Ramaswamy is Super-Wealthy Globalist

Red Team candidate for the White House Vivek Ramaswamy spoke of political puppets to the globalist machine.  That's rich from a billionaire who located his companies in tax havens, Bermuda and Switzerland.

Ramaswamy is Rama-Swarmy.  His is not the antidote to outsized insider influence at the expense of the common person.  He embodies that very offense. 

Polticians Red and Blue love PEU (private equity underwriters), and increasingly, more are one. 

Update 9-6-23:  For all of Ramaswamy's global financial experience he knows little of foreign policy, according to former National Security Advisor John Bolton.  Bolton rated Ramaswamy's foreign policy acumen at the kindergarten level, similar to his former boss Donald Trump.

"He has very firm opinions on subjects he knows absolutely nothing about."

Update 9-7-23:  Mr Ramaswamy would replace federal taxes with a flat rate of 12.5 per cent.  There is no greater gift for a global capitalist than that.

I take it truth got tired of being abused by Ramaswamy and took action.

Update 9-17-23:  The more the public finds about Ramaswamy the more often he is rated as "annoying."  Globalist pharma bro Ramaswamy used the H1-B visa program to get workers for his ROI focused drug PEU.  Candidate Ramaswamy wants to get rid of it.

Update 10-6-23:  Ramaswamy's campaign misrepresented a fender bender according to local police.  The Truth sign may attack Vivek agaiin.

Update 10-25-23:  Roivant spent $15 million on a bowel disease drug and sold it for $5 billion.  Telavant is the division of Roivant that made the obscene profits.

Update 11-13-23:  Ramaswamy shows he has not the faintest connection to reality:

On Day 1, *instantly* fire 50% of federal bureaucrats.  Here’s how: if your SSN ends in an odd number, you’re fired.  That downsizes government by half. Absolutely *nothing* will break as a result.  It doesn’t violate civil service rules because mass layoffs are exempt.  SHUT IT… — Vivek Ramaswamy

Leveraging is the current game for billionaire wannabees.  That's how many billionaires arrived.  

Vivek leveraged lingering pharmaceutical drug candidates into billions of dollars while using offshore entities and employing family members. 

"Any theory is correct in its own world but it may not make contact with this world."--Dr. W. Edwards Deming

Vivek clearly is in his own bubble. 

Update 1-9-24:  Axios reported the unraveling of Ramaswamy's campaign.  Should he get a Trump cabinet slot Ramaswamy could sell his ROIvant holdings tax free.  Sweet!

Unicorn Ramaswamy Wants to Meet Racist Unicorn

Red Team Presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy started "unicorn" Roivant Sciences but now says he can't find one.

In 2018, 14 European startups reached unicorn status, led by Roivant Sciences with its $7B valuation. 

Ramaswamy invoked the horned horse while discussing White Supremacy:

“I’ve never once encountered that yet. I’m sure the boogeyman White Supremacist exists somewhere in America. I’ve just never met him. Never seen one,” Ramaswamy said. “Maybe I’ll meet a unicorn sooner.”

Meet yourself, Mr. Ramaswamy, unicorn founder.  

All little girls dream of unicorns   I hope parents of those children don't teach them hate.  

Unicorns aren't Ramaswamy's only flip-flop.  He was against Trump's Jan. 6th insurrection before he was for it. 

Roviant was effectively a pharma focused private equity underwriter (PEU).  It sponsors a number of "vant" companies in pursuit of ROI.

Politicians Red and Blue love PEU and increasingly, more are one.

Update 8-31-23:  Ramaswamy is the continuation of the insider machine, not the antidote.  

Update 9-4-23:  While Rama-Swarmy continues making absurdly provocative statements real white supremacists gathered in Orlando.  The white supremacists chanted "We are everywhere." 

Florida is cracker friendly.  Now who are they going to get to clean up their state after a major hurricane?

Meanwhile proposed Ramaswamy White House Advisor Elon Musk pondered X'ing out the site's Anti-Defamation League account.  Musk's brother and a pack of techbros couldn't solve the problem of burning mud where two of the biggest "tech camps" were severely flooded.

Update 11-13-23:  Ramaswamy shows he has not the faintest connection to reality:

On Day 1, *instantly* fire 50% of federal bureaucrats.  Here’s how: if your SSN ends in an odd number, you’re fired.  That downsizes government by half. Absolutely *nothing* will break as a result.  It doesn’t violate civil service rules because mass layoffs are exempt.  SHUT IT… — Vivek Ramaswamy

Leveraging is the current game for billionaire wannabees.  That's how many billionaires arrived.  

Vivek leveraged lingering pharmaceutical drug candidates into billions of dollars while using offshore entities and employing family members. 

"Any theory is correct in its own world but it may not make contact with this world."--Dr. W. Edwards Deming

Vivek clearly is in his own bubble.

PEU "Highest Calling"

 

Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein's "view is that private equity is the highest calling of mankind," a sentiment recently echoed by CNBC's Joe Kernen.   He shared that in an interview with CalPERS Chief Investment Officer Nicole Musicco.  The video is an impressive eight minute commercial for private equity underwriters (PEU)

Consider the PEU "calling":

Flipping companies often at the expense of workers, juicing returns via high levels of leverage, mining cash from affiliates through an assortment of fees/special dividends and paying preferred taxes at lower "carried interest" rates.

Bleeding Uncle Sam's wallet, using "billionaire status" to drive public policy, crafting consummate political insider-ship that enables PEUs to use "non-lobbying" influence to read government tea leaves and ensure both political parties are servants to their willful greed.

Bloomberg interviewer Rubenstein and CalPERS Musicco did not disclose how much money CalPERS has invested in Carlyle's various funds.

In sharing historical background Rubenstein failed to mention CalPERS was an early equity investor in Carlyle.  Failure to make the most basic disclosures is common in our PEU world. 

