Icahn, C
trump transition,major shareholder in Freeport mine indonesia setya?
no confirmation hearing? will pick next SEC chair, owns energy corps stock DN 1/9/17
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lib street did the fed doc https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2752724/
bowtie guy
James Grant is an respected critic of the Federal Reserve and American monetary policy. His journal, Grant's Interest Rate Observer analyzes credit markets from a view that is frequently not reported in the mainstream media. He is also the author of Money of the Mind (1992), The Trouble with Prosperity (1996), John Adams: Party of One (2005) and Mr. Speaker: The Life and Times of Thomas B. Reed, the Man Who Broke the Filibuster (2011). Mr. Grant lives in New York City and serves on the boards of several organizations.
Michael Bordo(III)
(voice)
Self - Chairman of the Federal Reserve (1979-1987)
Self - Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve
Self - Former Head of Asset Finance - J.P. Morgan
Self - Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve (1994-1996)
Self - Economist - The Boeckh Investment Letter
Self - Professor of Economics - Rutgers University
Self - Professor of Economics - Middlebury College
Self - Executive V.P. - Federal Reserve Bank of New York (1994-2001)
Self - Senor V.P. - Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond (1993-2005)
/Self - Editor - Grant's Interest Rate Observer
Self - Chief Investment Strategist - GMO
/Self - CEO - Minyanville Media
Self - President - Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City (1991-2011)
(as Tom Hoenig)
Self - President - Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond
Self - Chairman - Mauldin Economics
/Self - Brookings Institution Scholar
/Self - Author - A History of the Federal Reserve
Self - Federal Reserve Governor (1996-2002)
Self - President - Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
Self - President - Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (1998-2008)
(as Bill Poole)
Self - Chief Economist - International Monetary Fund (IMF) (2003-2007)
Self - Washington Post Columnist
Self - Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve (1996-1999)
/Self - President - A. Gary Shilling & Co.
Self - Professor of Economics - New York University
Self - Chief Economist - Bank for Int'l Settlements (1995-2008)
bruce aslo
Explores the fascinating contradictions at the heart of the famed financier, Carl Icahn. Amassing close to $20 billion dollars over the last half century and at the forefront of some of the most legendary business deals of our times.
beware forbes mag 420
Here Are The Billionaires Backing Donald Trump’s Campaign
Michela TinderaForbes Staff
Money & Politics
The richest president in American history has gotten financial support from nearly one in 10 U.S. billionaires.
Nearly five years ago Donald Trump descended an escalator inside Trump Tower and announced a long-shot bid to become president of the United States. Standing on a stage in the building’s lobby, in front of eight American flags, he spoke to a gaggle of cameras. “I’m using my own money,” Trump said, indicating that he would self-fund his campaign. “I’m not using the lobbyists. I’m not using donors. I don’t care. I’m really rich.”
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How times have changed. Now in the midst of his reelection campaign, President Trump has accepted donations from 80 billionaires and their spouses, according to a review of Federal Election Commission filings. Fifty-one moguls donated in their own names. Seven others are married to people who did. In other words, 9% of America’s billionaires, who together are worth a combined $210 billion—either directly or through their spouse—have pitched in to cover the costs of Trump’s 2020 campaign.
Tracking Billionaire Donations Over Time
Forbes mined more than 2.5 million entries in the Federal Election Commission database to identify Trump’s richest donors. We searched for contributions made to the president’s campaign committee, Donald J. Trump For President. Our analysis begins on inauguration day, 2017, when Trump officially filed papers for his reelection effort, and ends on February 29, 2020, the latest date for which the campaign has submitted federal filings. (By contrast, Barack Obama didn’t begin seeking contributions to his election campaign until the third year of his presidency.)
Most of the donors, some 56%, live in just three states: Florida, New York and Texas. More than three-quarters are self-made. The rest inherited small fortunes and grew them into bigger ones. They come from all sorts of industries—real estate, energy, sports and so on. But one-fifth of the donors got rich in finance & investments. That group includes titans like Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman, hedge funder John Paulson and retired Franklin Templeton chief Charles B. Johnson. About 10% of the donors made their money in real estate, including Trump’s fellow New York City billionaire, Richard LeFrak. Shopping mall magnate Edward DeBartolo pitched in $3,000 with his wife Cynthia; Trump later pardoned him, in February.
