On May 3, 6:34*pm, wrote:
White House Denies Charge By Attorney that Administration Threatened
to Destroy Investment Firm's Reputation
A leading bankruptcy attorney representing hedge funds and money
managers told ABC News Saturday that Steve Rattner, the leader of the
Obama administration's Auto Industry Task Force, threatened one of the
firms, an investment bank, that if it continued to oppose the
administration's Chrysler bankruptcy plan, the White House would use
the White House press corps to destroy its reputation.
The White House and a spokesperson for the investment bank in question
challenged the accuracy of the story.
"The charge is completely untrue," said White House deputy press
secretary Bill Burton, "and there's obviously no evidence to suggest
that this happened in any way."
Thomas Lauria, Global Practice Head of the Financial Restructuring and
Insolvency Group at White & Case, told ABC News that Rattner suggested
to an official of the boutique investment bank Perella Weinberg
Partners that officials of the Obama White House would embarrass the
firm for opposing the Obama administration plan, which President Obama
announced Thursday, and which requires creditors to accept roughly 29
cents on the dollar for an estimated $6.8 billion owed by Chrysler.
Lauria first told the story, without naming Rattner, to Frank Beckmann
on Detroit's WJR-AM radio.
Perella Weinberg Partners, Lauria said, "was directly threatened by
the White House and in essence compelled to withdraw its opposition to
the deal under the threat that the full force of the White House press
corps would destroy its reputation if it continued to fight. That’s
how hard it is to stand on this side of the fence."
A Perella Weinberg Partners spokesperson told ABC News on Sunday that
“The firm denies Mr. Lauria’s account of events.”* The spokesperson
would not elaborate.
Perella Weinberg Partners, which owned Chrysler debt through its
Xerion Fund, was one of Lauria's clients in this bankruptcy, but no
longer is. The firm is led by Joseph Perella. On Thursday afternoon --
after the Wedneday deadline -- the portfolio manager for the Xerion
fund decided to join the larger four creditors who are owed roughly
70% of Chrysler's debt and had already agreed to participate with the
administration's plan.
Those four financial institutions - JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Morgan
Stanley, and Goldman Sachs -- are recipients of up to $100 billion in
federal government bailout funds, though the Obama administration
insists the matters were kept completely separate.
Someone familiar with the Perella Weinberg Partners' portfolio
manager's thinking told ABC News that the decision to go along with
the government plan "was based on an assessment of investment risk and
reward and nothing else."
Lauria said his clients "are mainly fiduciaries for pension plans,
college endowments, retirement plans and credit unions who invested in
low yield supposedly very secure first lien debt" with Chrysler.
President Obama singled out Lauria's clients for criticism when he
announced the Chrysler plan on Thursday.
"While many stakeholders made sacrifices and worked constructively, I
have to tell you some did not," the president said. "In particular, a
group of investment firms and hedge funds decided to hold out for the
prospect of an unjustified taxpayer-funded bailout. They were hoping
that everybody else would make sacrifices, and they would have to make
none."
Lauria said the president's assertion that his clients weren't willing
to make any sacrifice is false. The clients were willing to take 50
cents on the dollar from Chrysler for their debt, he said.
President Obama also said of Lauria's clients, "I don't stand with
them. I stand with Chrysler's employees and their families and
communities. I stand with Chrysler's management, its dealers, and its
suppliers. I stand with the millions of Americans who own and want to
buy Chrysler cars. I don't stand with those who held out when
everybody else is making sacrifices."
"He stands my clients up as basically the reason Chrysler is going
into bankruptcy," Lauria said. "He wrongly says they're not willing to
make any sacrifice. And then he says he does not stand with us."
Lauria said the president saying he doesn't stand with his clients
"kind of sounds like 'You're fair game.' In whatever sense. People are
scared. They have gotten death treats. Some have been told people are
going to come to their houses. God forbid if some nut did something,
I'm just wondering how the president would feel."
The Miami area-based attorney describes himself as an independent, and
says after waiting in line for six hours last November he ended up not
voting in the presidential election. He donated $10,000 to the
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 2008 and $1,000 to then-
Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, in 2006.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpu...ptcy-atto.html
This is a violation of the constitution.
The economic concept of private property refers to the rights owners
have to the exclusive use and disposal of a physical object. Property
is not a table, a chair, or an acre of land. It is the bundle of
rights which the owner is entitled to employ those objects. The
alternative (collectivist [communist]) view is that private property
consists merely of a legal deed to an object with the use and disposal
of the object subject to the whims and mercies of the state. Under
this latter view, the state retains ownership and may at any time
regulate or even repossess the property it temporarily cedes to
individuals.