Highest calling, God's work?  Hardly.  It's all about outsized earthly gains.

Update 9-15-23:  Musicco will step down as CalPERS CIO at the end of September.  She lasted 18  months in the role.  Prior to CalPERS Musicco was a PEU with Redbird Capital Partners.

Vivek Ramaswamy: Cayman Islands PEU

Vivek Ramaswamy became a millionaire while working for QVT Financial from 2007 to 2014.  As a partner Ramaswamy managed QVT's biotech portfolio.  

QVT's various funds are split between the U.S and the Cayman Islands, a notorious tax haven for America's super-wealthy.  Eight of the firm's eighteen funds are based in the Caymans.  That's one fund short of 50%.

So the American dream is to make partner with a giant hedge/private equity fund while dodging your fair share of taxes.  Offshoring kept investment profits away from Uncle Sam while Vivek's peers used their serious political might to keep their preferred "carried interest" taxation.  

QVT liked Ramaswamy's work and kept investing in his various pharmaceutical ventures.  At least one of those (Axovant) hired Ramaswamy's mother and brother, both physicians.

Axovant went public, changing its name in the midst of setbacks.  In December 2022 the company announced it would dissolve leaving investors holding Vivek's bag.  At least one public pension fund bet on Axovant.  It was their third worst performer in Q1 2018.

NYT reported CalSTRS also invested in Axovant.

Voters would be wise to question Ramaswamy's accomplishments.  High dollar earnings from flippiing corporations makes Vivek a private equity underwriter (PEU).  The above slide shows have former PEU affiliates can become pension fund dogs.

The greed and leverage boys did quite well for themselves selling affiliates at the top of economic cycles.

They managed to keep wages down for the bottom 80% as they acquired company after company, while sending jobs by the "super yacht"-load to China.  There is a pattern here for those willing to see.

Politicians Red and Blue love PEU and increasingly, more are one.  Vivek clearly fits into the PEU class that harmed so many voters.  Once in office those politicians join in earning outsized returns, also a pattern here.  It's a PEU world.

Update 8-24-23:  Vivek failed to mention Hinduism's multiple gods in last night's debate introduction.  Was that Vishnu, Krishna or Shiva he referenced when he said "God is real?"

Matt Stoller summarized Vivek's business career with this insight:

Vivek Ramaswamy's career seems to be one where he got rich, while his investors lost everything.

He has a dark history.

Pharma-bro Vivek got the attention of Tech-bro Elon Musk.  They can drive the quality out of anything in pursuit of ego and profits, both outsized.

Update 8-25-23:  The New Yorker called out Ramaswamy last December. 

Ramaswamy’s Roivant advisory board included several well-known Democrats, including Tom Daschle, the former Senate Majority Leader; Kathleen Sebelius, the former Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Barack Obama; and Donald Berwick, the former administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Dirty Daschle's association with Rama-swarmy is not a surprise.  Don Berwick's is a complete shock.  It shows anyone can be taken.  All three resigned after Ramaswamy wrote a WSJ op-ed after the Capital insurrection on January 6th.

Politicians Red and Blue love PEU....

Update 8-26-23:  Roviant became a publicly trading company by merging with an SPAC.  The proxy statement said:

Roivant Sciences Ltd., a Bermuda exempted limited company (“Roivant”)...

Another tax haven. 

Update 8-27-23:  Vivek wants Elon Musk to be his White House advisor.   Twitter X is now the home of the "blue tick" scammer.  Wait until Musk turns it into a super app with digital payments.  The scamming opportunities could be "next level."

Update 10-25-23:  Roivant spent $15 million on a bowel disease drug and sold it for $5 billion.  Telavant is the division of Roivant that made the obscene profits. 

Update 11-13-23:  Ramaswamy shows he has not the faintest connection to reality:

On Day 1, *instantly* fire 50% of federal bureaucrats.  Here’s how: if your SSN ends in an odd number, you’re fired.  That downsizes government by half. Absolutely *nothing* will break as a result.  It doesn’t violate civil service rules because mass layoffs are exempt.  SHUT IT… — Vivek Ramaswamy

Leveraging is the current game for billionaire wannabees.  That's how many billionaires arrived.  

Vivek leveraged lingering pharmaceutical drug candidates into billions of dollars while using offshore entities and employing family members. 

"Any theory is correct in its own world but it may not make contact with this world."--Dr. W. Edwards Deming

Vivek clearly is in his own bubble.

Ramaswamy's Thomas Jefferson: Superior PEU

Billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy appealed to young voters by comparing himself to Thomas Jefferson, the writer of America's highest ideals for white, male landowners.  Ramaswamy wants to revive those "1776" ideals.  

Most young voters are completely unaware that Thomas Jefferson used his Monticello slaves as collateral for loan.  

This act is more egregious as a friend already willed Jefferson more than enough money to free his slaves.  TJ, the "idealist," had ready access to this money but could not let "his property" go free.

Ramaswamy noted his appeal to America's youth:

"...Gen Z, where only 16 percent of them say they’re proud to be an American, where 60 percent of them say they would sooner give up their right to vote than to give up their access to Tik Tok."

Just as white, male landowners failed to protect women and people of color, America's current leaders have allowed the country's youth to be damaged by social media's sick algorithm-driven content, with Tik Tok being among the worst. 

Ramaswamy wants to bring Elon Musk management malpractice to the executive branch.  That would entail firing the vast majority of federal employees, driving away allies (as Musk did to advertisers), all so a billionaire could destroy a product in the name of making more billions.  No thank you.

Ramaswamy is a very rich man.  He made his first million working at QVT Financial, an investment firm.  He then targeted pharmaceuticals for even bigger money.

Fierce Healthcare wrote:

Ramaswamy's new biotech venture, Axovant ($AXON), are much discussed these days. The former hedge fund manager grabbed an abandoned GlaxoSmithKline drug for Alzheimer's for $5 million. He gathered a team together and without recruiting a single patient for a pivotal study of a marginal drug designed to treat symptoms of the disease, just raised $315 million in an upsized IPO that came in at the top of the range and promptly gyrated much higher today as investors bought in.

