Gov. Christie’s investment chief has major financial ties to firm that got $300M in NJ pension cash
Source: PandoDaily
By David Sirota
It is Monday afternoon, and Bob Grady the national Republican power-broker behind Chris Christies prospective presidential campaign is angrily lecturing me on the murky world of investments. As one of Christies closest advisers and as the governors hand-picked chairman of the New Jersey Investment Council, Grady is specifically lecturing me about a decision by the council to hand $300 million of state pension money to private equity firm the Carlyle Group.
As I explained to him, I was calling about the deal because a Pando investigation has found that Grady also happens to be a former longtime executive at Carlyle whose financial disclosure forms (embedded below) show he still receives income from Carlyle investments, still owns a stake in Carlyle Group entities and now works at another fund that has investments with you guessed it Carlyle.
During our call, Grady insisted that he officially recused himself from involvement in the November Carlyle transaction something which would typically signal a clear conflict of interest. He then insisted that the New Jersey investment is in a new fund and theres no overlap with his own holdings. Further he insisted that it was impossible for his own holdings to preference him in any way that could allow him to benefit from New Jerseys $300m deal with Carlyle.
In fact, as the results of our investigation detailed in full below show, it is far from impossible for Grady to benefit from the deal, as even the Carlyle Group admits. Also, while Grady is telling the truth about having recused himself from negotiations, that single act of transparency (which, as experts explain below, is largely symbolic) stands in stark contrast to the otherwise total secrecy surrounding the transaction.
Read more: http://pando.com/2014/04/16/new-jersey-pension-1/
Stuart G
(38,421 posts)How can that be?
" I am not a bully"
"I did not do anything wrong"
Kingofalldems
(38,456 posts)davidpdx
(22,000 posts)SoapBox
(18,791 posts)Him and his assorted bullies...rotten to their very cores.
gussmith
(280 posts)Thus the evolution of the lawyers and politicians. A unique, skewed view of the truth is the meat and potatoes of both groups.
DallasNE
(7,403 posts)He was still the Chairman and what underling is going to go against the bosses known wishes? I've seen this first hand.