Sunday, May 31, 2009
Larry Summers
President Barack Obama’s top economic advisor has been accused of taking kickbacks from some of the nation’s biggest banks. Writing on AlterNet, Mark Ames reports that a little-known startup company, Revolution Money, received a $42 million investment last month from a group of investors that included Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley. White House economic advisor Larry Summers used to sit on the board of Revolution Money, and he resigned only a few months before the government administered its so-called “stress test” of banks.
Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley came out of the stress test much better than expected, according to the AlterNet story, in part because the banks were allowed to determine how bad their problems were. The timing of the investment in Revolution Money and the results of the stress test suggest “the appearance of corruption.”
According to Securities and Exchange Commission filings, Summers first joined the board of Revolution Money in 2006 (when it was called “GratisCard”), the same year he was forced to resign as president of Harvard after several controversies at the university. Revolution Money/GratisCard was founded by former AOL chief Steve Case, and the company seeks to become a rival to online payment giant PayPal.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Is Larry Summers Taking Kickbacks From the Banks He's Bailing Out? (by Mark Ames, AlterNet)
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