Steven Rattner, the head of President Barack Obama’s auto-bailout program and a man who has been linked to a New York pension scandal that has spread to New Mexico and beyond, was worth at least $188 million when he took the government job in February, the Wall Street Journal is reporting.
That’s according to Rattner’s financial disclosure form. His worth includes, according to the Journal, “a sizable holding in an investment fund operated by the owner of Chrysler LLC.”
Rattner, as I’ve previously written, gave $5,000 to Gov. Bill Richardson’s 2002 gubernatorial campaign and $15,000 to Richardson’s 2006 re-election bid, according to the money-in-politics Web site followthemoney.org.
Richardson heads the State Investment Council (SIC), which manages the state’s investments. In October 2005, the SIC voted to invest $20 million with Quadrangle Group LLC. At the time of the 2002 and 2006 campaign contributions, Rattner was a managing principle in the company, which he left in February of this year to take the auto-bailout job.
Though he hasn’t been charged with any wrongdoing, Rattner has been identified by national media outlets as the unnamed person in federal documents who allegedly arranged in late 2004 for Quadrangle to pay $1.1 million in exchange for business with the state of New York. Hank Morris is under indictment in the New York case, accused of using his position in that state’s comptroller’s office to shake down companies wanting to do business with the state’s pension fund, including Quadrangle.
Morris is accused of taking 95 percent of the money from Quadrangle as a kickback. He denies the allegations.
Morris, according to a document released by the SIC, was the third-party marketer who helped secure the New Mexico investment contract for Quadrangle in 2005. The amount he was paid by Quadrangle for his work in New Mexico has not been disclosed.