Just yesterday, I was pondering just what dirt Obama and his auto czar had on Perella-Weinberg/Xerion that could be used to “ruin their reputation” or “embarrass” them.
The only idea I had in the above referenced post was that Xerion also received funds from the New York State Common Retirement Fund, and that perhaps Rattner/Obama admin was using a blackmail tactic by threatening to drag them into the pay-to-play investigation involving Rattner’s Quadrangle, placement agent Henry Morris and former deputy comptroller David Loglisci.
Tom Lauria, a man genuinely indignant at the White House intimidation tactics used against his legal clientele, has now been silenced by Perella-Weinberg themselves.
If P-W insists Lauria dodge the subject, could it be whatever dirt Rattner/Obama have is true, and Lauria’s indignation resulted in shining a spotlight where P-W did not want it to be?
As Lauria says to Fox’s Megyn Kelly,
… I really don’t want to comment, but I’m sure… uh… that… uh… if people keep pressing, the truth is going to come out.
Vietnam era Navy wife, indy/conservative, and an official California escapee now residing as a red speck in the sea of Oregon blue.
We are going to press this until we get some answers. This BS intimidation will not stand. This breaking of the law will not stand. If Obama were just another impaired creditor of any company reorganization and did this? The Federal Bankruptcy Court would order his ass to jail indefinitely. This is so far out of reason I’m having a real hard time with it. If this is the new way of this Nation, I say Barack will be the Father of the last and greatest Revolution.
This whole thing is going sideways with decisions made by a child. If Obama, Emanuel, Axelrod et al., think for one minute that family values and independent responsability have vanished never to be found again, then welcome to incarceration gentlemen. I’ve been through it four times.
You were voted in to preserve and protect our constitution Barack not change it and you had better have some good attorneys within 44 months because I sure as hell don’t see any worth their salt giving you counsel at this time which is your decision, which is precisely why when your administration is up in 2014 your going under the microscope, Sir.
Perella Weinberg Hired by FDIC as Bank Bailout Strategy Adviser, or “Don’t you dare bite the hand that feeds you!!!”
By Bradley Keoun
Jan. 26, 2009 (Bloomberg) — Perella Weinberg Partners LP, the investment bank founded by Joseph Perella, won a mandate to advise the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (aka FDIC). on strategies and transactions to stabilize the banking system.
Perella Weinberg, based in New York, was chosen after several firms were considered in a process that began in late 2008, Jason Cave, a senior adviser to FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair, said today in an interview. The firm may also advise FDIC staff on the disposal of failed institutions and how to handle delinquent loans and distressed securities assumed from banks.
The Washington-based FDIC’s role as guarantor of the nation’s depositors has put it at the center of talks with the U.S. Treasury Department and Federal Reserve over how to keep markets and banks from collapsing. Bair is pushing to streamline foreclosure-prevention efforts while considering proposals to create an “aggregator” bank to quarantine toxic assets.
“You’re getting into very sophisticated transactions, and you need to be able to turn to people who are expert in that to tell you how the market’s going to react,” said William Isaac, a former FDIC chairman who now heads Secura Group, a consulting firm in Vienna, Virginia. “You don’t have people on staff at the FDIC who do that.”
Perella Weinberg is led by Perella, 67, who started it in 2006 after quitting a year earlier as a vice chairman of Morgan Stanley. Reached on his cell phone, Perella Weinberg partner Peter Weinberg, 51, said he couldn’t comment.
MBIA, Ambac
Last year, the firm advised New York State Insurance Superintendent Eric Dinallo when he was overseeing talks to restructure the obligations of MBIA Inc., Ambac Financial Group Inc. and other companies that provided guarantees on securities packaged from subprime mortgages.
Perella Weinberg also advised Charlotte, North Carolina- based bank Wachovia Corp. when it decided last year to spurn a takeover offer from New York-based Citigroup Inc. and instead be acquired by San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co.
Regulators closed 25 banks last year, the most since 1993, and have closed three more so far in January as the recession deepens and mortgage defaults surge. On Jan. 23, the FDIC announced the seizure of First Centennial Bank of Redlands, California. Its six branches and $676.9 million of deposits will be assumed by First California Bank, based in Westlake Village, California.
The agency sought expertise from Wall Street to supplement its own staff’s knowledge of banking regulation, Cave said.
