Holder Blocked for Wall Street

The perpetrators of the financial crisis will not be held to account, according to a Bloomberg editorial.

Attorney General Eric Holder, who plans to step down after more than five years in office, has efforts and achievements to be proud of, no doubt, but will probably be remembered above all for something he didn't do: prosecute top executives for their role in the 2008 financial crisis. 

Holder refused to prosecute top executives and boards of directors because prior prosecutions resulted in thousands of people losing their jobs and retirement, aka Enron/Arthur Anderson.

The frame being sold to the public is:  Had any of these leaders, whose greed and avarice caused the Fall 2008 financial implosion, been personally held accountable companies would've failed and legions of people become unemployed.

This ignores the reasons Enron and Arthur Anderson failed.  Enron was a literal house of cards.  It took one pillar to fail and the whole contraption collapsed.  Arthur Anderson, like Enron's lawyers, looked the other way, over and over again.  It trashed its reputation which is what matters for a public accounting firm. 

A corporate attorney shared with me recently that he'd had his Enron moment.  His CEO told him what he wanted to do.  The lawyer told him it was illegal, thinking the CEO would listen to his expert opinion, even seek his counsel to move forward in a law abiding manner.  The CEO ignored his legal advice, doing what he wanted to do. 

This corporate attorney knew the easiest thing to do would be to go along, stay quiet, not rustle any feathers.  He said he had to get up and look at his reflection every morning.  It was his James Derrick moment.  Derrick was Enron's Chief Counsel.  He told the Board Chair what happened and the CEO remains in his position.  You can deduce the rest.

Eric Holder's "Just Us" Department is one window into the world of horrific leadership on display in many elements in our society.  Consider these words from a former regulator charged with ensuring the stability of our financial sector.  They are in regard to behavior at Goldman Sachs and Federal Reserve oversight:

A Goldman employee expressed the view that "once clients are wealthy enough certain consumer laws don't apply to them." After that meeting, Segarra turned to a fellow Fed regulator and said how surprised she was by that statement -- to which the regulator replied, "You didn't hear that."

Another free pass.  It gets better (Bloomberg):

In 2012, Goldman was rebuked by a Delaware judge for its behavior during a corporate acquisition. Goldman had advised one energy company, El Paso Corp., as it sold itself to another energy company, Kinder Morgan, in which Goldman actually owned a $4 billion stake, and a Goldman banker had a big personal investment. The incident forced the Fed to ask Goldman to see its conflict of interest policy. It turned out that Goldman had no conflict of interest policy -- but when Segarra insisted on saying as much in her report, her bosses tried to get her to change her report. Under pressure, she finally agreed to change the language in her report, but she couldn't resist telling her boss that she wouldn't be changing her mind. Shortly after that encounter, she was fired.) 

Bloomberg illuminated another report on a captured Fed:

The Fed failed to regulate the banks because it did not encourage its employees to ask questions, to speak their minds or to point out problems.

Just the opposite: The Fed encourages its employees to keep their heads down, to obey their managers and to appease the banks. That is, bank regulators failed to do their jobs properly not because they lacked the tools but because they were discouraged from using them.

 This sounds like the "Just Us" Department under Eric Holder.

Under Holder's leadership, prosecutors lost sight of what mattered most: holding individuals, not companies, accountable for crimes. Of 21 separate actions against major financial companies from 2009 through May 2014, only eight were accompanied by charges against individuals, and none of them were high-level executives. The authors of any offenses related to the 2008 financial crisis can relax: In most of the cases, the statute of limitations now applies.

Leadership in our country seems focused on two things, having their way and image management.   Having their way means laws can be discarded.  Image management means thwarting or discrediting credible attempts to expose illegal behavior or hold leaders accountable.

Obama's war on whistleblowers fits into the 100% image management meme, which brings back my discussion with the corporate attorney.   I asked him:  Are arrogant, dismissive, and image obsessed leaders more prevalent the higher one rises in an organization?  He said absolutely.  There's an occasional ethical person or two below the top, but that level is mostly "yes people," sycophants.

self-seeking, servile flatterer; fawning parasite

What happens next to Eric Holder?   Certainly, the first steps will be work at a university or think tank.  Will he eventually end up on Wall Street or in private equity, like so many ex-public servants?   If so, his rewards will be great.  

