Meg Whitman has been bombarding the airwaves with her campaign ads trying to buy her way to becoming California’s next Governor, but her campaign ads never mention one very important fact: she was a Goldman Sachs board member for a little over a year before having to resign amidst controversy due to ‘spinning’ — a practice used by executives who did business with Goldman Sachs to reap profits by getting early stock deals before the public on hot IPOs offered by the bank — from which Whitman earned approximately $1.78 million.
Whitman was appointed to the board of Goldman Sachs in October, 2001 and resigned in December 2002 because of ‘spinning’ — a practice one law firm reportedly describes as “essentially … an illegal bribe … to corporate leaders.” After a Congressional investigation and an investor lawsuit, it was probably best to just leave the board.
Goldman Sachs has been responsible for a lot of questionable — fraudulent — actions and intentionally running companies, countries and several governments into the ground. Former Goldman Sachs employees have been in charge — with no oversight or accountability — of the “Federal” Reserve for decades.
A report from the Associate Press offers some insight into what kind of business relationship Californians can expect if Meg Whitman becomes Governor. The report, titled “Corporate Cash Boosts Whitman” says that nearly $2.2 million she has received from donors outside of California came from an elite roster of executives, hedge fund managers, venture capitalists and wealthy associates — many of which have been stealing from every taxpayer in California. More than 20 percent of the $10.2 million collected by Whitman last year came from outside the state. As noted by Mr. Eskow, if there’s one thing these guys know, it’s how to prime the pump.
Goldman Sachs Undermined CA’s Credit Rating and Urged Bets Against CA Bonds
It appears that Whitman’s cronies at Goldman Sachs have, unsurprisingly, profited off of California’s financial misery. Goldman Sachs was hired to manage some multibillion dollar state bonds, but that wasn’t enough for them. As usual, greed ended up causing Goldman Sachs to secretly undermine California’s credit rating, hurting the sales they were hired to manage.
In fact, Goldman Sachs has been fraudulently screwing the state of California over for the past several years. As they did with secretly betting on the housing bubble they helped create crashing, Goldman Sachs secretly urged some of its big clients to place investments bets against California bonds by proposing a way for clients to profit from California’s deepening financial misery according to the Los Angeles Times. For those who missed it, Wall Street is once again screwing the public over on oil and the prices they’re paying for gasoline.
Despite being stabbed in the back by Goldman Sachs, California keeps giving Goldman Sachs billions of dollars in business — seven percent of Goldman’s revenues in 2008. Despite the billions of dollars in profit, Goldman Sachs refuses to support reinvestment for low-income communities in California.
While CEO of eBay, Whitman reportedly hired Goldman Sachs to handle the company’s initial public stock offering — and for a second stock offering too — and to help it acquire PayPal. She was also a private banking client of theirs at the same time. Goldman Sachs received $8 million in fees from eBay while Whitman was CEO, while she made $1.78 million from those ‘spinning’ deals.
Time for a Closer Look at Whitman’s Relationship with Goldman Sachs et al.
After paying $3 million to settle a lawsuit from eBay shareholders, Whitman was forced to leave the board. But Whitman had — and undoubtedly still has — a warm and fuzzy relationship with Goldman Sachs — so much so that then-Goldman CEO Hank Paulson said “Meg Whitman is one of the most dynamic and forward-looking leaders in business today” in 2001.
Whitman was never convicted of a crime and never admitted to wrongdoing, despite paying the $3 million to eBay shareholders, pertaining to her shady — which the dictionary defines as ‘of questionable merit: uncertain, unreliable; disreputable — dealings with the financial firm responsible for defrauding the world out of trillions of dollars, but she was singled out for censure in a Congressional report, which she complained was ‘painful,’ that was issued by Ohio Republican Rep. Michael Oxley.
As for the ‘painful’ part, as the Sacramento Bee reported, a business ethics expert responded: ‘She’s the victim? I love the transmutation. This was a not-very-subtle form of bribery that Wall Street’s big investment houses, like Goldman Sachs, were using to develop their business.’
Whitman has spent $46 million so far in her attempt to become California’s next Governor. California is facing serious financial problems, partially because of bad derivatives deals made with firms like Goldman Sachs. It’s time for a long hard look at Whitman and the very cozy relationship she has with Goldman Sachs and many others in the fraudulent financial industry. Do we really want someone with that history running California?
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