Thursday, August 26, 2010

Sun-Times columnist rips Giannoulias on Bright Start losses

I was among the listeners this morning on Don Wade & Roma's WLS-AM show when Chicago Sun-Times financial columnist Terry Savage ripped failed mob banker Alexi Giannoulias over his mismanagement of the Bright Start college savings fund. The Chicago Democrat "managed" the fund as part of his duties as Illinois state treasurer.

Some excerpts:

Starting at 5:30: Everything [Giannoulias] said about [Bright Start's] losses was an absolute, outright, disingenuous statement, if not a lie. The fact of the matter is, Bright Start's losses in this one safe, alternative fund had nothing whatsoever to do with the stock market or the economy…."

"…Similar funds that were investing in similar safe instruments actually made money during this period as money rushed to the safe alternatives that they invested in. But these guys invested in derivatives and all kinds of wild speculations that hit this one fund particularly hard…"

"…The reason it was only 50 cents on the dollar is, in my opinion, was just enough so that lawyers wouldn't take on the case and sue them cause there wasn't enough money in it for them to sue them."

Starting at 7:00: "And here's where I want to nail Alexi to the wall, I've done it personally and in my column. Why is Oppenheimer Funds which basically acknowledged it had this horrible thing happen under their management, why are they still managing funds in Bright Start? I spoke to a number of lawyers who said the very fact they did this could invalidate their contract they have with the state. Illinois under Alexi should have kicked Oppenheimer out as one of the several managers under Bright Start."


The failure of his family-owned Broadway Bank has already cost taxpayers $394 million.

Illinois can't afford Alexi Giannoulias, who paid no state or federal income taxes last year. And the rest of the nation can't afford him either.

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