showed that Matthew Kabaker, another adviser in the Treasury, earned $5.8m at Blackstone, the private equity firm, in the two years before joining the administration to work on plans to support banks and spur lending. Much of the compensation was in stock.
Lewis Alexander, another adviser, was chief economist to Citigroup before joining the administration; he was paid $2.4m in the last two years.
Even though some of the officials whose previous salaries were disclosed are senior, many were appointed as “counselors”, meaning they escaped Senate confirmation hearings which could have highlighted their past remuneration and employment at a time of heightened animosity towards the financial industry.
Earlier this month the release of the telephone call logs of Tim Geithner, Treasury secretary, showed he had numerous conversations with a number of Wall Street executives, sparking allegations that the administration was too close to the industry.
Officials argued then and on Wednesday that it was important to have skilled people working for the government as it crafted complicated financial rescues and for Mr Geithner to communicate with financial sector executives. Mr Geithner, the former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, has never worked on Wall Street.
Mr Obama, however, has hit out at the culture that he said prevailed before last year’s financial crisis – at a time when many of the Treasury officials were working on Wall Street and related businesses.
“We will not go back to the days of reckless behaviour and unchecked excess that was at the heart of this crisis, where too many were motivated only by the appetite for quick kills and bloated bonuses,” he said at a speech in New York last month.
Previous releases of disclosure forms revealed the $5.2m paid to Lawrence Summers, chief economic adviser to the White House, by DE Shaw, the hedge fund, in the two years before he joined the administration.
The disclosures come during a complicated time for the relationship between the Obama administration and business, with officials accused of being too close to companies on the one hand and encountering increased criticism from business lobby groups on the other.
The US Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday launched its “campaign for free enterprise”, arguing the private sector was under threat from various over-reaching government plans, including for a Consumer Financial Protection Agency and a cap-and-trade scheme to reduce carbon emissions.
