Biden Gets Personal PEU Hospitality

NY Post reported:

When Biden receives free lodging, he’s supposed to disclose it on annual financial disclosure forms that are released publicly each May. The form requires the president and vice president to disclose free lodging worth more than $390. Ethics experts say the “personal hospitality” reporting exception on that form doesn’t cover instances where the homeowner isn’t present.

Not present for free Biden vacation stays were.

New Year's in St. Croix -- Bill Neville, CEO of LoanLogics, affiliate of Sun Capital Partners, a global private equity underwriter (PEU).  Neville and his wife Connie attended the White House state dinner for French President Emmanuel Macron.

Thanksgiving in Nantucket -- David Rubenstein, co-founder of The Carlyle Group, a politically connected PEU

Summer vacation in Kiawah Island --  Maria Allwin, widow of hedge fund founder James Allwin, Aetos Capital

It's a bad sign that a U.S. President can get free lodging from shadow bankers and not have to declare the gift.  What gifts are given in return that are also undisclosed?

It's not clear if President Biden will meet with any other billionaires vacationing in St. Croix on their Superyachts.  If so, the American public likely has no ability to find out.

Update 12-29-22:  Bill Neville was a 63.7% owner in BBVI, a Virgin Islands broadband internet provider.  He sold it to Liberty Latin America LTD in late 2021.  The price may have been boosted by nearly $85 million in federal money.

Broadband VI has won an $84.5 million federal bid to buildout phase 2 of the Connect USVI program, whose aim is to provide affordable voice and broadband services for 10-year periods with speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second downstream.

Neville stepped down as LoanLogics CEO two months ago.  

Neville played an instrumental role in LoanLogics being selected as the technology provider behind Freddie Mac’s FAST.

This is the way our Government Corporate Monstrosity works.

Update 12-26-24:  Biden is back at the Neville's place in St. Croix after staying once again at Rubenstein's Nantucket compound.

Unethical Shadow Banking Profits OK

Here's one way the greed and leverage boys have tapped Uncle Sam for big profits:

Worrall was an employee at the Center for Medicare-Medicaid Services (CMS); Blaszczak, a consultant for hedge funds, was a former CMS employee. Huber and Olan were partners in a hedge fund ("Deerfield"). At various times between 2009 and 2014, Worrall gave Blaszczak nonpublic information about the timing and substance of proposed CMS rule changes that would change reimbursement rates for certain types of medical care for various health conditions. Blaszczak gave that information to Huber, Olan, or another Deerfield partner, following which Deerfield engaged in profitable short sales of shares of companies that would be negatively affected by reimbursement rate reductions when they became effective. 

Note the former government employee consulting for a shadow banker (hedge funds, private equity) and the government insider (regulator, elected official).  This kind of information trade is regular business in our Government Corporate Monstrosity. 

The Justice Department decided the above actions were OK as "the confidential information at issue in this case does not constitute "property" or a "thing of value."  

... a planned CMS regulation, even if disclosed to outsiders prematurely, remains within the exclusive control of CMS.

It kept wire fraud in play for the above actions.

That's a relief for Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein and Blackstone co-founder Stephen Schwarzman.  Both are policy making billionaires with inordinate influence over non-property government decisions. 

It's also a relief for the many former Medicare Chiefs employed by private equity underwriters (PEU).   The greed and leverage boys have made big bets on healthcare firms.   It's no surprise a court and the "Just Us" department endorse unethical profits for shadow bankers employing former government officials.

Update 12-31-22:  CommonDreams revealed the early roots of our Government Corporate Monstrosity.

Biden Joins Superyachts in Caribbean

U.S. President Joe Biden and his family have joined billionaires vacationing in the Caribbean for New Year parties.  Biden landed in St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands.  Over 200 superyachts are scattered around the Caribbean to ring in the New Year.   How many Caribbean superyacht owners are the private equity underwriter (PEU) kind?

