Smerconish Hosted Two PEUs

CNN's Michael Smerconish raised the specter of the unaccountable super rich "doing their own thing" in regard to Elon Musk's "mercurial" moves on Ukraine's access to Starlink/StarShield.  He did so on a program with two such persons, Walter Isaacson of Perella Weinberg Partners and Admiral James Stavridis of The Carlyle Group.  Smerconish failed to disclose either guest's private equity underwriter (PEU) positions.  

At least one of the two guests used the word "robber baron."  Those gentlemen were powerful enough to tell the government what to do during the Gilded Age.  

StarShield is the Pentagon version of secure satellite communications provided by SpaceX.  The Pentagon is run by a number of former private equity underwriters, many from Cerberus Capital Management.  Conflicts of interest have gone by the wayside as something to take seriously.  

Someone in the Pentagon contracted with StarShield.  Did they do so on behalf of the U.S. and Ukraine?  What performance guarantees did StarShield make?   If they failed to meet them, why did that happen?

Mercurial Founding CEOs and Savagely Whimsical Presidents could be the answer if we are back in Gilded Age 2.026.  

It was interesting to hear Stavridis talk about his good friend Walter as both advised Smerconish on the riches that await in Ukraine.

Politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod brethren.  Increasingly, more are one. 

Scully's WCAS Finishes Riding Humana for Massive Profits

A WCAS press release stated:

BlackRock will acquire WCAS's current equity ownership, valued at approximately $2.8 billion, with modifications to terms reflecting the maturity of the business today compared to when the legacy joint ventures were formed.

WCAS website already shows it "realized" its former investment

Stage one of the joint venture started in 2020::

Stage two bloomed in 2022:

WCAS, with former Medicare/Medicaid Chief Tom Scully on board, did multiple deals with Humana over the years.  Humana CEO Bruce Broussard was once the CEO of U.S. Oncology, a WCAS affiliate.  

Broussard chose to involve WCAS and TPG in its buyout of Kindred Home Health, Hospice and Community Care giving the pair of private equity underwriters (PEU) a 60% majority stake.  Humana was the operator of these services, integrating Home Health into their clinical operations and rebranding hospice under its former Gentiva name.  

WCAS put up $2 billion and got $2.8 billion, an $800 million profit.  I'm sure they earned deal and management fees over the period.  None of this helped healthcare costs go down.

Semafor had a strange take on the deal, turning it into a BlackRock vs. Apollo cage match:

A little-noticed deal this week for senior-care clinics is the first shot fired in a Wall Street turf battle. BlackRock’s HPS credit arm is essentially lending $2.8 billion to Humana, marking Larry Fink’s entry into a space that Apollo has had to itself until now.

The deal is the purchase of equity.  Humana's press release notes "Humana expects a significant reduction in the liabilities on its balance sheet."  That doesn't happen with a $2.8 billion loan.

Humana chose to partner with a PEU for its senior focused primary care clinics.  That PEU has been replaced by BlackRock and its captive HPS.  It may be the usual complex LLC, holding company arrangement with layers of entities, but someone has the equity.   

My conclusion would be that BlackRock has officially joined the greed and leverage boys.  Larry Fink, now a PEU, has a unique stench to it.  Let's call it Fink Stink.

Politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod brethren (who want AI to be your doctor).  Increasingly, more are one and for that many people suffer.  

Profiting from Trump II's Chaos

Trump II's new Press Secretary Katie Zacharia broke the news that the White House asked the U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle to resign.

Guilfoyle is the former fiancée of Don Jr., a strategic advisor to the betting site Kalshi.  Kalshi had Guilfoyle's exit odds at 77% before Zacharia broke the news.

Katie Zacharia came to the White House from Trump's media firm, which recently launched Truth API.  

This service focuses on licensed data delivery from Truth Social’s most influential users. Rather than a general firehose, the Truth API prioritizes accounts that drive public market sentiment and political discourse. This targeted approach ensures that financial services partners are not overwhelmed by noise, focusing instead on actionable intelligence metrics that impact asset prices and economic forecasts.

Also known as Trump II's savage whims.  

Zacharia's background means she understands that some White House news could be sent via Truth API for insider monetization.  

Take Trump II's posts on "our Greenland."

Greenland Energy is a year old Texas company chaired by Larry G. Swets, Jr.  Swets is a serial Cayman Islands based SPAC pusher.

Red Team super-donor billionaire Ken Griffin owns 9% of Greenland Energy.

So much information to move and so much to bet on... Trump II, the Wizard of Greenland, orchestrates it all.

