2016 Postmortem

TalkingDog

(9,001 posts) Wed Jun 1, 2016, 11:01 AM Jun 2016

Democracy Now!: Clinton Questioned over Son-in-Law’s Ties to Goldman Sachs

http://www.democracynow.org/2016/5/31/it_s_not_just_the_speeches

LEE FANG: In 2010, Marc Mezvinsky married Chelsea Clinton. The following year, in 2011, he began fundraising for his hedge fund. Reportedly, Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, personally invested in this fund. He also allowed his association with this fund to be used in its marketing materials. So he’s a big reason why Eaglevale Partners, the hedge fund founded by Marc Mezvinsky, was able to raise close to $400 million. Unfortunately, that wasn’t particularly a savvy business decision. The fund, according to The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, has underperformed, and one subordinate fund created by Marc Mezvinsky lost 90 percent of its investors’ money and had to shut down earlier this month. Basically, they made bad bets on the Greek economy recovery.

So, we’ve been pressing the campaign to understand the full relationship between Goldman Sachs and the Clinton family. We’ve asked not only about the Goldman Sachs transcripts, but, as you pointed out, Hillary Clinton personally has made over $600,000 in paid speaking fees to Goldman Sachs. Bill Clinton has made more than $1.5 million in paid speaking fees. Goldman Sachs has given up to half a million dollars to the Clinton Foundation. So, we’re trying to press the campaign to really release the full relationship between Goldman Sachs and the Clinton family. And that includes how much money has transferred between Goldman Sachs and its executives to the Clinton family bank accounts and their businesses.

AMY GOODMAN: You also talk about how Goldman Sachs directly lobbied Hillary Clinton’s State Department, the company routinely partnering with the Clinton Foundation at this time.

LEE FANG: Yeah, that’s right. You know, Goldman Sachs is no ordinary company, right? This is a very powerful investment bank that has historically won influence in many different administrations. Of course, in the George Bush administration, Bush appointed former Gold Sachs CEO Hank Paulson as his treasury secretary. Paulson was one of the primary architects of the bank bailouts. Over the last eight years, we’ve seen Goldman Sachs aggressively lobby the Obama administration, seeking influence over financial reform, the Volcker Rule, Dodd-Frank. And, of course, we’ll expect Goldman Sachs to try to win influence with whoever is the next occupant of the White House. So this isn’t just a random company. This is a bank with a lot of political interests involved.