Posted on 01/07/2013 8:47:34 PM PST by gotribe
... [Lew] oversaw a Citigroup unit that profited off the housing collapse and financial crisis by investing in a hedge fund king who correctly predicted the eventual subprime meltdown and now finds himself involved in the center of the U.S. government’s fraud case against Goldman Sachs. . . .
[I]t is his few years at Citi — in particular the one year he spent at its then-$54 billion proprietary trading, hedge fund and private equity unit — that’s likely to raise the most eyebrows in the coming weeks as Lew faces a Senate confirmation hearing.
Especially his unit’s investments in a hedge fund that bet on the housing market to collapse — a reality suffered by millions of American homeowners.
In particular, the Citigroup fund run by Lew, Citi’s Alternative Investments, invested heavily in the hedge fund of John Paulson, “who made billions off the deterioration of the housing industry by making bearish bets on securities tied to home mortgages — particularly subprime home mortgages.” One of Paulson’s largest bets at the time involved Goldman Sachs, which the SEC has now charged with “defrauding investors by creating and selling exotic securities tied to subprime home mortgages in 2007 without disclosing that they were handpicked by a hedge fund [Paulson] that was betting on them to fail....”
(Excerpt) Read more at salon.com ...
I am confused...this is a year old and about Richard Daley’s replacement as WH chief of staff.....
Yes, I should have made it clearer, sorry. The news is out tonight that Lew is obama’s pick for his new Treasury Secretary, to replace Geithner.
Oh okay I get it now....I guess the new year is not off to the best for me in understanding people’s headlines... ;)
This Lew (British, lue) has a pew, as in pee-you.
Or, in plain Americanese, he stinks like a loaded crapper.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.