Axovant, with no track record, no experience and one questionable product, leaped onto the market worth much more than $1 billion.

The fact that someone can make something of this size out of virtually nothing should be of concern to everyone in the industry. Magical thinking will take you just so far 

Axovant tumbled before going belly up, dissolving earlier this year.  A 2018 proxy filing for Axovant showed "Family Relationships."  Axovant paid Vivek's mother over $220,000 in compensation.

 

Geetha Ramaswamy, M.D., the former Vice President of Medical and Scientific Strategy of Axovant Sciences, Inc. and an employee of Roivant Sciences, Inc., is the mother of Vivek Ramaswamy, the former Chairman of our Board of Directors and former Chief Executive Officer of Axovant Sciences, Inc.

 

During our fiscal year ended March 31, 2018, Geetha Ramaswamy earned total cash compensation, consisting of salary and bonus, of $133,900 and was granted a stock option with a grant date fair value, as computed in accordance with FASB ASC 718, of $87,868. There was no cash compensation earned by, or stock options granted to, Geetha Ramaswamy for our fiscal year ended March 31, 2019.

Axovant paid Vivek's brother received over $1.6 million for that same year.

Shankar Ramaswamy, M.D., the Chief Business Officer of Axovant Sciences, Inc. and a former employee of Roivant Sciences, Inc., is the brother of Vivek Ramaswamy. During our fiscal year ended March 31, 2018, Shankar Ramaswamy earned total cash compensation, consisting of salary and bonus, of $401,700 and was granted stock options with an aggregate grant date fair value, as computed in accordance with FASB ASC 718, of $1,209,627. During our fiscal year ended March 31, 2019, Shankar Ramaswamy earned total cash compensation, consisting of salary and bonus, of $442,500.

QVT supported Ramaswamy along the way by investing in his various "vant" companies.

QVT has long been a recognized investor in the biotech and healthcare industries, in both public and private markets. QVT was among the earliest and largest investors in Pharmasset and Medivation. QVT seeded and remains the largest investor in Roivant Sciences Ltd.

Roivant Sciences is one of Ramaswamy's "vant" companies.  It hit the NASDAQ stock exchange via an SPAC merger, led by KKR's former healthcare chief Jim Momtazee and his firm Patient Square Capital.  Momtazee was at KKR when it added billions in extra healthcare costs to hospital giant HCA. 

 

KKR is one of the oldest private equity underwriters (PEU) given its founding in 1976, (two hundred years after 1776).   KKR is older than Ramaswamy.

 

Vivek noted in one interview:

"I don’t dance to anybody else’s tune."

I'm afraid Ramaswamy dances in the PEU chorus line.  

...the 37-year-old Ohio native made hundreds of millions of dollars through a network of companies focused on prescription drug development.

Ramaswamy made his millions on the backs of citizens paying ever increasing amounts for prescription drugs.

PEU Peter Thiel helped launch another Ramaswamy company, Strive Asset Management.  Strive rang the NASDAQ opening bell earlier this year.  

The image is remarkably white, which brings us back to our founding father.  History shows Thomas Jefferson would be happy to use Ramaswamy as collateral for a loan.  It also suggests Jefferson wouldn't use his best friend's money to give Ramaswamy the freedom he currently enjoys. 

PEU Ramaswamy has a hard act to run on. 

Update:  Ramaswamy said that he could appeal to "voters of diverse shades of melanin."  That's rich for a Red Team opposed to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

Update 8-21-23:   Paul Krugman called out Ramaswamy as a "tech bro" and panned his understanding of economics.  Financelot noted similar aspects of Ramaswamy's history and said the candidate "isn't changing anything" about the system that granted him outsized rewards.

Update 8-22-23:  Vivek took on CNN's Kaitlin Collins over Taiwan.  Shame she didn't ask about his employing his mom and brother at the now defunct Axovant.  The mother got a separate paycheck from Roivant.  Mansplain that Mr. Ramaswamy.

Ramaswamy turned rama-swarmey with his "petulant teenager" insult of Kaitlin Collins.  

Millionaire Ramaswamy accepted scholarship money to Yale Law school after working for QVT Financial.

In 2011, the same year he accepted the award, Ramaswamy reported $2,252,209 in total income, according to his tax returns, which he released in June. He reported a total of $1,173,690 in income in the three years prior.

QVT has a private equity fund officially making Ramaswamy a former PEU. 

Politico reported Ramaswamy's firm QVT helped Martin Shkreli become a disgusting, obscene pharma profiteer.  

Update 8-23-23:  The Daily Beast asked why a Hindu would push Christian Nationalism?

Update 8-24-23:  Vivek's claims of unfair treatment by reporters took a hit with a recording of the candidate's actual words.

Ramaswamy failed to mention Hinduism's multiple gods in last night's debate introduction.  Was that Vishnu or Shiva he referenced last night?

Matt Stoller summarized Vivek's business career with this insight:

Vivek Ramaswamy's career seems to be one where he got rich, while his investors lost everything.

He has a dark history.

Pharma-bro Vivek got the attention of Tech-bro Elon Musk.  They can drive the quality out of anything in pursuit of ego and profits, both outsized.

Update 8-25-23:  The New Yorker called out Ramaswamy last December. 

Ramaswamy’s Roivant advisory board included several well-known Democrats, including Tom Daschle, the former Senate Majority Leader; Kathleen Sebelius, the former Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Barack Obama; and Donald Berwick, the former administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Dirty Daschle's association with Rama-swarmy is not a surprise.  Don Berwick's is a complete shock.  It shows anyone can be taken.  All three resigned after Ramaswamy wrote a WSJ op-ed after the Capital insurrection on January 6th.