Meanwhile, Valarie Jarrett will aid the search for Holder's replacement. 

Update 9-29-14:  Naked Capitalism has an excellent piece on Holder's zero dot zero batting average in this arena. Meanwhile, the Obama team relies on image management, selling settlements with no admission of wrongdoing and no convictions/jail time as being tough.

Update 12-8-14:  Eric Holder's Wall Street "Get Out of Jail Free" card is chronicled in video. 

Update 11-18-18:  NYT Columnist Maureen Dowd wrote about President Obama's abdication from prosecuting financial fraud.

Update 1-19-19:  Former SEC Attorney James Kidney shared his story of Obama/Holder catering to Wall Street via non-investigations and non-prosecutions.

Health Deformer's PEU Targets Hospice

The Tennessean reported:

The private equity arm of New York health care investment firm Consonance Capital announced today the closing of a $500 million private equity fund.

The private equity extension of the firm, called Consonance Capital Partners, was co-founded by former Tennessee Department of Human Services Commissioner Nancy-Ann DeParle.

DeParle served as President Obama's conflicted health reformer   DeParle's financial disclosure statements showed residual payouts from her time as a private equity underwriter with CCMP, but never showed any PEU holdings.

And the public wonders why private equity gets preferential treatment from politicians and regulators.  Insiders design a system they can later mine for huge returns while paying no income taxes.  PEUs are virtual nonprofits.

Consonance Capital invested in a hospice pharmacy provider Enclara Health.  It then metastasized with the addition of Hospice Pharmacia and PBM Plus.  The cancer of greed and political insider connections will not save America's hospices, a service rooted in volunteerism and donated funds.

Hospice clinicians rue the limited formularies imposed by such firms and the obsession of providing the cheapest possible medicine vs. that which works best for the patient.  Mail order does not cut it for rapidly changing patients, either for a critical incident or one actively dying with complex symptoms to manage.

The DeParles of the world decided U.S. medicine needed to be cookie cutter.  Hospice of all things should be highly individualized.  DeParle et al's greed does not belong in the hospice arena.  It should not be the locus of obscene profits.

Nancy Ann DeParle is not an oracle but a blasphemer.  I doubt that is the story written by the White House and its current occupant.  President Obama sold his soul early with his many conflicted appointments.  We've seen the tremendous harm they've wrought to date.
 
I thought there was a small corner of the world unreachable by these people.  Hospice seemed like a safe place where good people could come together to do sacred work.  Apparently I was wrong.  Discordant capital has arrived.

Update 2-19-21:  Nancy Ann Deparle had a banner payday after Consonance Capital sold Enclara Healthcare to Humana in 2020.  Enclara is "one of the nation's largest hospice and benefit management providers."  Yet, Humana intends to spin off Kindred Hospice as it prefers a partnership model for end of life care.

PEU Nursing Home Neglect: Justice Denied

Boomberg reported:

Juanita Jackson died in July 2003, five weeks after she was removed from a Florida nursing home where her family said continual neglect led to multiple bedsores, malnutrition and a fall that injured her head. 

Trying to collect a $110 million verdict against two nursing home companies has led her family on a four-year odyssey through a maze of private-equity firms and shell companies to a bankruptcy court trial that began today.

The family won one trial.  A second is necessary for justice to be delivered.

Trans Healthcare Inc. and Trans Health Management Inc., which the plaintiffs claimed operated the homes, never appealed or paid the 2010 verdict -- $55 million each -- awarded by a state court jury in Bartow, Florida. Collection was thwarted through a complex transaction that sent Trans Healthcare’s liabilities to a shell company called Fundamental Long Term Care Inc., which had no assets, while creating a solvent nursing home chain that was protected from judgments, lawyers for Jackson’s family contend. 

