Elite Obama Donor Robert Wolf, CEO of the US branch of Swiss Bank UBS, seen exiting his limousine upon his arrival at Private Obama Dinner for Elite Obama Donors Only. Elite Obama Donor Robert Wolf is currently under Senate investigation.
Posted on 01/20/2009 3:10:56 PM PST by bd476
Wall Street Journal
* JANUARY 9, 2009
Wall Street Is Big Donor to Inauguration
Obama Bans Funding From Corporations and Big Donors, but Financial Employees Put Up $5.7 Million
Other bundlers from the financial sector include executives from Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., two New York-based institutions that have accepted billions of dollars each in rescue money from the federal government.
...The analysis shows that Lou Susman , a Chicago-based managing director for Citigroup, bundled $265,000 in inaugural donations for Mr. Obama, including $50,000 donated personally and $50,000 more from the firm's employees.
< Snip >
Financial-executive donors to the Obama inauguration include an executive from Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., which declared bankruptcy last fall. The executive has bundled at least $115,000 in donations so far for the inaugural, according to records made public by the Obama organization.
Excerpt. Wall Street Is Big Donor to Inauguration
Elite Obama Donor Robert Wolf, CEO of the US branch of Swiss Bank UBS, seen exiting his limousine upon his arrival at Private Obama Dinner for Elite Obama Donors Only. Elite Obama Donor Robert Wolf is currently under Senate investigation.
Excerpt from
Washington Post
Senate Probe's Targets Give to Campaigns
Report Accuses Bank Officials of Helping Clients Hide Money From the IRS
By Matthew Mosk
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 1, 2008; Page A05
"...UBS always has been a major donor in Washington, in addition to spending close to $1 million a year on lobbying. The bank has spent more on the 2008 elections, which are still more than three months away, than during the entire 2006 cycle. The UBS political committee distributed $2.21 million to politicians and political groups over the past 18 months.
The chairman of UBS Americas, Robert Wolf, helped raise more than $250,000 for Sen. Barack Obama's Democratic presidential bid.
< Snip >
Pragasam noted that Wolf's role in the Obama campaign predates the Senate investigation by more than a year, and that Wolf oversees the bank's American operations, while the Senate probe is focused on the activities of UBS offices in Switzerland.
"He was a very early supporter of Senator Obama, and began that support long before the Senate investigation into tax havens," she said...
Excerpt. Senate Probe's Targets Give to Campaigns
* * * * *
Tuesday, January 20, 2009, 8:47am MST
Colorado business leaders among largest inaugural donors
Denver Business Journal
Six Colorado business leaders are among the top donors to Tuesday's inauguration ceremony for President Barack Obama, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Individual donors were limited to a maximum gift of $50,000 to support inaugural festivities.
Colorado donors listed by the CRP, which studies and reports on political contributions, as having donated $50,000 are:
* Merle Chambers of Denver, president of Leith Ventures LLC, a privately held investment company.
* Holly Lev of Boulder, co-founder of health-supplements company Organic India.
* Pat McConathy of Vail, an energy investor.
* Bruce Oreck of Boulder, an attorney with Oreck Bradley Crighton Adams & Chase and son of vacuum-cleaner magnate David Oreck.
* Thomas Strickland of Denver, chief legal officer for UnitedHealth Group Inc. and former U.S. Senate candidate.
* Pat Stryker of Fort Collins, an heiress and longtime progressive activist.
Colorado business leaders among largest inaugural donors
* * * * *
Politico
Big donors foot inaugural bill
By KENNETH P. VOGEL | 1/14/09 7:00 PM EST Updated: 1/15/09 10:19 AM EST
Wall Street
Barack Obama has boasted that his inauguration will be funded by the same small donors who propelled his presidential campaign to victory, but a new analysis shows the inaugural bill is being footed primarily by big-dollar contributors, including many from Wall Street.
Barack Obama has boasted that his Inauguration will be funded by the same small donors who propelled his presidential campaign to victory, but a new analysis shows the inaugural bill is being footed primarily by big-dollar contributors, including many from Wall Street.
In fact, nearly 80 percent of the $35.3 million raised by Obama’s inaugural committee can be traced to just 211 individual bundlers, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan watchdog group Public Citizen.
One Wall Street bundler, Louis Susman, a top Citigroup executive, steered the $300,000 maximum to the committee, the report found.
“No doubt many donors give simply because they want to be part of history,” said Craig Holman, a campaign finance lobbyist for Public Citizen. “But donors and bundlers who represent special interests with business pending before the government and who dole out five-figure checks to the inaugural committee usually want a seat at the table with the new administration.”
Though the federal government is pitching in $10 million toward the cost of Obama’s Inauguration, his team is planning festivities that could cost as much as $50 million.
The privately raised funds will go toward opening up the Inauguration so more can participate in it, said Inauguration spokeswoman Linda Douglass.
The cash will pay for Jumbotrons and audio systems on the mall that will allow the expected massive crowds to watch the proceedings, as well as low-cost or free inaugural balls or concerts.