‘Different Perspective’
Perella Weinberg’s job is to “bring a different perspective, to make sure our process is fully informed, that we’ve considered all possibilities,” Cave said. “The things we’re dealing with in the market now are probably more complex than they’ve ever been.”
He declined to say which other firms were interviewed. He also wouldn’t comment on fees that will be paid to Perella Weinberg or how long the assignment will last. It may stretch over several years, a person familiar with the matter said.
In the 1980s, the FDIC hired New York-based Morgan Stanley as an adviser when the agency decided to sell its stake in Continental Illinois, the Chicago-based bank that had to be rescued in 1984 with a $4.5 billion government bailout. Continental had hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. as an adviser.
Deutsche Bank, Barclays
The FDIC earlier this month used Deutsche Bank AG and Barclays Plc as advisers when it reached an agreement to sell the failed IndyMac Bank to a group of investors led by former Goldman Sachs executive Steven Mnuchin. Merrill Lynch & Co., now a part of Bank of America Corp., advised the buyers.
The biggest U.S. banks, including Citigroup, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, probably weren’t considered by the FDIC for a long-term advisory role because they hold troubled assets and may have conflicts of interest, said John C. “Jack” Murphy Jr., a former FDIC general counsel.
All four firms have taken government funds under the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program and sold bonds guaranteed under an emergency FDIC program.
“Perella Weinberg’s a very interesting choice, because they’re not affiliated with any major banking institution,” said Murphy, now a partner with the law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP in Washington. “What you want is someone who not only won’t have conflicts of interest but also won’t have the appearance of conflicts.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Bradley Keoun in New York at bkeoun@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: January 26, 2009 14:40 EST
I SEE A PATTERN CAN YOU
How many story’s referred to the bond holder’s as dissidents included
What do people think about when they hear such words today? Not those who sat in commi jails but a bunch of lefties tearing up their streets?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissident
The term dissident was used in the Soviet Union during the period of 1965-1985, including Brezhnev stagnation, for citizens who overtly (or sometimes even subtly) criticized the practices or the authority of the Communist party.
http://www.economicpopulist.org/?q=content/who-are-evil-doers-chrysler-bankruptcy
Who are the Evil Doers on the Chrysler Bankruptcy?
THE PRESS MIGHT WANT TO LOOK WHAT HUGO DID NOTICE THE WORD EVIL.
http://www.reuters.com/article/bigMoney/idUS120682537620090502
Citi Defies Stress-Test Results
Sat May 2, 2009
The Washington Post says that now the government has turned its eye to General Motors as it will in coming weeks have to reach “an agreement with GM’s diverse collection of bondholders, who range from large corporations to ordinary Americans, will be the key to preventing the company from an outcome similar to Chrysler.” Following the president’s remarks about Chrysler’s dissident debt holders,
http://newsfeedresearcher.com/data/articles_b18/chrysler-fund-bankruptcy.html#hdng0
Although four large banks that hold 70 percent of that debt–Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley–agreed to accept Treasury’s offer of 33 cents on the dollar for the loans, a group of about 20 hedge funds, holding about $1 billion of the debt, rejected the deal. In his remarks yesterday, the president drew a sharp contrast between the “shared sacrifice”
YEA 540$ FOR SNEAKERS WHAT A SACRIFICE?
DO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE UNDERSTAND WHAT THIS GUY IS DOING?
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/23/bofa-chief-testifies-urged-silence-merrill-deal/
Lewis said the government wanted him to keep quiet while the two sides negotiated government funding to help BofA absorb Merrill and its huge losses.
Under normal circumstances, banks must alert their shareholders of any materially significant financial hits.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aP2XyOHiRSGI&refer=home
Bear, AIG Dumped $74 Billion in Subprime, CDOs on Fed
April 24, 2009
The losses on securities backed by assets such as home loans in Florida and California signal that U.S. taxpayers may be forced to reimburse the central bank through the Troubled Asset Relief Program
http://nreionline.com/commentary/worldbeat/real_estate_gusher_arab_investment_0701/
A Gusher of Arab Investment
Jul 1, 2008
Global real estate investment by Arab investors will nearly double this year, to $22 billion, say analysts with commercial real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle. Arab investment in the U.S., however, may lag.