The defendants including private-equity firm GTCR Golder Rauner LLC counter that they were never responsible for negligence at the homes and weren’t involved in a scheme to send liabilities to an insolvent company. 

GTCR's founder was Rahm Emanuel's mentor, setting him up for his first investment bank gig which gave Rahm $18 million.  With his core wealth established Rahm could return to politics and work on behalf of the landed gentry.  Dealbook noted:

Mr. Emanuel represented GTCR Golder Rauner, a Chicago private equity firm that was buying the business for an affiliate. Bruce Rauner, the firm’s chairman, had first met Mr. Emanuel when he was still exploring job prospects in Chicago after getting a call from Mr. Bowles, an old friend.

Instead of private equity, Mr. Rauner advised Mr. Emanuel to pursue investment banking, where his political experience might be more valuable in landing deals in regulated industries.

Mr. Emanuel called him back after starting at Wasserstein and asked if he could take over coverage of GTCR for his new employer. That eventually led to the nearly $500 million SecurityLink deal.

Obama, of the fiery rhetoric, brought Rahm the rich arsehole into the Oval Office.  There is no evidence of Mr. Emanuel working the Trans Healthcare or Trans Health Management deals although his investment banking career went from 1998 to 2002.

Tampa Bay Times reported:

Trans Health Management Inc. was once a high flier, with 200 homes in 22 states. A Chicago private equity firm and others had created it in 2002 to take over a large, bankrupt chain.

Really, Obama showed his hand right away with his appointments, one of which announced he's leaving.  Eric Holder will do well in private equity or on Wall Street.  He's earned a cushy spot after six years of "Just Us."

It's a PEU world, where politicians Red and Blue love PEU...

Carlyle Tracked LP's

The Carlyle Group tracked limited partners at their last investor meeting using smart chips embedded in their badges.  What might Carlyle do to common unit holders at their annual meeting?  I can picture renditioning (Landmark Aviation), serving toxic infant formula (Yashili), maybe nutritious green wafers (China Agritech & China Forestry).

If there's money to be made Carlyle will find a way.  Don't wander too far off the beaten path at a Carlyle meeting.  Your wallet and organs could be up for harvesting.  Heartless PEUs are capable of anything. 

PEUs: An Estate of their Own

Naked Capitalism reported:

In a mere four months, the SEC has gone from calling out widespread abuses in the private equity industry to not just walking back its detailed criticisms, but actually enabling a coverup.

Readers may recall that in May, SEC inspection chief Andrew Bowden gave what was by regulatory standards a blistering speech describing widespread misconduct in the private equity industry. His detailed account followed SEC Chairman Mary Jo White setting forth uncharacteristically clear-cut details of private equity abuses in testimony to Congress.

Gretchen Morgenson provided more confirmation of the SEC’s charges, describing how private equity general partners paid themselves for services never rendered. Morgenson followed up in July with an even bigger and more obvious abuse that the SEC is apparently ignoring, the failure of private equity firms to register as broker-dealers. 

Even the leading private equity reporter, Dan Primack at Fortune, who by necessity of writing on the industry daily can’t afford to take too tough a line, sided with the SEC’s position in an article, “Will private equity investors keep getting their pockets picked?” The Financial Times published a lengthy analysis in July, Private equity: A fee too far, focusing on how private equity firms line their pockets by charging monitoring and other fees to portfolio companies. It also described how investors in the funds, the limited partners, were upset by the SEC’s confirmation of long-standing concerns, yet found it difficult to bring the general partners to heel. 

I reported years ago about private equity's manipulation of financial reporters.  My source was an ex-Bloomberg reporter who covered the PEU beat.   

Naked Capitalism concluded:

The real message is that private equity is too powerful to discipline.

Elected officials and regulators won't do it.  The financial media can't do it and get the next breaking PEU story. 

Who does that leave to monitor the PEU boys?  Us. Just us...

Monument Capital Adds Palantir Executive to Advisor Stable

Monument Capital, a private equity underwriter (PEU) specializing in the security space, announced the addition of three advisors to its already robust team.  The three are Michael Leiter, Professor Silvio Micali and Professor Alex Pentland.