It's rare for a U.S. president to visit the U.S. Virgin Islands while in office.  It's not rare for billionaires to have undue influence on our government.  Will Biden meet with any PEUs during his time in St. Croix?   Little St. James would be a fitting location for at least one PEU, Leon Black of Apollo Global.

Update 12-29-22:  The U.S. Virgin Islands is suing Wall Street bank J.P. Morgan:

“Human trafficking was the principal business of the accounts Jeffrey Epstein maintained at JPMorgan.”

Last month Epstein’s estate agreed to pay the USVI more than $105m as part of a settlement in a case involving his sex trafficking and child exploitation on the islands’ territory.

As part of the agreement, the estate agreed to pay the USVI half the proceeds from the sale of Little St James, the private island he bought in 1998 and allegedly used for many of his sexual crimes.

The settlement, which does not include any admission of wrongdoing, includes the return of more than $80m in economic development tax benefits that Epstein and others had “fraudulently obtained to fuel his criminal enterprise”.

Will they sue Bill Clinton or Tony Blair for providing political cover for Epstein?

Santos is a Real PEU

In an interview with Fox News Tulsi Gabbard Santos said:

"I can sit down and explain to you what you can do in private equity, in capital intro, in servicing limited and general partners.  We can have this discussion that's going to go way above the American people's head."

Santos said he didn't lie because he is a real greed and leverage boy.  Private equity's public perception has not improved over the last several decades.  That's because many Americans experienced the trauma of their employer coming under PEU ownership.  

Santos is a howler monkey throwing out lies like feces.  Wrapping himself in PEU skunk skin for credibility just stinks up our government even more.  

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

Update 12-29-22:  The Daily Beast reported:

Santos, who in 2020 reported holding no assets and a salary of $55,000 from a vice president position at a financial company called LinkBridge, appears to have suddenly come into substantial wealth, claiming a net worth of as much as $11.5 million on his 2022 financial disclosure. Almost all of it came through the newly formed Devolder Organization, which the 34-year-old says paid him between $1 million and $5 million in dividends along with another $750,000 in salary.

That money, it turns out, came from some wealthy sources who also had financial stakes in Santos’ political bid.

The Daily Beast has confirmed four Devolder Organization clients: the New York-based Tantillo Auto Group, two organizations tied to the influential Ruiz family in south Florida, and another firm associated with Long Island insurance magnate James C. Metzger. Santos acknowledged all four of these clients on Wednesday.

Update 12-30-22:  DailyNews suggests Santos needs a good lawyer on speed dial:

Santos appears to have swiftly built personal wealth despite a history of debt and financial troubles.

Update 1-1-23:  Rep. Kevin Brady (Red Team- TX) said:

Santos could be forgiven by the GOP for owning up to the false statements and that it wasn’t up to the party to punish Santos.

The party is complicit in perpetrating the fraud.  It's up to the Red Team to admit their creation and sponsorship of a political fraud.  

Update 1-2-23:  The fraud is going to Congress.

Update 1-4-23:  Politico reported last week:

....it’s been crickets. The NYT and CNN this week reached out to leadership offices and the NRCC for comment. There were no responses.

Santos had a lonely day in a crowded House chamber yesterday. 

His new office was once occupied by N.Y. Rep. Chris Collins who was convicted of insider trading in early 2020.   A Trump pardon got Collins out of jail.  A House staffer called the situation like "being in a cartoon."

Update 1-5-23:  Even Santos housing picture is unclear.  Is the new Congressman elect a millionaire or a deadbeat renter?  I hope he actually lives in his House District.

New York Rep-elect George Santos reportedly does not appear to have an office or staff in his district.

Update 1-8-23:  Santos is a fraud and worked for a ponzi scheme.  He's the perfect elected official to reveal our ethically broken Congress.  Institutional Risk Analyst reported:

The question is how state and federal regulators, as well as elected officials in both political parties, did not see that the entire construct of crypto currency was at best a form of money laundering and at worse outright fraud.

