Questions are raised about Christie, pension investment

[deminks]

http://www.app.com/article/20140509/NJNEWS11/305090105/

A state pension fund overseen by Gov. Chris Christie funneled $25 million to an investment firm where a Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate is a partner, only months after the man donated $10,000 to the New Jersey Republican State Committee, according to the Boston Globe.

The Republican candidate, Charlie Baker, told the Globe he did not violate New Jersey’s pay-to-play laws that bar donations over $250 to political figures who oversee pension funds or to committees controlled by those politicians.

(snip)

Baker hooked up with General Catalyst Partners, a Cambridge-based venture capitalist firm, in March 2011. Two months later, he cut the check to the committee during a fundraising visit by Christie in Boston, according to the Globe.

In December 2011, Christie’s State Investment Council approved the eight-figure investment, according to the Globe.

(snip)

Christopher Santarelli, a spokesman for the state Treasury Department, said that when the state Division of Investments reviewed the financial disclosure information provided by the firm, Baker’s name was not on it.

(end snip)

Oopsie.

Another link:

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/05/09/charlie-baker-connection-with-donation-and-millions-firm/qurPDG07LQWQLYnLRQNPfO/story.html

Baker denies connection between donation, investment

(snip)

Baker said Friday that he is exempt from the strict federal and New Jersey “pay-to-play” security regulations that bar financial executives from making donations over $250 to political figures who oversee pension funds or to committees controlled by those politicians.

(snip)

“I am not an employee,” Baker said in an interview Friday. “I pay for my health care, I don’t get a W-2 tax form.”

“I have no idea who Catalyst solicits funds from,’’ he said. “My job was to find interesting companies to invest in and that is what I was focused on.”
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Both state and federal rules extend investment restrictions to political contributors who are “associated” with the relevant firms.

(end snip)

Sheesh. Laws are for the little people. /sarcasm off.