Leiter, who joined MCGH as a senior advisor, is Head of Global Government & Cyber Operations and Senior Counselor to the CEO of Palantir Technologies.

Palantir is the seeing rock guarding the annual Bilderberg meeting from public scrutiny.   How does hiding the machinations of global tamperers make the world more secure?  And this effort is being led by a supposed libertarian.....

The world has gone flippy floppy which provides Monument Capital, effectively a Carlyle Group franchisee, the opportunity to make grand returns.  I don't feel more secure.

Update 9-25-14:  As for flippy floppiness Palantir founder Peter Thiel lives in his own universe, one free of death and complete with floating, law free societies.  Thiel can pronounce himself Island Chair, but my bet is he'll be Lord of the Flies.

PEU Billionaires and Carlyle Group Raising Cash

The Carlyle Group monetized a number of assets this week, just as news reports revealed billionaires have been raising cash for their personal accounts.

Each uber wealthy person boosted their cash holdings by an average of $60 million over the past year, according to the 2014 Billionaire Census published by Wealth-X and UBS.

Billionaires don't typically park money in cash unless they're nervous about the market or preparing for a major investment.

Consider the affiliates Carlye sold or announced plans to sell.  The list includes Park Water with a selling price of $327 million vs. $102 million Carlyle paid for the company in 2011.  It also has an IPO of Philadelphia Energy Solutions train offloading assets for $250 million.  Carlyle also will exit from GDC Technology, a Chinese company specializing in digital cinema solutions.

But there's more:

Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, GIC , is in talks to buy the British roadside rescue business RAC from US private equity firm Carlyle Group LP for over 2 billion pounds (S$4.16 billion), Sky News reported

HTC Business reported:

Carlyle Group paid £300m for a majority stake in Addison Lee in April, but has decided to start an auction process after receiving unsolicited offers for the business, according to a source close to the company.

Private equity firms BC Partners, CVC Capital and Charterhouse are among the organisations that have been invited to bid, with reports suggesting the taxi firm could be sold for £800m.

Kansas City Star reported:

The second-largest holder of YRC Worldwide Inc. stock has sold off all 4,083,122 shares it owned in a broker-assisted deal last week.

The Carlyle Group, in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, said it collected $89.4 million from the stock sales that took place Thursday. Its holding represented 14.3 percent of YRC’s total shares.

Back to the reason for moving assets, even ones owned for as short as five months.  WSJ noted:

The bull market in bonds won’t end well.

Worries about overheated debt markets dominated discussion at an investor conference in New York on Monday, with hedge-fund managers and corporate executives expressing concerns about the bond market as the Federal Reserve moves closer toward raising interest rates.

Bill Conway, co-founder of private-equity firm Carlyle Group, said he doesn’t yet see the specific catalyst that would roil the bond market. Almost every company in Carlyle’s buyout funds has benefited from ultra-low rates by refinancing, he said. “We have to take advantage of it while it’s here.” But overall, the message from Monday’s conference was clear: Rising rates are coming.

Many of those borrowings paid Carlyle huge dividends.  Carlyle and its billionaire PEU founders have lots of cash to put to work in the next disequilibrium.  India is calling for PEU money.

Update 9-25-14:  GIC completed the deal for a stake in RAC.  Ring the bell for a triple!

Carlyle to Make $225 Million on Park Water

The Carlyle Group is happy to make money off public infrastructure.  Ring the bell for the announced sale of Park Water Company for $327 million in 2015, a mere four years after buying the company for $102 million.  That's a $225 million or 220% gross profit.  The race is on to see who the City of Missoula will try to wrest control of their public water system from, Carlyle or the announced buyer Algonquin Power. 

Carlyle said it would give the City of Missoula first rights to buy Mountain Water, a Park Water subsidiary.  It seems Carlyle used the City to up the price for sale to Algonquin.  That's the role of government today, to ensure private equity underwriters (PEU's) make more ka-ching through direct sales, publicly awarded franchises and now bidding up asset prices at resale.  It's a PEU world, where politicians Red and Blue love PEU. 