Josh Harris Winning While Losing

Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris has a deal for a new stadium.  It has $1 billion in public funding as well as tax breaks for the stadium operation.  

That made me wonder about Harris' private equity operation and whether it had insurance affiliates that could fund its "sister" private equity affiliates, like Mark Walter.  The answer is yes.

That's a lot of financial winning for an NFL owner with a 22-33-1 record.

Josh's team at 26 North comes from Brookfield, Oaktree, Centerbridge, Moelis, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, Apollo and Blue Owl.  

One executive's name was familiar.

It brought back memories of Summer 2011 when private equity founders were struggling to reach their second or third billion in net worth ($).    

Josh Harris was busy avoiding meeting with Jeffrey Epstein according to a January 2026 statement.  

Thank heaven.  It would be hard to funnel $1 billion in public money to a new stadium for Harris' football team if it had been otherwise.

Politicians Red & Blue love PEU (private equity underwriters) and their new TechGod brethren.  Increasingly, more are one and many are in the Epstein files.

Update 10-15-26:  777 Partners already behaved badly with its insurance subsidiary.  The stories are out there and new ones arrive every day.

Update 10-16-26:  Oaktree's planned buyout of Atlantic Coast Life imploded according to a Bloomberg report.  The State of Virginia told Atlantic Coast Life to stop writing policies.  South Carolina warned retirees their savings are at risk  Forbes reported:

Regulators allege that the private equity firm owning Atlantic Coast Life moved retirees' annuity money into illiquid private credit, including loans tied to collapsed investor 777 Partners. 

Roughly 50,000 annuity customers and more than 100,000 life and funeral-policy holders could be affected.

Combined, that is 150,000 customers.  It's more than Synapse, which had 100,000 customers when it imploded.  Note:   Billionaires do not stand behind their failed investments, instead walking away and leaving public entities to make up for their damages.

Trump II's Corporate Crossovers Go Both Ways

The news is chockfull of new jobs for insiders within the confines of the giant money funnel.  

Katie Zacharia left Trump Media & Technology Group (which sells early access to White House news) for the White House Press Office.  Her three months of TMTG experience should help her determine what gets steered to $100,000 a month subscribers and what becomes leftovers for the main street media.

At least five former Trump officials were hired onto OpenAI and Anthropic over the last year, according to Quartz.  These hires came as TechGods visited the White House numerous times.  Proximity to Trump II is a precarious thing given his predilections for usurping enticing items within his gaze.

I'm sure un-empathetic TechGods need all the consultation they can afford to navigate Trump II's savage whims and his spontaneously taking that which is not his.

The last crossover, George Kollitides managed to keep his feet in both the government and corporate side simultaneously.  The longtime private equity underwriter (PEU) worked at Cerberus Capital Management under Steve Feinberg, currently serving as Deputy Secretary of War.

Mr. Kollitides became Senior Advisor to the Deputy Secretary of War and his name first appears in late 2025 (Pacific Forum).   

George Kollitides has served as a member of our board of directors commencing upon effectiveness of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part. Mr. Kollitides is a Senior Executive Advisor to the Deputy Secretary of War at the Department of War (DoW), the Director of the Economic Defense Unit (EDU), where is responsible for all Department of War (DoW) investing, and economic activities, and the Vice Chairman of the Investment Committee for the Office of Strategic Capital (OSC). He is also a Senior Advisor to Alavarez and Marsal Capital, an approximately $6 billion multi strategy operationally oriented, middle market private equity firm and Star Mountain Capital, an approximately $5.0 billion middle market multi strategy private credit and equity firm.  - D. Boral Acquisition I Corporation Prospectus 2-10-26

The Star Mountain Capital role came in April 2025.  

At Alavarez and Marshal Capital, Kollitides continued his PEUing:

Mr. Kollitides served as a Partner and Co-Head of A&M Capital’s Opportunities Strategy, an operationally oriented, middle market private equity firm, where he was responsible for firm leadership and oversight,

Greed is part of the dark mix transforming the Pentagon.  While Senior Advisor to the Deputy Secretary of War, Senior Advisor to Alavarez and Marshal Capital and Senior Advisor to Star Mountaiin Capital, Kollitides was appointed to the Board of Directors of D. Boral Acquistion I Corporation.

As a founding board member Kollitides received:

George Kollitides received an indirect interest in 100,000 founder shares through membership interests in our sponsor (D. Boral Sponsor I LLC)

Current TMTG CEO Kevin McGurn received 250,000 founder shares.  

