The Hedge Funder Who Secretly Bought $1 Billion in Puerto Rican Debt Is Also a Secret Backer of Char [View all]

[turbinetree]

Billionaire hedge funder Seth Klarman is having a rough quarter. The media averse Klarman, often likened to Warren Buffet for his safe bets and low profile, has been dragged into the spotlight twice in less than a month.

First, when officials in Massachusetts forced a secretive political organization to reveal its donors, Klarman’s name topped the list. Of the more than $15 million Families for Excellent Schools spent pushing last November’s failed ballot initiative to increase the number of the state’s charter schools, $3.3 million came from Klarman, the most from any single individual. Partners at Klarman’s hedge fund the Baupost Group chipped in another $376,000, joining a who’s who of billionaires and private investors, including Alice Walton of Walmart fame and multiple partners from Mitt Romney’s former firm Bain Capital.

Then, earlier this week, The Intercept unmasked Klarman's Baupost Group as one of the largest holders of Puerto Rico’s skyrocketing public debt. The U.S. territory is reeling from a recent one-two punch of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, but its residents—who are U.S. citizens—have long suffered as the island’s government has struggled to pay off over $70 billion in bonds. For over a decade, infrastructure has been neglected and privatized, government employees have been laid off, and public services have been drastically cut—in May, 184 public schools were put on the chopping block. Even democracy has been taken from the people: last year, Congress gave decision-making power over the territory to an unelected board. Why? To pay back bondholders like Klarman. Using a shell company to hide that they’re profiting from this suffering, the Baupost Group owns $911 million of the island's bonds.

https://www.alternet.org/hedge-funder-puerto-rico-charter-schools


I bet one dollar that Devos pals around with this jerk