Update 1-12-23:  Rep. George Santos may not be a real PEU after all.   Ethically he smells horribly but he may just be PEU wannabee.  He did make it into the realm where connected people push copious amounts of cash around to one another.

Update 1-14-22:  Video shows George Santos introducing himself as Anthony Devolder in 2019.  Santos is reflective of societal ills.  One columnist attributed his rise to a lack of local investigative reporting.  Another said:

(Santos) lies are the product of a political system that incentivizes dishonesty, punishes sincerity and is rife with opportunities for petty crooks. In that sense, Santos is the politician that we deserve.

I would offer Santos is there to serve the PEU class.  Politicians Red and Blue love PEU and increasingly, more are one.  Fraudster Santos is there to save PEU preferred "carried interest" taxation, get a regulatory format in place for crypto and steer Uncle Sam's wallet to the greed and leverage boys, as well as his personal pocketbook.  

Update 1-19-23:  Santos' mother was not in the country on 9-11-2001 so she could not have been in the Twin Towers.  REp. Santos raised $3,000 for surgery for a homeless veteran's support dog and never gave a penny toward the needed surgery.  

Comedian Jon Stewart said of Santos, “It takes people with no shame to do shameful things.”  That also applies to the people who knew all about Santos and said nothing, Kevin McCarthy et al.

A lot of shameful stuff is coming.  

Update 1-23-23:  Santos former roommate called him "the Anna Delvey of Queens" for lying his way into Congress with the full support of the NRCC.

Update 2-6-23:   A story on Santos' use of donated funds to his pet "charity" revealed:

Santos boasted of his fundraising prowess, saying he was a financial money manager with connections. In reality, he had worked for a Turkey-based hospitality technology company, eventually moving on to work at a small company that organized conferences for investors and fund managers.

Update 3-24-23:  The Hill reported:

Santos will formally confess to defrauding a Rio de Janeiro clerk of $1,300 in clothes and shoes in 2008 and pay damages to the victim

Update 9-13-23:  Santos missed yet another deadline for filing his financial disclosures.  

Update 10-6-23:  Santos campaign Treasurer pleaded guilty to conspiracy in fraudulent campaign finance submissions. 

Update 4-27-25:  That "new generation of Republican Leadership" has at least one convicted fraudster.  George Santos admitted to lying about his background and committing identity theft to bolster his political campaign.

Digital PEU Congressman Elect is Fake

Representative elect George Santos (Red Team-NY) admitted his bio was largely fraudulent.  The Red Team knew this as well, yet promoted Santos lies.

Senior House Republicans were apparently aware of the inaccuracies and embellishments in the Rep.-elect’s resume, and the topic became a “running joke,” multiple insiders close to House GOP leadership told The Post over the weekend.

“As far as questions about George in general, that was always something that was brought up whenever we talked about this race,” said one senior GOP leadership aide. “It was a running joke at a certain point. This is the second time he’s run and these issues we assumed would be worked out by the voters.”

The National Republican Congressional Committee altered Santos bio in the last 24 hours.  

Santos claims to be a digital PEU.  That has not yet been debunked.

Private equity underwriters (PEU) started by hiring former elected officials and public servants for government tea leaf reading and non-lobbying influence re: laws and regulations.  That shifted to the PEU boys running for office and often times winning.  

What does it mean that a political party would fraudulently promote a PEU candidate for Congress?  The ceaseless pursuit of power and greed has no morals. Rather than do the honorable thing Santos blamed the elite media for his fraudulent representations.

Santos is accountable but the elite group he wished to please was not the media.  It was the group he wished to join.  Politicians Red and Blue love PEU and increasingly, more are one.  

Update 12-28-22:  In an interview with Fox News Tulsi Gabbert Santos said:

"I can sit down and explain to you what you can do in private equity, in capital venture, in servicing limited and general partners.  We can have this discussion that's going to go way above the American people's head."