Politicians Red and Blue love PEU, and increasingly, more are one.

Update 8-26-23:  Potential Red Team voters had a 13% unfavorable rating of Vivek before the debate and 32% after.   Elon Musk called Ramaswamy a very promising candidate.  Ramaswamy said he wanted Musk as a White House Advisor Giant Internet Troll.  Tech bros have caused much social harm.  Think what they can do in the White House.

Mostly a non-voter and "unaffiliated" Vivek chose the Insane Reds and went straight for the Office of the Presidency.  PEU Pharma Bro's from Harvard/Yale have the ego to do that.

Update 8-27-23:  Twitter X is now the home of the "blue tick" scammer.  Wait until Musk turns it into a super app with digital payments.  The scamming opportunities could be "next level."

Update 9-7-23:  A giant "Truth" sign fell on Ramaswamy at a campaign event.  Yes folks, it is a sign. 

Update 9-17-23:  Ramaswamy invoked Jefferson again this morning in a Fox News interview.  The host asked Vivek why is still in the race since he is trailing badly, does not want to be Trump's VP and voters find him increasingly irritating?

Update 10-25-23:  Roivant spent $15 million on a bowel disease drug and sold it for $5 billion.  Telavant is the division of Roivant that made the obscene profits.

Update 11-13-23:  Ramaswamy shows he has not the faintest connection to reality:

On Day 1, *instantly* fire 50% of federal bureaucrats.  Here’s how: if your SSN ends in an odd number, you’re fired.  That downsizes government by half. Absolutely *nothing* will break as a result.  It doesn’t violate civil service rules because mass layoffs are exempt.  SHUT IT… — Vivek Ramaswamy

Leveraging is the current game for billionaire wannabees.  That's how many billionaires arrived.  

Vivek leveraged lingering pharmaceutical drug candidates into billions of dollars while using offshore entities and employing family members. 

"Any theory is correct in its own world but it may not make contact with this world."--Dr. W. Edwards Deming

Vivek clearly is in his own bubble.

 

Yet Another Biden PEU Vacation

President Biden is staying at the Lake Tahoe home of Tom Steyer, founder of Farallon Capital Management (1986) and Galvanize Climate Solutions (2021).  

Biden frequently spends Thanksgiving at the Nantucket home of Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein.  

Should Lake Tahoe have any environmental issues Steyer's Galvanize Climate Solutions could send newly appointed Strategic Advisor Lisa Jackson.  Jackson headed the EPA during BP's Gulf of Mexico Oil Spew.  Official spill estimates were up to five times too small, according to one independent expert.

Tom Steyer's Farallon Capital Management is listed by Crunchbase as a private equity/venture capital firm.  That makes Steyer a private equity underwriter (PEU).  

Farallon had deals with KV Pharmaceuticals prior to founder Steyer's leaving the firm in early 2013.  In 2010 KV paid $27.6 million in fines for oversized morphine sulfate pills, a pain-relief medication, and two other medications. Farallon was part of an ad hoc group funding KV Pharma convertible notes in August 2012.  Farallon bought $7 million in notes across a number of Farallon funds and received over 12,000 shares in the company.  One of those funds was Farallon Capital Offshore Investors II, LP.

At the time of his exit from Farallon Steyer said:

I am leaving the bulk of my money in the fund and I urge other investors to do the same.  

In September 2013 Farallon lent KV Pharmaceuticals another $20 million. Tom Steyer was no longer there but his money was.  

Galvanize Climate Solutions blog states:

The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) represents a new, ambitious era in American climate policy. While it’s still unclear what policies will emerge as a result of this shift in American climate competitiveness, it seems likely that we have entered a race to the top in global climate industry policy.

President Biden's vacationing at PEU billionaire estates represents a longstanding race to the bottom.

Politicians Red and Blue love PEU and increasingly, more are one.

Update:  Chinese President Xi faces storm clouds as he retreats with other Communist Party leaders at the beach.  Is that better than a rare West Coast hurricane?

Sotheby's, Justin Bieber and Paris Hilton Sued Over Failed NFTs

CNN reported:

A group of investors is suing Sotheby’s Holdings Inc. and others over a 2021 auction and promotion of Bored Ape Yacht Club non-fungible tokens (NFTs) following a collapse in prices for the celebrity-endorsed collectibles.

The four named plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit allege that the auction house “misleadingly promoted” the NFTs and colluded with creator Yuga Labs to artificially inflate their prices.

Sotheby’s is among 30 defendants named in the lawsuit, with celebrities like Justin Bieber and Paris Hilton also accused of promoting the NFT collection without disclosing their financial links to it.

Glad someone woke up from their investment fantasy.  They finally left their delusion after seeing the giant hole in their pocketbook.  Hurts doesn't it.  That's the lesson.  One still has too much money if they are hiring high dollar lawyers and suing. 

Smart people would ask for a government bailout instead or maybe a chance to earn fees on a counterfeit dollar (stablecoins).

U.S. Failed in Removal of PEU Preferred Taxation

President Biden got confrontational in a recent speech.

"Name me a single objective we’ve ever set out to accomplish that we’ve failed on. Name me one, in all of our history. Not one!" Biden shouted.

Hey Joe, how about removing preferential tax rates for private equity underwriters (PEU), where billionaires pay a lower tax rate than their gardeners or secretaries.  

Both the Blue and Red political teams have promised for over a decade to stop this boondoggle.  However, the siren song of cash donations and PEU employment post "public service" means the parties haven't gotten together to make it happen.  

One, President Biden.  Oh, and where do you plan to spend Thanksgiving this year?  President Biden vacationed at the Nantucket home of Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein.  He did so over the many years politicians fended off removing the PEU boys preferred "carried interest" taxation.

Sperling Admits PEUs "Not Doing God's Work"

Scott Sperling of THL Partners spoke on CNBC this morning about private equity.  Host Joe Kernen said Sperling is doing "God's work."  Sperling refused that characterization.