Texas banker Andy Beal, who Forbes estimates is worth $8.1 billion, has given more money to the Trump Victory joint fundraising committee than any other individual billionaire, according to federal filings. Since 2017 Beal, whose bank was once a senior lender to Trump Entertainment Resorts, has donated more than $1 million over many months. That’s nearly twice as much as he gave during the 2016 campaign. (And just $12,200 less than the combined sum TD Ameritrade AMTD’s Joe Ricketts and his wife Marlene gave.) Brothers and casino magnates Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, along with their wives, meanwhile, gave $1.4 million to Trump Victory in one single day last October.
How Donald Trump's Donors Got Rich
Some donors made one large contribution early in the Trump presidency, like Revlon chairman Ronald Perelman, who gave $125,000 to Trump Victory in September 2017. Others have contributed multiple times over the last three years. Fifty-one percent of Trump’s billionaire donors did not give to the president’s 2016 campaign. U-Haul billionaire E. Joe Shoen made his first-ever contribution to Trump Victory, $35,500, in February 2020. “President Trump has done an outstanding job and certainly merits my vote,” Shoen says. (Forbes reached out to all of Trump’s donors, nearly all of whom declined to comment on the record.)
Nearly all the money coming from billionaires traveled through something called a joint fundraising committee.By law, no individual can donate more than $5,600 to an official presidential campaign. But anyone can give bigger sums to joint fundraising committees, which gather funds for specific campaigns and political parties. President Trump has two major joint fundraising committees, Trump Victory and Trump Make America Great Again Committee, which collect money for his campaign, the Republican National Committee and other state-level RNC groups. Forty-five billionaire donors have pitched in more than $100,000 each to Trump’s joint fundraising committees.
Some of the donors who supported Trump during his initial run received roles thatgave them access to the president. WWE cofounder Linda McMahon, who contributed $152,700 to Trump Victory in 2016, was appointed by Trump to head the Small Business Administration. She stepped down from her position last year to run a pro-Trump super PAC called America First Action. She has since given more than $2.7 million to that PAC, money that’s not included in this tally because super PACs are technically independent of campaigns.
Not all of Trump’s 2016 billionaire supporters are still giving—at least not yet. Private equity titan Stephen Feinberg gave $339,400 to Trump Victory last election,and Carl Icahn chipped in $200,000. Neither has donated to Trump since his inauguration. Jennifer Pritzker, heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune, contributed $250,000 to Trump Victory in 2016. A transgender woman, Pritzker spoke out against Trump’s transgender military ban, and last year, she donated $1,000 to the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg.
Amid all this support, however, one billionaire stands out for having donated no money to his reelection campaign. That billionaire is Donald Trump.
Trump’s billionaire backers, ordered by amount given:[graf?]
Contributions made by nearly all donors were made to two joint fundraising committees, Trump Make America Great Again Committee or Trump Victory and then transferred in part to the Donald J. Trump For President Committee.
https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/heres-why-the-coronavirus-crisis-is-an-opportunity-to-overcome-oligarchy-robert-reich/
no lnx
Here’s why the coronavirus crisis is an opportunity to overcome oligarchy: Robert Reich
Written by Robert Reich / Robert Reich's Blog March 29, 2020
The coronavirus has starkly revealed what most of us already knew: The concentration of wealth in America has created a a health care system in which the wealthy can buy care others can’t.
It’s also created an education system in which the super-rich can buy admission to college for their children, a political system in which they can buy Congress and the presidency, and a justice system in which they can buy their way out of jail.
Almost everyone else has been hurled into a dystopia of bureaucratic arbitrariness, corporate indifference, and the legal and financial sinkholes that have become hallmarks of modern American life.
The system is rigged. But we can fix it.