Santos said he didn't lie because he is a real greed and leverage boy.  Private equity's public perception has not improved over the last several decades.  That's because many Americans experienced the trauma of their employer coming under PEU ownership.  

Santos is a howler monkey throwing out lies like feces.  Wrapping himself in PEU skunk skin for credibility just stinks up our government even more.  

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

Update 12-29-22:  The Daily Beast reported:

Santos, who in 2020 reported holding no assets and a salary of $55,000 from a vice president position at a financial company called LinkBridge, appears to have suddenly come into substantial wealth, claiming a net worth of as much as $11.5 million on his 2022 financial disclosure. Almost all of it came through the newly formed Devolder Organization, which the 34-year-old says paid him between $1 million and $5 million in dividends along with another $750,000 in salary.

That money, it turns out, came from some wealthy sources who also had financial stakes in Santos’ political bid.

The Daily Beast has confirmed four Devolder Organization clients: the New York-based Tantillo Auto Group, two organizations tied to the influential Ruiz family in south Florida, and another firm associated with Long Island insurance magnate James C. Metzger. Santos acknowledged all four of these clients on Wednesday.

Update 12-30-22:  DailyNews suggests Santos needs a good lawyer on speed dial:

Santos appears to have swiftly built personal wealth despite a history of debt and financial troubles.

 Senior House Republicans remain silent on their running joke.

Update 1-1-23:  Rep. Kevin Brady (Red Team- TX) said:

Santos could be forgiven by the GOP for owning up to the false statements and that it wasn’t up to the party to punish Santos.

The party is complicit in perpetrating the fraud.  It's up to the Red Team to admit their creation and sponsorship of a political fraud. 

Update 1-2-23:  The fraud is going to Congress.  

Update 1-4-23:  Politico reported last week:

....it’s been crickets. The NYT and CNN this week reached out to leadership offices and the NRCC for comment. There were no responses.

Santos had a lonely day in a crowded House chamber yesterday. 

His new office was once occupied by N.Y. Rep. Chris Collins who was convicted of insider trading in early 2020.   A Trump pardon got Collins out of jail.  A House staffer called the situation like "being in a cartoon."

Update 1-5-23:  Even Santos housing picture is unclear.  Is the new Congressman elect a millionaire or a deadbeat renter?  I hope he actually lives in his House District. 

New York Rep-elect George Santos reportedly does not appear to have an office or staff in his district.

Update 1-8-23:  Rep. Nancy Mace (Red Team- South Carolina) said on Face the Nation:

“It’s very clear his entire resume and life was manufactured until a couple days ago, when he finally changed his website.”

His website?  It was the NRCC website that changed between 12-26 and 12-27-22.  Mace is a Vice Chair for the NRCC.  She had an official role in pushing Santos as a credible candidate.

Update 1-12-23:  Rep. George Santos may not be a real PEU after all.   Ethically he smells horribly but he may just be PEU wannabee.  He did make it into the realm where connected people push copious amounts of cash around to one another.

Update 1-14-22:  Video shows George Santos introducing himself as Anthony Devolder in 2019. Santos is reflective of societal ills.  One columnist attributed his rise to a lack of local investigative reporting.  Another said:

(Santos) lies are the product of a political system that incentivizes dishonesty, punishes sincerity and is rife with opportunities for petty crooks. In that sense, Santos is the politician that we deserve.

I would offer Santos is there to serve the PEU class.  Politicians Red and Blue love PEU and increasingly, more are one.  Fraudster Santos is there to save PEU preferred "carried interest" taxation, get a regulatory format in place for crypto and steer Uncle Sam's wallet to the greed and leverage boys, as well as his personal pocketbook. 

Update 4-27-25:  That "new generation of Republican Leadership" has at least one convicted fraudster.  George Santos admitted to lying about his background and committing identity theft to bolster his political campaign.