THL Partners was founded by Thomas H. Lee in 1974.  NYT called Thomas. H Lee "an aggressive Boston private equity firm" in a February 2023 story on Mr. Lee's death.

Mr. Lee died on Thursday in New York City at age 78. The city medical examiner said on Friday that the cause was suicide with a firearm.

The story noted:

If a side effect was that the companies often floundered later under the debt that Mr. Lee and his colleagues loaded on them, the investors were long gone by the time of those reckonings. 

Mr. Lee left Thomas H. Lee Partners in 2006 amid reported disagreements with its executives, and the company changed its name to THL Partners.

Lee then formed Lee Equity Partners, a different private equity underwriter (PEU).

NYPo reported:

"You know, if you picked somebody [to commit suicide], I would have never picked him. He was very positive, very friendly, very nice guy.”

A source in private equity with ties to Lee’s business said, “It’s interesting that he [killed himself] at his firm.

“It looks like a big ‘f–k you’ to his partners,” the source claimed.

At the time of his death, Lee Equity Partners had spent a year raising a new fund.

I imaging Mr. Sperling is very familiar with Lee's tragic ending and the significant conflict between the founder and executives in 2006.  

Kernen's religious fervor for the PEU boys is widely shared.  Even America's political class caters to PEUs.  Politicians Red and Blue love PEU and increasingly, more are one.

Whatever torment Mr. Lee experienced occurred on this earthly plane.  Lee was even reported to be the inspiration for "Wall Street" character Gordon Gekko who spoke the famous line "Greed is good."  In God's world it is one of the seven deadly sins.  

I expect any PEU is a petri dish for gluttony, lust, envy, greed, wrath, and pride.  Sloth may be the one exception.  

I wouldn't ever say the greed and leverage boys are doing God's work.  I certainly wouldn't expect a longtime associate of Thomas H. Lee to characterize his firm in this manner.  Scott Sperling gets credit for not agreeing with such a ridiculous assertion.

KKR Buying Simon and Schuster

NYT reported on KKR's planned purchase of publisher Simon and Schuster for $1.6 billion.  Will the greed and leverage boys restrict future books on PEUs to the official narrative.  KKR can't be happy with Gretchen Morgenson's book "These are the Plunderers:  How Private Equity Runs―and Wrecks―America." 

I imagine KKR won't pick up any Plunderer sequels.

Taggert Interviews Plunderers Author Gretchen Morgenson

Wealthion's Adam Taggert interviewed Gretchen Morgenson, author of "These Are the Plunderers: How Private Equity Runs―and Wrecks―America."

Morgenson's book details the harm done by private equity underwriters (PEU).  She shared the mortal damage The Carlyle Group inflicted on ManorCare, a giant nursing home provider.  That was done under the watchful eye of former Medicare Chief Gail Wilensky, who made millions on her stock holding from Carlyle's buyout.  Morgenson did not mention this fact.

Taggert looked uncomfortable in the first third of the interview.  Not long ago Adam interviewed a StepStone private equity underwriter and asked viewers to share any interest in private equity investing.  It struck me there might be an internal conflict occurring.

Adam's viewers offered numerous comments and I resonated with several:

This hit a nerve, I have lost a lot of money in the past in the UK invested in stuff that PE had been involved with...

This speaks to the financial fragility PEU's inflict on affiliates.  Once public, small economic or market changes can sink a company.

Morgenson mentioned the lack of regulation and lack of consequences for bad actors.  The comment also struck me:

I was severely disappointed by the lack of any mention of the high-level political connections that these firms, notably Carlyle, employ; and their role in tilting the playing field. Seems like a serious oversight. 

PEU Report has tried to reveal private equity's gross distortions of our political and economic systems since 2007.

Hats off to Adam for having Morgenson on and shining "disinfecting sunlight" on private equity.  Unfortunately, there's a lot of night left and the PEU boys are fast erecting sunshades.

Congress is full of PEUs, especially newer members.  President Biden's cabinet is dominated by PEUs and he frequently spends Thanksgiving at Carlyle co-founder David Rubenstein's Nantucket estate.  Many influential Washington officials have a PEU opportunity post public service. 

One cannot cover all the evils of private equity in an hour interview, much less outline how they've co-opted government.  It's to the point I regularly say the following.

Politicians Red and Blue love PEU and increasingly, more are one.

Update 8-14-23:  KKR is buying Gretchen's publisher Simon and Schuster.  That's one way to prevent books from coming out that don't support the PEU narrative.

Update 8-18-23:  Yet another study shows private equity outperformance to be a myth, a PEU "puffery" claim.

Rubenstein: Conflicted Interviewer for Galaxy's Novogratz

Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein talked crypto two days in a row on Bloomberg.  On August 8th he said BitCoin is not going away on Bloomberg Wealth:   CoinDesk ran a piece on the interview:

“A lot of people around the world want to be able to trade in a currency that their government can’t know what they have and they want to be able to move it around rightly or wrongly and so I don’t think bitcoin is going away,” he said during an appearance on Bloomberg TV Tuesday.

August 9th Rubenstein interviewed Galaxy founder and CEO Mike Novogratz.  Novogratz said:

"In the excitement of building this crypto industry we attracted a lot of frauds, bad actors, criminals..."

Galaxy lost money it held within FTX's exchange.  He "never assumed he was dealing with a sociopath" when interacting with FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.

In neither interview did Rubenstein disclose his investment in Paxos, a crypto infrastructure firm that is minting PayPal's recently announced stablecoin.  Paxos was ordered to stop issuing Binance's BUSD stablecoin in February. 

 

Rubenstein only generically referred to the SEC's position on crypto, staying silent on Paxos' BUSD.

 

Novogratz was critical of the SEC for protecting the public from "frauds, bad actors and criminals."

