A New "Dis-Appointment": Car Czar Rattner Resigns

Is there anyone in the upper echelons of world USer financial 'business' who is NOT utterly ande irredeemably corrupt? Rattner was not widely hailed when he was named to the post in the Obama regime; he was regarded as the executioner designated to undo the UAW. Via TPM-Muckraker:

Did Pay-To-Play Probe Cause Rattner's Resignation?
By Zachary Roth - July 15, 2009, 2:34PM

So: is Steve Rattner stepping down as the Obama administration's car czar because of the investigation into whether his private-equity fund used pay-to-play tactics to win business from New York's public pension fund?

Probably.

First, let's recap: New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has been conducting a broad investigation into whether investment funds paid politically connected middlemen to help them win contracts to manage state pension funds. Rattner allegedly arranged for the private-equity fund he co-founded, Quadrangle, to pay $1.1 million to the political consultant Hank Morris to help the fund win business from the New York pension board. Morris has since been indicted and charged with selling access to the board. The SEC is also conducting its own investigation.

From a previous story:

Rattner was the money manager referenced in an SEC indictment in a pay-for-play scheme run by the top adviser to the former New York State Comptroller that allegedly siphoned more than $30 million off asset managers seeking investments from the state pension fund.

Here's how it worked: the adviser, Hank Morris, also allegedly played a dual role as a "placement agent" matching private money managers with the manager of the $122 billion state pension fund, David Loglisci. When Rattner approached Loglisci on behalf of his private equity fund Quadrangle in 2004, Loglisci allegedly sent him to Morris -- who asked Rattner to pay a 1.1% "finder's fee" to a firm he represented for whatever investments Quadrangle received. Then, in a decidedly straight-to-video heist, Loglisci also allegedly convinced Rattner to have a division of Quadrangle pay $86,000 for the DVD distribution rights to a movie Loglisci's brother produced (The movie is called Chooch.)

According to the SEC complaint, Rattner eventually received $100 million from the pension fund Loglisci ran. But that's not all the business Quadrangle got via Morris, according to today's Wall Street Journal: Morris also secured $85 million from the New York City Employee Retirement System, $10 million from the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pension System and $20 million from the State Investment Council of New Mexico in 2005.

The outflow from these sewage-swimmers in the financial 'biz' is toxic on every level where it reaches.

Fucking greedy, scum-sucking, arrogant assholes like Rattner, Geithner, Summers, Rubin, and the rest need to be strung up. Normally I don't approve of capital punishment, but if it's appropriate for murderers, it's appropriate for thieves who steal billions the theft of which is tantamount to premeditated killing...