There are almost no limits on inaugural fundraising and Douglass pointed out that Obama is voluntarily disclosing contributions in almost real time, barring contributions from corporations, lobbyists, political action committees and unions and capping individual contributions at $50,000 a person, and bundled contributions at $300,000 per bundler.
Other Wall Street bundlers who contributed include:
* Mark Gilbert, a senior executive at Lehman Brothers: $185,000
* Robert Wolf, CEO of UBS Americas: $100,000
* Jennifer Scully, a vice president at Goldman Sachs: $100,000
* Bruce Heyman, a manager at Goldman Sachs: $50,000
Bundlers are major fundraisers who corral checks from friends and associates and deliver them to a campaign or committee en masse.
Though Obama’s presidential campaign also had its share of bundlers -- many of whom are also bundling for the Inauguration -- the campaign boasted that more than half of the record-shattering $662 million it raised came from small donors.
Those donors don’t appear to have had as large an impact on inaugural fundraising, which is typically harder to do than campaign fundraising. It’s difficult to gauge their impact precisely, since Obama’s inauguration web site is not listing donors who gave less than $200, but of the 5,632 reported contributions to the inaugural committee, only 113 came in at $200.
Douglass said internal figures show that nearly 200,000 people have contributed to the inaugural committee and that the average donation is $34.
Big donors foot inaugural bill
* * * * *
Excerpt from:
San Francisco Chronicle
Google execs among big donors to inauguration
Verne Kopytoff, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, January 3, 2009
< Snip >
Some big donors
Bay Area business leaders are among the major donors to President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration. A sampling of the contributions:
Derek Dukes, founder of Dipity: $25,000
Robert Haas, former CEO of Levi Strauss: $50,000
Carole Hays, president of SHN Theaters: $100,000*
Chad Hurley, YouTube co-founder: $25,000
Mitchell Kapor, founder of Lotus Development: $50,000
Michael Kieschnick, president of Working Assets: $50,000
Bara Oscodar, CEO of Expert Communications: $50,000
Larry Page, co-founder of Google: $25,000
James Pooley, attorney with Morrison & Foerster: $25,000
Chris Sacca, a former Google manager, now angel investor: $50,000
Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google: $25,000
Daniel Skaff, Sienna Ventures: $25,000
John Thompson, CEO of Symantec: $50,000
J. Minott Wessinger, president of McKenzie River Corp.: $100,000*
*Amount includes $50,000 donation from spouse.
Excerpt.
Google execs among big donors to inauguration
* * * * *
The gravy train hand outs are just beginning.
Soon de white man, he not be payin' his taxes!
Good find.
Crap. They have access to our computers. No wonder my computer freezes up when I visit conservative sites.
Yeah, that sounds kinda tinfoily right now, but we'll see how it sounds in a few years.
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Great post. Bump for later.
Boy howdy, that’s one steaming pile of racism. Too bad Zero didn’t get Jeremiah Wright to preach to whitey for him today.
Bump for tomorrow!
Remember how Schoolhouse Rock taught us about Bills and the Preamble? I think they need to do one on taxpayer money for the bailouts going to the CEOs of banks and then to Obama’s parties etc.
I'm not coming down off the mountain with the tablets here, but....
I am edging closer to understanding the age old unanswered question of why rich people like Bloomberg, Corzine, Ahnold, Ariana and Soros can make billions thanks to this great country and then embrace Socialism. They already have money, that was easy, now they want power.
Same reason these wealthy people do. They are empty souls. Devoid of meaning in their life. They think that "saving the world" or at least trying will make up for their personal failures as spouses, fathers, mothers.
.
Surprise Surprise!
No surprise to me, I read it on Drudge earlier in the day. I learn a lot fast by going and looking at the headlines.
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Late starter today
I usually attempt to do that at Drudge too -
But I delete his auto-reload HTML tags first - they kill trying to load and read it in an acceptable timespan
Just now I am seeing a really funny thing happening at the Eastern Inaugural Ball. O is giving a speech, M is standing near him and keeps waving to people in the audience. O gives her a look and then she stops, puts her hands behind her and looks guilty like a child would!! It's amazing.
>>Surprisingly no PETA, Global Warming, nor Code Pink protesters are seen as the Elite Obama Donors arrive in chauffeur driven stretch limousines dressed in their finest furs.
All fellow travelers on the Socialist path.<<
It is NOT surprising. Code Pink, PETA, et al are the “Useful idiots” and “Dupes”. They are used and then tossed out until needed next.
This is how the Communists work.
Hidden implication...that he is African because.... he was born there....
Like parasites, they live. Like that movie, “They Live,” from the 80’s.
Pretty much, and they’re 100% congratulating themselves. Learning nothing from North Korea or anywhere in history of the planet Earth and the known galaxies.
Investigated? Hahhahhahhahhahhahhah...!
Who is the real enemy here? Obama? His donors? or the Media?
What can anyone do about it now?
Cant touch Obama!... He’s king now, and well protected by his majority in the congress.... Investigation??? HA!!!!!
Cant touch his donors... You think the king is gonna let that happen? I DONT THINK SO.
Cant touch the media... They’ll just laugh all the way to the bank as everyone continues to tune in.
I guess it’s Bush’s fault afterall.
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