Through May of this year, Middle East investment in the U.S. totaled $1.8 billion, far less than the $4.8 billion spent in the first five months of 2007 and $8.2 billion spent for the year, according to New York-based research firm Real Capital Analytics (RCA). However, Robert White, RCA president, predicts a stronger finish in 2008.
PATTERNS
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=aColIYAe.RaU&refer=home
Fannie Mae Creates Housing Mirage With Bum Loans: David Reilly
April 24, 2009
Faced with growing numbers of homeowners unable to make mortgage payments, Fannie decided to fund loans to borrowers that were instant losers.
The point was to buy time. Even though those loans resulted in a $453 million loss, they helped keep troubled homeowners from defaulting. That meant Fannie for now didn’t have to make good on loan guarantees that may have cost it as much as $2.4 billion.
The big game of kick the can strikes at a deep-seated fear among many investors — that banks and others faced with mounting housing losses are finding all manner of dubious ways to push a day of reckoning into the future.
If that’s the case, any improvement in the housing outlook might be a mirage obscuring even greater pressures building in the financial system
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=326073461466240
Congress (Rightly) Rejects Cramdowns
May 01, 2009
In a rare moment of fiscal sanity, a dozen Democrats joined Republicans in a 45-51 vote to scuttle a measure to spare hundreds of thousands from foreclosure through the edicts of bankruptcy court judges. These judges would have the power to lower interest rates and the principal owed on homes to more “affordable” levels.
Allowing bankruptcy judges to rewrite mortgages would deal a damaging if not fatal blow to the sanctity of contracts. They might as well be written on an Etch A Sketch
http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?p=282390
FAA Memo: Feds Knew NYC Flyover Would Cause Panic
Threatened Federal Sanctions Against NYPD, Secret Service, FBI & Mayor’s Office If Secret Ever Got Out
Federal officials knew that sending two fighter jets and Air Force One to buzz ground zero and Lady Liberty might set off nightmarish fears of a 9/11 replay, but they still ordered the photo-op kept secret from the public
In a memo obtained by CBS 2 HD the Federal Aviation Administration’s James Johnston said the agency was aware of “the possibility of public concern regarding DOD (Department of Defense) aircraft flying at low altitudes” in an around New York City. But they demanded total secrecy from the NYPD, the Secret Service, the FBI and even the mayor’s office and threatened federal sanctions if the secret got out.
The NYPD was so upset about the demand for secrecy that Police Commissioner Ray Kelly vowed never to follow such a directive again and he accused the feds of inciting fears of a 9/11 replay
PATTERNS YES.
AND NEVER FORGET THE ARREST OF THE ABC REPORT IN DENVER?
Yep I believe that the US goverment threatened these people. Now the big? is will they help the democrats stay in power the democrat congress gives this guy the power to do what he is doing.
You have no balance. Remember these guys are the people who helped bho gain all this power by their support and like all others they get rid of those they think they nolonger need.
But the USA has not change yet to far congress controls the purse strings but you can’t allow the Democrats to control congress.
Maybe these guys will care about their money because thay haven’t cared about the USA for a long time.
Catherine
Jim #2, yessir… mentioned Zero Hedge’s similar information in my original post, linked in the first sentence. Zero Hedge exposed the link between the P-W FDIC restructuring gig, and their acquiescence to the Obama admin on Chrysler.
I’m not sure that is the reason for the “threats Lauria speaks of.
Certainly the Treasury department could fire P-W for consulting/restructuring services, and hire someone else. But the WH accusations were specifically of “embarrassment” and “ruin your reputation”… not a threat to yank a government contract for service.
However your additional info on the FDIC link is most welcomed.
Mata:
“But the WH accusations were specifically of “embarrassment” and “ruin your reputation”… not a threat to yank a government contract for service.”
All the White House needs to do to “tank” P-W’s reputation and standing in the investment community is to allege or “leak” that P-W mishandled the Federal government’s contract/task/$’s that they were granted to provide consulting services and advise to the FDIC.
It is akin to a school teacher being an alleged “child molester.” The allegation or charges are page one headline material that causes a permanent stain on one’s reputation that will never fade, even though three years later, on page 45, charges are dropped because of lack of evidence.
Indeed there is that, Jim. Great added perspective to the intrigue.
I have no comment.