UAE, Carlyle to Host 2nd Africa Business Forum

New Business Ethiopia reported:

Held under the patronage of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice-President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, the Forum's objective is to facilitate a high-level dialogue and advice on key strategic directives related to Africa's economic outlook.

With Dubai becoming a significant investor across Africa and a base for fast-growing bilateral trade the Forum will exemplify why the Emirate is growing as a hub for African entrepreneurs to access global markets. It will also define why it forms an international investor base for African operations.

This exclusive, invitation-only event will bring together over 500 high-level decision makers.

The list includes African Heads of State, Ministers and dignitaries, prominent CEO's and Directors, and heads of private banks, sovereign wealth funds and private equity underwriters (PEU's).  The Carlyle Group is among the list of expected attendees.

How many centuries has Africa been under the patronage of others?  Is it the UAE's and associated PEU's turn at the helm?

Billionaire Power Player List Lacks Rubenstein

A new list assessing billionaire political power is out and it's missing Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein.  How is #12 Mark Zuckerberg more politically influential than Rubenstein, a man who's call is taken at any time by U.S. Presidents, Cabinet members and Congressional leaders?

Carlyle located their private equity firm in Washington, D.C. precisely for the purpose of exercising political power. After thirty years on the Potomac Carlyle is now so synonymous with dirty political water it cannot be seen.

"Obama had reached out to the business community, they just haven't liked all of his decisions and some of his rhetoric. But generally, I think the administration is quite open and accessible." (David Rubenstein)

"People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage." (John Kenneth Galbraith)

"One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”(Carl Sagan)

It wouldn't do to put David Rubenstein, a PEU and Brookings board member, in a poor light.

Update 9-14-14:  The billionaire list on Naked Capitalism is also missing a Rubenstein.  The Carlyle co-founder is famous for saying, "All I'm doing is I'm filling out my tax returns - or my accountants are, and I'm paying whatever I'm supposed to pay, though I'm giving away a large amount of the money and that probably lowers my tax rate because I'm giving away so much money. But change the law, but don't blame me for the law. I'm not writing the law. I didn't write the law." No, but he lobbied Capital Hill numerous times to keep his preferred carried interest taxation. 

Fed Favors PEU Funding of Public Infrastructure

Washington's Blog reported:

In an inscrutable move that has alarmed state treasurers, the Federal Reserve, along with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, just changed the liquidity requirements for the nation’s largest banks. Municipal bonds, long considered safe liquid investments, have been eliminated from the list of high-quality liquid collateral. assets (HQLA). 

Who has trillions on the sidelines marked for public infrastructure, normally financed by municipal bonds?  Private equity underwriters (PEU's) do.

By disqualifying municipal bonds from the category of liquid assets, the biggest banks are likely to trim back their holdings in munis which could raise the cost or limit the ability for states, counties, cities and school districts to issue muni bonds to build schools, roads, bridges and other infrastructure needs. This is a particularly strange position for a Fed that is worried about subpar economic growth.

It's not strange for a Fed favoring the billionaire PEU class. This would dramatically shift infrastructure funding to the private sector, where PEU's have replaced banks by securitizing huge chunks of corporate debt.

A second stressor is coming for municipalities, GASB requirements for public pension fund accounting.  Government pensions will need to get greater returns to stitch the gargantuan hole in their balance sheets from 2015 pension fund liabilities.  That means rolling the dice on PEU investments.

What if cities could invest public pension funds in PEU's and have the PEU finance their public infrastructure?  The PEU gets 20% annual return on equity and the public gets addicted to external, vulture funding   You get the Fed picture.

Just as human resources became a tool to treat people inhumanely, regulation and accounting have become tools for the greedy and arrogant.  It's a PEU world, where politicians red and blue love PEU.

Eric Cantor Investment Wanker

Forbes reported:

Moelis & Co., announced on Tuesday that it had landed a high-profile new employee: Former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Moelis & Co.’s new vice-chairman and managing director will get a $3.4 million pay package between September and the end of 2015.