Today, the great divide in American politics isn’t between right and left. The underlying contest is between a small minority who have gained power over the system, and the vast majority who have little or none.
Forget politics as you’ve come to see it — as contests between Democrats and Republicans. The real divide is between democracy and oligarchy.
The market has been organized to serve the wealthy. Since 1980, the percentage of the nation’s wealth owned by the richest four hundred Americans has quadrupled (from less than 1 percent to 3.5 percent) while the share owned by the entire bottom half of America has dropped to 1.3 percent.
The three wealthiest Americans own as much as the entire bottom half of the population. Big corporations, CEOs, and a handful of extremely rich people have vastly more influence on public policy than the average American. Wealth and power have become one and the same.
As the oligarchs tighten their hold over our system, they have lambasted efforts to rein in their greed as “socialism”, which, to them, means getting something for doing nothing.
But “getting something for doing nothing” seems to better describe the handouts being given to large corporations and their CEOs.
General Motors, for example, has received $600 million in federal contracts and $500 million in tax breaks since Donald Trump took office. Much of this “corporate welfare” has gone to executives, including CEO Mary Barra, who raked in almost $22 million in compensation in 2018 alone. GM employees, on the other hand, have faced over 14,000 layoffs and the closing of three assembly plants and two component factories.
And now, in the midst of a pandemic, big corporations are getting $500 billion from taxpayers.
Our system, it turns out, does practice one form of socialism — socialism for the rich. Everyone else is subject to harsh capitalism.
Socialism for the rich means people at the top are not held accountable. Harsh capitalism for the many, means most Americans are at risk for events over which they have no control, and have no safety nets to catch them if they fall.
Among those who are particularly complicit in rigging the system are the CEOs of America’s corporate behemoths.
Take Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, whose net worth is $1.4 billion. He comes as close as anyone to embodying the American system as it functions today.
Dimon describes himself as “a patriot before I’m the CEO of JPMorgan.”
He brags about the corporate philanthropy of his bank, but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to his company’s net income, which in 2018 was $30.7 billion — roughly one hundred times the size of his company’s investment program for America’s poor cities.
Much of JP Morgan’s income gain in 2018 came from savings from the giant Republican tax cut enacted at the end of 2017 — a tax cut that Dimon intensively lobbied Congress for.
Dimon doesn’t acknowledge the inconsistencies between his self-image as “patriot first” and his role as CEO of America’s largest bank. He doesn’t understand how he has hijacked the system.
Perhaps he should read my new book.
To understand how the system has been hijacked, we must understand how it went from being accountable to all stakeholders — not just stockholders but also workers, consumers, and citizens in the communities where companies are headquartered and do business — to intensely shareholder-focused capitalism.
In the post-WWII era, American capitalism assumed that large corporations had responsibilities to all their stakeholders. CEOs of that era saw themselves as “corporate statesmen” responsible for the common good.
But by the 1980s, shareholder capitalism (which focuses on maximizing profits) replaced stakeholder capitalism. That was largely due to the corporate raiders — ultra-rich investors who hollowed-out once-thriving companies and left workers to fend for themselves.
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn, for example, targeted major companies like Texaco and Nabisco by acquiring enough shares of their stock to force major changes that increased their stock value — such as suppressing wages, fighting unions, laying off workers, abandoning communities for cheaper labor elsewhere, and taking on debt — and then selling his shares for a fat profit. In 1985, after winning control of Trans World Airlines, he loaded the airline with more than $500 million in debt, stripped it of its assets, and pocketed nearly $500 million in profits.
As a result of the hostile takeovers mounted by Icahn and other raiders, a wholly different understanding about the purpose of the corporation emerged.
Even the threat of hostile takeovers forced CEOs to fall in line by maximizing shareholder profits over all else. The corporate statesmen of previous decades became the corporate butchers of the 1980s and 1990s, whose nearly exclusive focus was to “cut out the fat” and make their companies “lean and mean.”
