Treasury Secretary Nominee Jack Lew’s Shady History with Citigroup

There are many troubling facts about Obama’s nominee for Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew, but perhaps the most disturbing is his history with too-big-to-fail Citigroup. This should raise red flags for people for all political beliefs—it signals that Jack Lew would be just as corrupt as his predecessor Timothy Geithner.

According to the Wall Street Journal,

During the darkest days of the financial crisis Mr. Lew served as the chief operating officer of Citigroup’s C +0.16% Alternative Investments unit (CAI). When Mr. Lew took this job in January 2008, the unit was already infamous for overseeing “structured investment vehicles” that hid mortgage risks outside Citi’s balance sheet. It also housed internal hedge funds that were in the process of imploding.

CAI no longer exists. At the end of Mr. Lew’s first quarter on the job, the unit reported a $358 million loss. Things got much worse after that but Citi stopped breaking out CAI results in its earnings releases. The unit was eventually shuttered and many of its assets were sold.

There probably weren’t many laughs at Citi during the market panic in 2008. But if someone had said that a CAI executive would be the secretary of the Treasury within five years, the line would have brought the house down. That year the house almost really did come down, thanks to horrendous mortgage bets at CAI and other parts of Citigroup. The bank survived only with a series of taxpayer bailouts that provided $45 billion in cash, taxpayer guarantees on more than $300 billion of risky assets, tens of billions more in federal guarantees on Citi debt, plus cheap loans from the Federal Reserve.

 And this guy was nominated to be Treasury Secretary?

To top it off, Jack Lew got a $945,000 bonus right after Citigroup was bailed out by taxpayers. Let this sink in, our hard earned money went to failing banks that made risky decisions so that they could line the pockets of their top executives.

During this time, Obama even called the Wall Street Bonuses “obscene” and shameful.”

“That is the height of irresponsibility,” President Obama said. “It is shameful. And part of what we’re going to need is for the folks on Wall Street who are asking for help to show some restraint and show some discipline and show some sense of responsibility.”

And yet, Obama picked Jack Lew to be his Chief of Staff…

Jack Lew is not fit to be Treasury Secretary.

Call Your Senators and Urge Them to Oppose Jack Lew

Top 10 Reasons to Oppose Jack Lew


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