Both men referred to Blackrock's Larry Fink turning from a BitCoin opponent to applying to the SEC for a BitCoin ETF.  Later they brought up Sam Altman's Wellcoin (with its retinal scan verification) and the potential for rapid gains in an AI hype cycle.

When asked if "Carlyle is announcing BitCoin advocacy" Rubenstein said "I don't think so."  Carlyle may not be but co-founder and policy making billionaire David Rubenstein certainly has been in full crypto promotion mode.

A wise friend noted after hearing Rubenstein and Novogratz on Bloomberg.

Doesn't that tell you everything you need to know about Bitcoin and the elite involvement?  They don't want to be controlled.  They're out of control.

They control both sides of the political aisle, the White House, the Supreme Court and set the legislative agenda . . And we tolerate this . . Being sold as freedom. . 

They should shut down all their loopholes, close all the tax havens, be sanctioned. They are the traitors, pushing their desires to the detriment of our country  All made possible by the Fed channeling money to the inside circle  

Hear hear! Bravo for calling out the lot, not just a legendary PEU founder and the elder statesman of crypto.

Update:  John Reed Stark of JRS Consulting revealed how the SEC protects investors from crypto self-dealing on his Twitter feed.  

 ...the SEC's crypto-enforcement sweep will never end -- because, as explained below, the SEC's threefold mission (to protect investors; to maintain fair, orderly and efficient markets; and to facilitate capital formation) is far too critical for the SEC to relent.

The SEC is protecting investors from Novogratz and Rubenstein's conflict of interests.

Whole Purse Scan Needed for Kim K.

Yesterday Kim Kardashian posted a picture of her at a Prenuvo clinic site where she received a whole body MRI scan.  Her post has over three million views.

I would like Kim K.'s purse to be scanned for Prenuvo promotional payments or equity stakes.  She got in trouble with the SEC for promoting crypto without making proper disclosures. Their press release stated:

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against Kim Kardashian for touting on social media a crypto asset security offered and sold by EthereumMax without disclosing the payment she received for the promotion. Kardashian agreed to settle the charges, pay $1.26 million in penalties, disgorgement, and interest, and cooperate with the Commission’s ongoing investigation.

She may have earned a chunk of that back with her Prenuvo Instagram post.  Kim got slammed by some fans for promoting a $2,500 test not covered by insurance.

Prenuvo is a product of the uber-wealthy, many who wish to live forever.  

Prenuvo announced that it has raised $70M in Series A equity and debt funding led by Felicis, with participation from existing investors including Tony Fadell, NYT bestseller author and founder of Nest; Dr. Timothy A. Springer, Lasker award recipient; Anne Wojcicki, CEO of 23&Me; Steel Perlot, with Eric Schmidt as chairman; entrepreneur Rande Gerber; and wellness investor, supermodel, and actress, Cindy Crawford.

 Venture Capital firm Felicis led the latest Prenuvo funding round (October 2022).  Their pledge is:

We aim to make founders and their companies unbreakable, with empathy and trust at the core of how we partner.

 Steel Perlot participated, as well.  Their website showed top dogs, which include:

Eric Schmidt brought us Google but now attends nearly every meeting of those planning to run the world. Schmidt's family office is larger than most venture capital firms.

Eric Lander is a private equity underwriter (PEU) with F-Prime Capital, serving on its Science Advisory Board.   Lander has been known to launch prime "F bombs" when dealing with White House staff in the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

What would a whole purse scan reveal regarding Kim Khardashians relationship with Prenuvo?  Does SKKY Partners, Kim's PEU, have a stake in Prenuvo?

Nobody is on that job.  The high tech, live forever crowd hates declaring conflicts.  They share that with the PEU boys + one girl.  

"It was like getting an MRI for an hour with no radiation"

Not like.  Kim got an MRI for an hour.  As MRI's use magnetic fields, no radiation.  Her characterization would likely get an "F bomb" from Dr. Lander.

Update 9-24-23:  Jay Z threw together an ad with Kim K calling Usher to tell him he's doing the upcoming Superbowl halftime show.  What's the angle for SKKY to profit?

Update 10-25-23:  Business Insider reported that married Eric Schmidt's girlfriend is the CEO of Steel Perlot and that he's invested $100 million in the firm.  Forbes reported Schmidt's family office funded Steel Perlot's payroll and credit card debts.  No conflicts of interest here, just the PEU boys being PEU boys.

Update 11-21-23:  SKKY made its first investment, a minority stake in TRUFF.

Paxos to Issue PayPal's Stablecoin

WaPo reported on stablecoins and PayPal's move into that area.  The answer to question six stated:

BUSD is a stablecoin that was issued by Paxos Trust Co. through a partnership with Binance Holdings Ltd., the world’s largest crypto exchange by volume. In February 2023, New York-based Paxos said that it would stop minting the Binance-branded stablecoin “as directed by” the New York Department of Financial Services. According to a statement by Paxos, the SEC alleged that BUSD is a security and that Paxos should therefore have registered the BUSD offering under the federal securities laws. Paxos said the company “categorically disagrees” with the SEC’s statement.  Paxos is also issuing the PayPal stablecoin. 

Rumors have the SEC wanting to charge Binance with fraud but are holding off over worries about a "bank run."  Paxos is backing all BUSD stablecoins until February 2024 according to its website

All BUSD tokens issued by Paxos Trust have and always will be backed 1:1 with US dollar-denominated reserves, fully segregated and held in bankruptcy remote accounts. BUSD reserves are fully-backed and the instruments held by Paxos in reserve as of close of business February 10, 2023 are also available. Paxos has always prioritized the safety of its customers’ assets. That was true at our founding and remains true today. BUSD will remain fully supported by Paxos and redeemable to onboarded customers through at least February 2024. New and existing Paxos customers will be able to redeem their funds in US dollars or convert their BUSD tokens to Pax Dollar (USDP), a regulated US dollar-backed stablecoin also issued by Paxos Trust. 

Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein invested in Paxos in several funding rounds.  

The politically connected private equity underwriter (PEU) helped maneuvered Paxos through FTX's implosion, alongside Paxos board member Sheila Bair.  Rubenstein interviewed wonder-kid Sam Bankman Fried on this Bloomberg show, providing a platform for SBF to market his wares.  Both gentlemen held stakes in Paxos but neither declared those in the interview.

Two months later FTX imploded in a fireball of financial fraud.  Rubenstein disclosed SBF asked his family office for FTX funding but said the proposal had a number of holes.

Time will reveal how many holes Binance has.  Just know there is a concerted effort to patch up crypto and at least one PEU is orchestrating the resurrection.  

Politicians Red and Blue love PEU and increasingly, more are one.

Update 8-10-23:  The Federal Reserve is asking banks to be very careful with PayPal's new Paxos issued stablecoin.  

Update 8-15-23:  Crypto infrastructure firm Prime Trust LLC declared bankruptcy.  One of the products they offer is a crypto IRA.  Prime Trust used Signature Bank, which imploded in March, for payment and settlement services.  The crypto bankruptcy chain continues.  How long can Paxos last?

Update 8-21-23:  American Banker said:

PayPal and Paxos are not FDIC-insured institutions, and they are not examined or supervised by any federal banking agency. To preserve the stability and integrity of our banking and payments systems, Congress must stop PayPal, Paxos and other nonbanks from issuing stablecoins.

Sloppy PEUs in Distress

Carlyle Group CEO Harvey Schwartz offered in their Q2 earnings call:

...we’re in one of the most complex periods in recent economic history. The combination of sustained elevated inflation along with central bank rate hikes has led to a corresponding increase in the cost of capital. The peak of the inflationary cycle may have passed but our base case is that rates stay higher for longer as we shift away from a decade of 0 interest rate policy. 

It remains early days in understanding the impact of this shift on corporate capital structures and liquidity

Apollo Global CEO Marc Rowan told FT that private equity is "in retreat."

In the [private] equity business, this year has really marked the end of an era,” said Marc Rowan, whose Apollo is one of the world’s biggest private equity groups with $617bn in assets. A decade of “money printing”, fiscal stimulus and low interest rates that had pulled forward economic demand “is in retreat”, he added.  

PEUs would be forced “to go back to investing in the old-fashioned way. They’ll actually have to be very good investors,” Rowan said.

He characterised the lending as “highly complementary” to the banking system because it is coming from sources of long-term capital, versus a more leveraged bank balance sheet. 

Rowan, however, warned against overconfidence in what many have dubbed a “golden age” for private debts, saying that “financial literacy . . . has actually gotten quite sloppy”.  

Flashback to 2009 when Rowan said to Knowledge at Wharton:

For us at Apollo, the strategy that we have relied on for the past 20 years is distressed. Most of the founders of our business come out of the debt business. Rather than looking for acquisitions in the traditional private equity fashion during these periods of time, we employ our fixed income skill set. We go in and we buy the debt, bank debt, subordinated debt, of fundamentally good businesses that are overlevered, and we work through a process with creditors — sometimes in bankruptcy, sometimes out of bankruptcy — and we end up, hopefully, backing into control of a fundamentally good capital structure at a good price. 

Lots of those should be coming.  Carlyle conducted a number of back door takeovers, notably Brintons and Mrs. Fields.  New CEO Harvey Schwartz wants Carlyle's credit arm to refinance affiliates worth keeping.  Those not worthy will be turned over to debt holders.

Carlyle plans to garner more investment from the super wealthy.

We’ve recently hired a new Head of Private Wealth strategy. While we only have 3 products in the market covering 5 billion of assets today, we view this as an important channel for growth. We’ll be working with our distribution partners to bring product innovation globally to the Wealth Cal. 

Most importantly, the Carlyle brand is a huge differentiator here.

Blackstone founder Stephen Schwarzman commented on Fitch's downgrade of U.S. debt:

The numbers justify it, regrettably. We’ve had an explosion of debt since the global financial crisis. We don’t appear to have a lot of discipline.

Schwarzman did not mention his failure to pay fair tax rates on his monstrous profits over the same period.  The PEU boys were very disciplined in their efforts to keep preferred "carried interest" taxation in place. As I heard him talk one word came to mind, shameless.

NYT ran a story titled "The Risks Hidden in Public Pension Funds."  It stated:

...private equity funds have made people rich — especially the people who run them. Stephen A. Schwarzman, chief executive of the Blackstone global private equity group, received $253.1 million in compensation in 2022, mostly through incentive fees and profits known as carried interest, an accounting loophole that allows private equity profits to be taxed at lower rates than the salaries of working people.

As owner of roughly 20 percent of Blackstone, Mr. Schwartzman also received more than $1 billion in dividends in 2022, on top of his executive compensation.

The story noted PEUs are "speculative and arcane asset structures with high fees, heavy debt loads and light regulation."  High fees enrich PEU billionaire founders who maintain their preferred taxation.

The political background has limitations on outbound investment under consideration.  Is that to steer more capital to the greed and leverage boys for lending purposes?  It remains to be seen.

Politicians Red and Blue love PEU and increasingly, more are one.

PEU Nightmare: Airport Version

I exited the men's room in the Richmond airport to see a hulking Glenn Youngkin walking toward me.    I was startled.  His frame grew larger and larger as he welcomed me to Virginia on a giant television screen. 

Was Glenn this frightening to the people of Corpus Christi when Carlyle reneged on its lead developer role for the Harbor Island port expansion?  Maybe not, but the former Carlyle co-CEO scared the bejesus out of me.

I'd hoped to end my wonderful visit with family without a thought of private equity underwriters (PEU).  No such luck. It's a PEU world.

Politicians Red and Blue love PEU and increasingly, more are one.  That should be disturbing to citizens who've experienced PEU ownership of their workplace.  I hope independent Virginia voters take everything Youngkin says with a shaker full of salt.  He's as slick as they come.