As power increased for the wealthy and large corporations at the top, it shifted in exactly the opposite direction for workers. In the mid-1950s, 35 percent of all private-sector workers in the United States were unionized. Today, 6.4 percent of them are.
The wave of hostile takeovers pushed employers to raise profits and share prices by cutting payroll costs and crushing unions, which led to a redistribution of income and wealth from workers to the richest 1 percent. Corporations have fired workers who try to organize and have mounted campaigns against union votes. All the while, corporations have been relocating to states with few labor protections and so-called “right-to-work” laws that weaken workers’ ability to join unions.
Power is a zero-sum game. People gain it only when others lose it. The connection between the economy and power is critical. As power has concentrated in the hands of a few, those few have grabbed nearly all the economic gains for themselves.
The oligarchy has triumphed because no one has paid attention to the system as a whole — to the shifts from stakeholder to shareholder capitalism, from strong unions to giant corporations with few labor protections, and from regulated to unchecked finance.
As power has shifted to large corporations, workers have been left to fend for themselves. Most Americans developed 3 key coping mechanisms to keep afloat.
The first mechanism was women entering the paid workforce. Starting in the late 1970s, women went into paid work in record numbers, in large part to prop up family incomes, as the wages of male workers stagnated or declined.
Then, by the late 1990s, even two incomes wasn’t enough to keep many families above water, causing them to turn to the next coping mechanism: working longer hours. By the mid-2000s a growing number of people took on two or three jobs, often demanding 50 hours or more per week.
Once the second coping mechanism was exhausted, workers turned to their last option: drawing down savings and borrowing to the hilt. The only way Americans could keep consuming was to go deeper into debt. By 2007, household debt had exploded, with the typical American household owing 138 percent of its after-tax income. Home mortgage debt soared as housing values continued to rise. Consumers refinanced their homes with even larger mortgages and used their homes as collateral for additional loans.
This last coping mechanism came to an abrupt end in 2008 when the debt bubbles burst, causing the financial crisis. Only then did Americans begin to realize what had happened to them, and to the system as a whole. That’s when our politics began to turn ugly.
So what do we do about it? The answer is found in politics and rooted in power.
The way to overcome oligarchy is for the rest of us to join together and form a multiracial, multiethnic coalition of working-class, poor and middle-class Americans fighting for democracy.
This agenda is neither “right” nor “left.” It is the bedrock for everything America must do.
The oligarchy understands that a “divide-and-conquer” strategy gives them more room to get what they want without opposition. Lucky for them, Trump is a pro at pitting native-born Americans against immigrants, the working class against the poor, white people against people of color. His goal is cynicism, disruption, and division. Trump and the oligarchy behind him have been able to rig the system and then whip around to complain loudly that the system is rigged.
But history shows that oligarchies cannot hold on to power forever. They are inherently unstable. When a vast majority of people come to view an oligarchy as illegitimate and an obstacle to their wellbeing, oligarchies become vulnerable.
As bad as it looks right now, the great strength of this country is our resilience. We bounce back. We have before. We will again.
In order for real change to occur — in order to reverse the vicious cycle in which we now find ourselves — the locus of power in the system will have to change.
The challenge we face is large and complex, but we are well suited for the fight ahead. Together, we will dismantle the oligarchy. Together, we will fix the system.
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omfg
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/27/us/politics/trump-climate-science.html
some lnx below
Trump Administration Hardens Its Attack on Climate Science
May 27, 2019
WASHINGTON — President Trump has rolled back environmental regulations, pulled the United States out of the Paris climate accord, brushed aside dire predictions about the effects of climate change, and turned the term “global warming” into a punch line rather than a prognosis.
Now, after two years spent unraveling the policies of his predecessors, Mr. Trump and his political appointees are launching a new assault.
In the next few months, the White House will complete the rollback of the most significant federal effort to curb greenhouse-gas emissions, initiated during the Obama administration. It will expand its efforts to impose Mr. Trump’s hard-line views on other nations, building on his retreat from the Paris accord and his recent refusal to sign a communiqué to protect the rapidly melting Arctic region unless it was stripped of any references to climate change.
