Weiss, an adviser to the treasury secretary, Jacob Lew, left his former employer, leading financial advisory firm Lazard, with a $21m exit package. The company has traded extensively in Puerto Rico bonds and has marketed investments in debt to hedge funds.
“So it has a direct financial stake in the outcome and what Treasury’s response is, because obviously a lot of the bondholders want to push all the pain of the resolution of the crisis on to the people of Puerto Rico to get the maximum financial gain out of it,” said Kurt Walters, a campaign manager at Rootstrikers, which signed the letter and released a 21-page report that outlines Weiss and Lazard’s ties to the debt crisis.
Puerto Rico is facing $72bn in debt after suffering from years of government mismanagement of finances, including high-risk investments by Wall Street firms. Those same firms have been on a buying frenzy during the crisis, buying up land and debt in an attempt to make money off a crisis that has left residents with a disintegrating infrastructure.
Before taking on a key role in the response to the Puerto Rico debt crisis, Weiss was tapped for the third most important post in the Treasury Department. But he was blocked from getting the job by lawmakers including Senator Elizabeth Warren, who accused Weiss of being too close to Wall Street. Activists including Rootstrikers also fought the appointment.
Walters said that the concerns raised during the appointment process in December 2014 and January 2015 are now coming to bear. “We’re seeing that he is so deeply conflicted when it comes to the Puerto Rico debt crisis that it really is improper to have someone with so many apparent conflicts of interests be managing the Treasury Department’s response to the crisis,” Walters said.The coalition’s myriad concerns about Weiss’s potential conflict of interest were exacerbated in June, when a former investment banker at Lazard, Stephen Campbell, was brought on to the Treasury’s Puerto Rico debt crisis team.
“There are other people in the Treasury that don’t have these deeply conflicted ties to not only a big financial institution, but one has a direct stake in the outcome of the Puerto Rico debt crisis,” Walters said.
The letter calling for Weiss’s recusal was signed by 13 organizations including Rootstrikers, the Center for Popular Democracy, Democracy for America, New York Communities for Change, Presente.org and Strong Economy for All Coalition.
“Given their complicity in marketing Puerto Rico’s debts to Wall Street vultures, the Treasury should make sure there are no conflict and no perception of conflict regarding Antonio Weiss’s potential ties and allegiances to his former employer,” the letter reads. “Weiss should recuse himself based on Lazard’s debt marketing alone.”
Protesters call for Treasury official to leave role in Puerto Rico debt crisis
No comments:
Post a Comment