Update 8-13-23:  Rich man Governor Youngkin in Richmond has a Farmville constituent with a major hit on his hands, "Rich Men North of Richmond."

Supremes Keep Door Wide Open for PEU Influence

The WSJ noted:

A string of high-profile federal prosecutions are falling apart as courts apply a newly narrowed legal definition of the crime (fraud).

The Department of Justice Criminal Resource Manual states

The statute does not define the phrase "obtained by fraud." Fraud is defined by nontechnical standards and is not to be restricted by any common-law definition of false pretenses. One court has observed, "[t]he law does not define fraud; it needs no definition; it is as old as falsehood and as versatile as human ingenuity." Weiss v. United States, 122 F.2d 675, 681 (5th Cir. 1941), cert. denied, 314 U.S. 687 (1941). 

The Fourth Circuit, reviewing a conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 2314, also noted that "fraud is a broad term, which includes false representations, dishonesty and deceit." See United States v. Grainger, 701 F.2d 308, 311 (4th Cir. 1983), cert. denied, 461 U.S. 947 (1983).

D.C. law firms wrote bulletins on the new restrictions the Court made to fraud enforcement.  Here's a sampling of their advice:

"a private citizen with informal political influence could not be convicted under for honest services fraud."  (Jackson Walker)

That should leave plenty of room for the PEU boys to continue their wayward non-lobbying, political influence operations.

"allegations of fraud must be grounded in a cognizable property interest, not simply a belief that the conduct was deceptive and unsavory.

......should have the effect of reining in fraud prosecutions based on intangible harms."  (Akin Gump)

People can now be deceptive and unsavory and not worry about being charged for fraud.  The bar continues to fall.  We are on our way to a fraud free society.  By simply changing the definition, poof!  It's gone.

Those with the names write the rules for the game.  It isn't the common person.   Politicians Red and Blue love PEU and increasingly, more are one.

PEU Scully Consistently Defends For-Profit Friends

Two people played outsized roles in today's absurdly complex healthcare delivery system, both former Medicare Chiefs.  Tom Scully brought us Medicare Part D and Medicare Advantage while Nancy Ann DeParle designed what is known as Obamacare (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act). 

The American Prospect calls Scully "Patient Zero", but that is inaccurate.  Scully is "For-Profiteer Zero" and profits come first, the patient is second at best.

"the (healthcare) system has become maddeningly complex, with armies of functionaries working every angle, straddling every ethical line, to unlock a big safe full of money. 

Ironically Tom Scully visited the White House on October 10, 2009 to lobby on healthcare reform.  It's not clear if Nancy Ann DeParle visited Scully while he crafted Part D and Medicare Advantage for healthcare for-profiteers.  She served on the boards of Cerner Corporation and DaVita beginning in May 2001.  

A recent Wall Street on Parade piece on DaVita noted:

... rabid capitalism run amok, effectively turning what should be a life-saving branch of medicine into a criminal enterprise.

Prior to becoming Medicare Chief Scully lead the for-profit hospital lobby, the Federation of American Hospitals (FAH).  The American Hospital Association lobbied on behalf of nonprofit community hospitals.

The FAH helped change "nonprofit community hospitals" to "private tax-exempt facilities" on Capital Hill.  That meant "for profit hospitals" were "private tax-paying facilities."  

Scully took Medicare's reigns near the height of Columbia/HCA's financial fudging under Rick Scott.  

Under CMS rules, Medicare reserved 5.1 percent of its budget to compensate hospitals that treated “outlier” high-cost patients. Scully, a youthful-looking man with a pile of slightly graying hair who talked a mile a minute, explained that Tenet and several other hospital systems, without the regulators knowing, had for years randomly jacked up prices on individual patients to access the set-aside. This deprived other hospitals that actually had sick patients from getting a higher share of the funds; the dishonest actors were costing the honest ones money. Scully didn’t blame hospital deception, but the policy framework he was hired to manage. 

The effort was anything but random.  It was engineered, systematic and driven from the top..

Instead of "jacking up prices" the fraud centered around clinical coding.  It was mostly done by large for-profit hospital chains, the people Scully served as chief lobbyist.  

Medicare Chief Scully blamed the system his folks defrauded, covering for them until he resigned in December 2003.  Tom then began his private equity career with Welsh, Carson, Anderson and Stowe (WCAS).

WCAS had a Medicare Advantage affiliate, Universal America and Scully sat on the board of directors.  Scully once said "health investing is as safe as it comes."

Later in The American Prospect piece the author notes Scully suggesting rules need to be put in place to prevent bad actors in Medicare Advantage using NaviHealth (a former WCAS affiliate): 

He said the business still helped diminish overutilization, and he didn’t believe his friends there would intentionally hurt patients. Ultimately, he said, government had to step in to set boundaries on misconduct.

Scully consistently falls on the side of his for-profit healthcare "friends," whether in government or out.  He is:

...a special breed of “Washington guy,” the gregarious types who use their charm and ability to flourish in a relationship-driven town. 

These people participate in the giant money funnel where one can hold multiple full time jobs, serve as a PEU advisor and have a number of paid corporate board positions.  "Down home" Scully helped design that very practice.   

Tom Scully can take the heart out of anything in his pursuit of profit.  He and his PEU brethren did just that to our healthcare system.  

(PEU Report has done a number of posts on Tom Scully since inception in 2007)

Update 8-5-23:  Tom Scully would be very proud of Big Pharma and their efforts to avoid paying taxes.  It's PEU worthy.

Update 8-28-23:  Scully's legacy is obscene pharmaceutical price increases.

Update 9-23-23:  Big's Matt Stoller wrote about WCAS cornering the anesthesiology market in Texas and raising prices.  Scully created the playbook for "Ka-Ching."  WCAS is doing the same thing with Orthopedics.