And, in what could be Mr. Trump’s most consequential action yet, his administration will seek to undermine the very science on which climate change policy rests.
[Want climate news in your inbox? Sign up here for Climate Fwd:, our email newsletter.]
Mr. Trump is less an ideologue than an armchair naysayer about climate change, according to people who know him. He came into office viewing agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency as bastions of what he calls the “deep state,” and his contempt for their past work on the issue is an animating factor in trying to force them to abandon key aspects of the methodology they use to try to understand the causes and consequences of a dangerously warming planet.
As a result, parts of the federal government will no longer fulfill what scientists say is one of the most urgent jobs of climate science studies: reporting on the future effects of a rapidly warming planet and presenting a picture of what the earth could look like by the end of the century if the global economy continues to emit heat-trapping carbon dioxide pollution from burning fossil fuels.
The attack on science is underway throughout the government. In the most recent example, the White House-appointed director of the United States Geological Survey,James Reilly, a former astronaut and petroleum geologist, has ordered that scientific assessments produced by that office use only computer-generated climate models that project the impact of climate change through 2040, rather than through the end of the century, as had been done previously.
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President Trump has pushed to resurrect the idea of holding public debates on the validity of climate science.CreditDoug Mills/The New York Times]
Scientists say that would give a misleading picture because the biggest effects of current emissions will be felt after 2040. Models show that the planet will most likely warm at about the same rate through about 2050. From that point until the end of the century, however, the rate of warming differs significantly with an increase or decrease in carbon emissions.
The administration’s prime target has been the National Climate Assessment, produced by an interagency task force roughly every four years since 2000. Government scientists used computer-generated models in their most recent report to project that if fossil fuel emissions continue unchecked, the earth’s atmosphere could warm by as much as eight degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century. That would lead to drastically higher sea levels, more devastating storms and droughts, crop failures, food losses and severe health consequences.
Work on the next report, which is expected to be released in 2021 or 2022, has already begun. But from now on, officials said, such worst-case scenario projections will not automatically be included in the National Climate Assessment or in some other scientific reports produced by the government.
“What we have here is a pretty blatant attempt to politicize the science — to push the science in a direction that’s consistent with their politics,” said Philip B. Duffy, the president of the Woods Hole Research Center, who served on a National Academy of Sciences panel that reviewed the government’s most recent National Climate Assessment. “It reminds me of the Soviet Union.”
In an email, James Hewitt, a spokesman for the Environmental Protection Agency, defended the proposed changes.
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“The previous use of inaccurate modeling that focuses on worst-case emissions scenarios, that does not reflect real-world conditions, needs to be thoroughly re-examined and tested if such information is going to serve as the scientific foundation of nationwide decision-making now and in the future,” Mr. Hewitt said.
However, the goal of political appointees in the Trump administration is not just to change the climate assessment’s methodology, which has broad scientific consensus, but also to question its conclusions by creating a new climate review panel. That effort is led by a 79-year-old physicist who had a respected career at Princeton but has become better known in recent years for attacking the science of man-made climate change and for defending the virtues of carbon dioxide — sometimes to an awkward degree.
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The Beaufort Sea in the Arctic, a region that is warming rapidly. The United States recently declined to sign a communiqué on protecting the Arctic unless it omitted references to climate change.CreditAndrew Testa for The New York Times]
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“The demonization of carbon dioxide is just like the demonization of the poor Jews under Hitler,” the physicist, William Happer, who serves on the National Security Council as the president’s deputy assistant for emerging technologies, said in 2014 in an interview with CNBC.
Mr. Happer’s proposed panel is backed by John R. Bolton, the president’s national security adviser, who brought Mr. Happer into the N.S.C. after an earlier effort to recruit him during the transition.
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Mr. Happer and Mr. Bolton are both beneficiaries of Robert and Rebekah Mercer,the far-right billionaire and his daughter who have funded efforts to debunk climate science. The Mercers gave money to a super PAC affiliated with Mr. Bolton before he entered government and to an advocacy group headed by Mr. Happer.
