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Treasury Secretary Nominee Jack Lew
Jack Lew’s nomination for Treasury Secretary was already proving to be contentious but now questions are being raised on Lew’s personal financial activities. Lew reportedly made an offshore investment in the Cayman Islands that may have been an attempt to avoid taxes.
Treasury secretary nominee Jack Lew will face questions at his confirmation hearing next week about an investment fund registered in a Cayman Islands building that has been called a notorious site for tax haven abuse.
Lew invested $56,000 in the fund, which was run by his former employer Citigroup, and sold his investment in 2010 for $54,418, according to the Senate Finance Committee….
The investment fund could become an issue during the upcoming hearing because Lew’s job as Treasury secretary would give him a major role in shaping the administration’s tax policy.
The president has targeted tax haven abuse as a major problem in the country’s tax system.
Lew’s relationship with Citigroup was already a flashpoint for conflict with progressives as concerns were raised about possible favoritism towards the Too Big To Fail bank and Wall Street generally. Lew had played a leading role in a Citigroup unit that profited by shorting the housing market.
The Caymans Island investment also opens the door for charges of hypocrisy against President Obama. Obama made Mitt Romney’s offshore investments – including those in the Cayman Islands – a major issue in his 2012 campaign. One of Obama’s most prominent ads referred suspiciously to Romney keeping “millions in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands” the implication clearly being that such activity’s purpose is to avoid paying taxes.
While the nomination is still likely to go through Lew will now be facing another set of tough questions at his confirmation hearing.
Photo by Department of State under Public Domain
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Oh he’ll apologize and say he didn’t know about it and pay a little fine and move on to do what he was put there to do… protect the financial sector’s unlawful practices.
Failure to pay taxes got in the way of Gephardt, a Democrat, but not Geithner, head of the NY Fed and a Republican who switched his registration to “independent” when triangulating Bill Clinton hired him. (And, of course, neither was prosecuted ciminally.)
So, it’s hard to tell whether this will have any effect on confirmation or not. I think these things may be excuses when the Senators want an excuse. When they don’t want an excuse, they simply accept any “corrective action” the nominee takes.
For Obama this is probably a bonus. Just look at Turbotax Timmy and Obama. Obama has repeatedly showing a willingness to say anything win no matter how far removed from the truth that it is.
My favorite part of Timeh’s resignation is his plum seat on the Council on Foreign Relations.
He was SUCH a good boy for the pigs that now he’ll be one of the prime MOTU’s. I wonder if they’ll draft Obama to Bilderberg after his term is up?
AS for Lew, of course he was evading taxes!
Treasury Secretaries who don’t file at all, presidential candidates and Treasury nominees who evade taxes: who remembers when not paying taxes to a housemaid cost an Attorney General nominee her seat? Those were the days, huh?
Criminal or savvy businessman ?
How is putting $56K in the Caymans going to be spun into tax avoidance scheme? It is ridiculous on its face.
Wait a minute. He actually LOST $1500 on the investment. Not exactly a mind boggling sum, but what the hell? This sounds nuts. If we can buy this guy for $56k we are really in deep shit.
There is nothing illegal about the investment no matter what Romney did. If we want this to be illegal, then, you know, make it illegal.
Just another bankster getting “installed” at treasury, to “regulate” the banksters. Nothing new here, move along.
Hiding taxable income in offshore, secret, shell institutions while the country is involved in an (unfunded) war is UNpatriotic.
THAD: “who remembers when not paying taxes to a housemaid cost an Attorney General nominee her seat?”
Clinton’s nominee for AG, Zoe Baird, was a corporate whore:
… as a corporate counsel for General Electric, where she lobbied to weaken the federal whistle-blowers law, and at the Aetna Insurance Company, where she championed tort reform. “The nomination is so bad,” said Ralph Nader, “that it either bespeaks a Clinton surrender to her powerful patrons, or reveals Clinton’s intention to go soft on corporate crime and abuse.” As general counsel of Aetna, Baird argued in a speech last March that “the tort system is having a very debilitating effect on America’s competitiveness.” She then praised Quayle for moving “tort reform to a level of visibility and credibility that it really hasn’t had for years.” (It is not clear how Baird and Quayle reconcile their support for federally mandated tort reform with their concern for state sovereignty.)
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/politics/danny-and-zoe#
Janet Reno then came to Hillary’s attention for her aggressive prosecution of three sensational child abuse cases in Miami-Dade County. She pioneered a controversial technique for eliciting intimate details from young children and inspired passage of a law allowing them to testify by closed-circuit television, out of the possibly intimidating presence of their suspected molesters.” (wikipedia).
Janet’s techniques were subsequently discredited but in true prosecutorial fashion she obtained free publicity launching her political career.
Is that you Mitt?
Nothing has changed in D.C. Fraud and corruption fuel the power grab and greed trumps good. Who cares who the stooges are when their bosses can steal trillions of dollars and there are no consequences. Pigs at the trough need farmers to feed them. We need to stop watching the shiny objects and vote our conscience not our fear. The majority can and will rule.
Difficult to invest in such ways if the investments are made illegal.
The key of stories like this, in my opinion, are these tidbits:
He’s well qualified for the job. Confirm his appointment immediately.
Well, you got me there: I did say Zoe Baird was awesome.
Since it seems hard to follow, let me state my point without sarcasm: the threshold for financial crimes and misdemeanors’ barring nominees is getting higher with each nominating season.
Randomly selecting a High School econ teacher would be the best way to fill this post.
Please. Don’t get me started on Timmeh.