Moelis' SEC filing stated that Cantor will become a member of the board of directors. The press release was disturbing as Eric Cantor has been anything but "conflict free."

Virginia voters ousted Eric Cantor because they're sick from what we've become. Cantor's absurd negative ads backfired, making people want to vote against him and his cocky, hyper-competitive, arrogant ways. 

So America, this is the face of globalism.  And we wonder why the world's problems are growing in magnitude?  The Moelis-Cantors have offered the world greed and control by any means (including violence).  However, they do it with discretion:

We believe our discretionary approach to compensation leads to exceptional advice, strong client impact and enhanced internal collaboration.

Moelis will steer a discretionary $3.4 million to Eric Cantor for the next 16 months of work.  How much will Eric get in retirement and other benefits from his years of public service?

Here's a message to people around the globe:  if you see Eric Cantor coming, bar the door.  Don't vote for what he's selling (or any other ex-public, now self servant)..

Congress is less popular than zombies, witches, dog poop, potholes, toenail fungus, hemorrhoids, cockroaches, lice, root canals, colonoscopies, traffic jams, used car salesmen, Genghis Khan, Communism, North Korea, BP during the Gulf Oil Spill, or Nixon during Watergate

Eric Cantor is a key part of American's disgust in Congress.  How far can he drag down the already low regard the public has for Wall Street, investment banks and private equity underwriters (PEU's)?  Yes, when I think of Eric Cantor, dog poop does come to mind.

Update 10-22-19:  Bloomberg reported a Centerview staffer worked with a peer at Moelis to sell insider information and the pair received over $1 million for their dastardly deeds.

Carlyle Group: Best of America?

A Carlyle Group press release stated:

Global alternative asset manager The Carlyle Group L.P. (NASDAQ: CG) today announced that its Co-Chief Executive Officer David M. Rubenstein will present at the UBS Best of America’s Conference in London on Thursday, September 11, 2014 at approximately 3:50 PM BST (10:50 AM EDT).

Rubenstein's talk will occur on the thirteenth anniversary of 9-11 and occur roughly twenty minutes after the North Tower collapsed.   President George W. Bush closed U.S. airspace but allowed the Bin Laden family, attending the Carlyle Group annual investor meeting, to leave via private plane. 

When George W. Bush was elected Carlyle had $3.3 billion in assets under management.  Today it is over $203 billion and Carlyle is a global juggernaut.  PEU billionaires reshaped the world for 30% annual returns.  While they won big, others suffered greatly.  Greed and violence can reshape the world, but it brings with it countless victims. 

Carlyle's Image Maintenance Cost $115 Million

The Carlyle Group's signature aim is to control the narrative by "maintaining its good name."  The private equity underwriter (PEU) recently challenged five expert witnesses in the longstanding price-fixing collusion lawsuit brought by investors. 

Law360 reported:

Carlyle moved to strike five expert witnesses that the plaintiffs — a proposed class of shareholders of companies bought out by the private equity firms — said they planned to rely upon at a November antitrust trial in the case.

Carlyle's defense was seemingly based on principle:  Fortune stated:

Carlyle had been holding out largely because its co-founders — David Rubenstein, Dan D’Aniello and William Conway — were said to be personally offended by the notion that they had been involved in an illegal act, and who felt that any settlement would be a tacit admission of wrongdoing.

Tacit admission it is:

The Carlyle Group has agreed to pay $115 million to settle its part in a massive private equity collusion case, Fortune has learned from a source close to the situation.  A Carlyle spokesman declined comment.

How can this be?  Name maintenance.  Since companies are people for the purposes of election funding, they can also be people with damaged psyches.

The implicit goal of any primary narcissist is to maximize their image in each and every present moment.  There is no other criteria.  Anyone looking for core beliefs or fundamental truths will be driven crazy by their ability to say the exact opposite position from five minutes ago and treat you with complete and total disdain for suggesting they said anything otherwise.

A Labor Day weekend news release should help that story sink to the bottom of the news ticker.  Image maintenance achieved!