Since Kollitides' Pentagon appointment Alavarez and Marshal's federal consulting business has raked it in (ProPublica).  It's nice when two of your three high paying employers can find a way to do raise the dollar exchange size and speed inside the giant money funnel.

These hires show that the mantra holds, "Politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod brethren.  Increasingly, more are one."

Update 10-13-26:  New White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia made her debut this morning.  Her comment about Trump II's "family friendliness" shows how little she knows about the giant political cage match that is his closest advisors.   Staying late is but one of the ways to get ahead, as is running down the competition.  

How much White House news did she steer to Truth API and not share with the press corps?  That should be a daily report.

First Major FEMA Test Since DOUGEBAG

FEMA will have its first major test since TechGod Elon Musk unleashed the Department of Ungodly Greedy Executives Biased Against Government (DOUGEBAG).  

The storm is hitting on a Friday evening, a setback for government which often just runs during the week.  

Hospitals will need help as soon as the winds and water come down enough.  I say this having lived through a river flooded, teaching hospital in Virginia and worked to evacuate a Texas Gulf Coast hospital prior to a record hurricane (Hurricane Gilbert which failed to make the predicted turn and hit Mexico).

When the Bush White House seemed slow on Hurricane Katrina, I sent my estimate of the number of patients remaining in New Orleans hospitals, many of which needed urgent evacuations.

Hurricane Isaias is hitting deep Red Trump territory weeks before an election.  They may be more charitable to FEMA than most, but their patience and understanding could wane if help is too slow.  

Praying for people in harm's way to be in safe places and for the Lord to watch over and protect them.  

(Posted on PEUReport as many government contractors are private equity underwriter (PEU) owned and many PEUs served on DOUGEBAG.)

Waking Up to Insurance Distortions from PEU Ownership

The world is waking up to the fact that insurance company investments may join pension plans in not being able to fulfill their commitments to beneficiaries.  In November 2023 PEUReport wrote:

Several years ago private equity firms began buying insurance companies and steering those pools of capital to their PEU offerings. This was framed as smart capitalism vs. a conflict of interest.

The world saw this with Mark Walter's using captive insurance companies to finance his private equity holdings.  The more investigators dig, the more they find.  $17 billion in undisclosed loans becomes $21 billion.  

Apollo founded Athene in the aftermath of the financial crisis, later taking it over completely in 2021.

Carlyle bought their initial stake in Fortitude Re in 2018 and later acquired a majority stake with T&D Holdings (a Tokyo based insurer).  Many private equity underwriters (PEU) bought insurance companies in their search for permanent capital.

Forensic accountant Tom Gober outlined the risks associated with strategies undertaken by PEU owned insurers in The Institutional Risk Analyst.   Investing legend George Noble had Gober on his podcast recently.

Retirement Income Journal reported on Gober's House testimony in July 2023.

Gober, in his presentation, focused on the conflicts of interest inherent in certain life/annuity companies’ purchase of assets from sibling firms in the same holding company (“affiliated assets”). As for offshore reinsurance, he called it a “sleight of hand” tactic for reducing the amount of surplus capital supporting pension liabilities.

The warning is relative to current insurance company investments and how they are valued.  Things can get worse if insurance companies answer BlackRock CEO Larry Fink's call to finance data centers.

Law firm Quinn Emanuel’s March memo on data-center debt was making the rounds in recent days, laying out worst-case scenarios for the hundreds of billions of dollars being borrowed and spent to fund the AI buildout. It does the one thing professional-services memos never do: It names names.

Their report states:

The scale and complexity of the financing structures underpinning the AI data center buildout are already raising concerns among regulators, investors, and policymakers. For example, in January 2026, four U.S. Senators urged in an open letter that regulators investigate the AI sector’s growing reliance on debt. The letter warned that companies are increasingly turning toward “complex and opaque debt markets to borrow staggering sums of cash” and their inability to service the debt “could cause destabilizing losses for an interconnected set of financial institutions, triggering a broader financial crisis that harms the economy.” The Federal Reserve and the Bank for International Settlements have expressed similar concerns.

My wise friend noted:

When these data centers announce they are borrowing money in the trillions and the whole group and everything related goes up 10X, you would expect an equal retreat when Open AI basically fudges their numbers by $28 billion.  

It's all funny games when it's other people's money.  No one gives a hoot under big number = big fee.  If it all collapses, don't blame me.  I just package and sell "investments."

Congrees heard about this three years ago and nothing has been done?  That's because politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod brethren.  Increasingly, more are one.