Goldman Sachs

The rumor in financial circles is that Gov. Jon Corzine could wind up as CEO of Bank of America.  Business Week has mentioned it, as did Charlie Gasperino on CNBC today.  There is no confirmation or denial from the governor's staff.  Bank of America received $45 billion in federal bailout money this year. 

Update: Corzine denied that he has met with Bank of America officials regarding their CEO post, and said he's not sure if he'll go back to Wall Street.

Senate Republican Budget Officer Anthony Bucco said Governor Corzine should re-read his Executive Order No. 1, which lays out the rules for conduct of a governor's financial affairs. "It is obvious that the governor is invested in a hedge fund whose managers also own casinos," Bucco said. "Clauses in Governor Corzine's executive order No. 1 would seem to prohibit such an investment."

After a tough week answering questions about his loan to his former employee, career federal prosecutor Michele Brown, Republican gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie this afternoon tried  to change the subject with an offensive on Gov. Jon Corzine, accusing the Democratic incumbent of engineering an income reporting loophole that allowed major corporations like Enron to hide debt.

When Corzine was CEO of Goldman Sachs in the 1990s, Christie said, he was integral in creating Monthly Income Preferred Securities (MIPS), which provided a way for corporations to make debt look like equity, and later lobbied President Bill Clinton in a letter, also signed by 34 others, against reigning the practice in.

"The Governor, as CEO of Goldman Sachs, personally lobbied to get a tax loophole for Enron to make debt look like equity.  What this did was contribute, as you all know, to the precipitous fall of Enron when things that looked like equity turned out to be debt," said Christie during a conference call with reporters."

Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-Morris Plains), the Republican State Chairman, wants Gov. Jon Corzine to disclose documents related to his lobbying activities while running Goldman Sachs.

"After failing to make good on his promises to be fully transparent with New Jersey's finances, Governor Corzine finds himself with his back to the wall in this campaign and has suddenly rediscovered his interest in disclosure,” Webber said.  “The governor should follow his own calls for disclosure and immediately release all of his activities in lobbying the Clinton Administration to change its position toward Monthly Income Preferred Shares (MIPS).”

Webber is alleging that Corzine’s lobbying activities, during a time before he was a candidate for public office, “benefitted him personally as an executive at Goldman Sachs.”

When is a Prosecutor not a Prosecutor?

SCHAER CALLS FOR FEDERAL RULES PREVENTING
BOND FIRMS FROM DUAL ROLE
Will Engage Governor and Federal Regulators to Prevent Firms
From Acting in Dual Capacity As Investment Banker and Investment Advisor

(PASSAIC) - Assembly Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee Chairman Gary S. Schaer today called for new federal regulations to prohibit firms which engage in investment banking in the public sector from acting as an aftermarket investment advisor to other customers for the same or similar securities.

A Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey poll says voters aren't entirely familiar with Jon Corzine's service as head of one of Wall Street's largest and most successful investment banking firms.  Just 55% know Corzine has Wall Street experience (33% specifically mention Goldman Sachs or say he headed a firm), 22% say they're aware he worked on Wall Street but are unaware of any specifics, and 18% said the Governor had no Wall Street experience.   More than one-quarter of the state's voters (27%) say they don't know if he did or didn't.

If Rob Andrews resigns his seat in Congress before September 17 to take a job at Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street investment bank, Gov. Jon Corzine would have the option of calling a special election on November 4.  The winner of that race would complete the final two months of Andrews’ term.

South Jersey Democratic leaders would have two options: they could simply nominate their still undisclosed candidate for the full two-year term and give their new Member of Congress a jump on seniority over the Freshman Class of 2008; or reward another party loyalist with a two-month career in the U.S. House of Representatives. 

One uncommitted superdelegate from New Jersey appears to be leaning toward Hillary Clinton, according to recent comments he made to close friends who have communicated his position to PolitickerNJ.com. Red Bank resident Philip Murphy, the Democratic National Committee Finance Chairman and a former Managing Director at Goldman Sachs (where he was aligned with the faction that essentially tossed Jon Corzine as Chairman in 1999), has reportedly told at least three individuals that he would likely vote for Clinton over Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention – if the nomination comes down to a contest in Denver.