Congressional Delay Re: PEU Side Letters

Jacobin reported on another way private equity underwriters (PEU) can influence elected officials:

Wall Street firms and their political allies — including a U.S. senator with substantial private equity holdings — are trying to stop federal regulators from intervening to protect retirees by banning firms from giving some investors preferential treatment. And there are no rules requiring lawmakers with investments in private equity to disclose whether they are being given special investment preferences while they lobby to protect those asset managers. 

The new battle revolves around the secret “side letters” that private equity, hedge fund, and real estate firms ink with individual investors, giving them privileges not afforded to others in the same investment funds.

...side letters “can create preferred liquidity terms or disclosures. This can create an uneven playing field among limited partners based upon those negotiated terms.”

It should be no surprise that political insiders can look after their PEU brethren and benefit disproportionately while doing so.  

The Blue political team took bold action by slowing down political comment.

Democrats were raking in more than $34 million of campaign cash from private equity and investment firms, a dozen Senate Democrats sent a letter to Gensler demanding that the SEC slow down its rulemaking process by extending comment periods 

A Tennessee Senator from Hall Capital went further with a letter demanding a stop to the rule from further consideration.

...the American Investment Council, the top lobbying group for private equity, is also fighting the reforms

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

All the lobbying has already resulted in one key win for the (PEU) industry: a line slipped into Congress’s end-of-year omnibus spending bill.

That unrelated spending legislation currently states that Congress “strongly encourages the SEC to reconduct the economic analysis for the [side letter rule] to ensure the analysis adequately considers the disparate impact on emerging minority and women-owned asset management firms, minority and women-owned businesses, and historically underinvested communities.”

It's their PEU brethren they serve and only a miniscule number are minority and women-owned.

SBF's Greed: Now Freed on Bail

FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried is out of a Bahamas jail and back home with his Stanford professor parents.  Bankman-Fried has been "charged with orchestrating a years-long fraud in which he used billions of dollars of FTX customer funds for personal expenses and high-risk bets."  He is out on a $250 million bond.

Several of SBF's partners in crime have been charged as well.

“From 2019 through 2022, I was aware that Alameda was provided access to a borrowing facility on FTX.com, the cryptocurrency exchange run by Mr. Bankman-Fried,” Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison said. “In practical terms, this arrangement permitted Alameda access to an unlimited line of credit without being required to post collateral, without having negative balances and without being subject to margin calls on FTX.com’s liquidation protocols.”

SBF testified before a Congressional committee in May 2022 about FTX's strong customer protections and conservative risk model.  That was clearly perjury.  

The fallen peer of Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein invested alongside Rubenstein's Declaration Partners in Paxos.  

Rubenstein and Paxos board member Sheila Bair need federal regulation to save their wish of equity stake profits.  Ferreting out SBF's lies and misrepresentations will be important as regulation strategies move forward.  

CPA and former Texas Congressman Mike Conaway might provide insight.  He recently served as D.C. lobbyist for FTX.  Conaway sniffed out fraud at the National Republican Congressional Committee but missed FTX's accounting nightmare in his FTX lobbying engagement due diligence.

There is much at stake going forward.  Truth and honesty are needed to design systems that corral those spinning untruths and harming others with their greed, arrogance, and hubris.  I'm not sure a time-out in SBF's parent's basement will do the trick.

Update:  Bankman-Fried freed in time for the holidays.  Warms the heart he can spend it with family while the people he ripped off face their diminished present. 

Update 12-25-22:  Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich noted how SBF and other tantrum tossing billionaires were not reigned in by regulatory bodies.

Update 1-5-23:  SBF's General Counsel at FTX "told prosecutors what he knew of Bankman-Fried's use of customer funds to finance his business empire."  He had over a year to learn how SBF did business.

8-3-2021:  Cryptocurrency exchange FTX.US named a former Sullivan & Cromwell LLP and U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission attorney as general counsel.

Meanwhile Sullivan and Cromwell remains the law firm for FTX, before, during and after the revelations of gross mismanagement and fraud. 

Update 9-19-23:  FTX's insider money funnel included SBF's parents.