Climate scientists are dismissive of Mr. Happer; his former colleagues at Princeton are chagrined. And several White House officials — including Larry Kudlow, the president’s chief economic adviser — have urged Mr. Trump not to adopt Mr. Happer’s proposal, on the grounds that it would be perceived as a White House attack on science.
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Even Stephen K. Bannon, the former White House strategist who views Mr. Happer as “the climate hustler’s worst nightmare — a world-class physicist from the nation’s leading institution of advanced learning, who does not suffer fools gladly,” is apprehensive about what Mr. Happer is trying to do.
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“The very idea will start a holy war on cable before 2020,” he said. “Better to win now and introduce the study in the second inaugural address.”
But at a White House meeting on May 1, at which the skeptical advisers made their case, Mr. Trump appeared unpersuaded, people familiar with the meeting said. Mr. Happer, they said, is optimistic that the panel will go forward.
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William Happer, who serves on the National Security Council, is pushing to create a climate review panel that would question scientific consensus.CreditPool photo by Albin Lohr-Jones]
The concept is not new. Mr. Trump has pushed to resurrect the idea of a series of military-style exercises, known as “red team, blue team” debates, on the validity of climate science first promoted by Scott Pruitt, the E.P.A. administrator who was forced to resign last year amid multiple scandals.
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At the time, the idea was shot down by John F. Kelly, then the White House chief of staff. But since Mr. Kelly’s departure, Mr. Trump has talked about using Mr. Happer’s proposed panel as a forum for it.
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For Mr. Trump, climate change is often the subject of mockery. “Wouldn’t be bad to have a little of that good old fashioned Global Warming right now!” he posted on Twitter in January when a snowstorm was freezing much of the country.
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His views are influenced mainly by friends and donors like Carl Icahn, the New York investor who owns oil refineries, and the oil-and-gas billionaire Harold Hamm — both of whom pushed Mr. Trump to deregulate the energy industry.
ImageThe Daily Poster
Listen to ‘The Daily’: The White House Plan to Change Climate Science]
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Backroom biofuels deal was always a long shot — groups
Marc Heller, E&E News reporter
Published: Wednesday, March 8, 2017
A reported backroom deal on biofuels policy between an ethanol trade group and the mega-investor Carl Icahn raised questions from the start.
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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/4/7/1755199/-Crony-Capitalism-Corporate-raider-Carl-Ichan-sits-at-the-center-of-the-Scott-Pruitt-scandals
no lnx
Crony Capitalism: Corporate raider Carl Ichan sits at the center of the Scott Pruitt EPA scandals.
Frank Vyan Walton
Community
Saturday April 07, 2018 · 10:05 AM PDT
As documented this week by Rachel Maddow it appears thatScott Pruitt was actually vetted and chosen for his position as EPA chief by billionaire corporate raider Carl Ichan and that besides systematically destroying environmental protections he’s also been going out of his way to shovel cargo ship bushel’s of money directly into Ichan’s pockets.
Before hiring Pruitt he met with Trump at Trump Tower wherehe was told to “go two blocks down the street to talk to Carl” which he did and once he received Ichan’s endorsement he was hired.
Once you understand Ichan’s links to Pruitt many of his subsequent actions begin to make much more sense.
Ichan was brought into the Trump administration as a regulation czar in 2017, but left rather quickly and unceremoniously when it discovered he was using his position to make $100 Millions for himself on the stock market.
Carl Icahn resigned from his post as special advisor on regulation to Donald Trump ahead of a critical magazine article detailing his potential conflicts of interest and questioning whether he had acted illegally.
CNBC originally published an investigation on the matter in December.
The new New Yorker piece centered on how the billionaire investor, who announced his departure from the role on Friday, had been pushing to change part of a rule that has a negative impact on one of his energy investments.
Icahn said that he resigned from the role to avoid "partisan bickering" about his position. The billionaire investor said he did not want that scrutiny to affect the Trump administration's work on regulatory reform.
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Still, former White House ethics lawyers had told CNBC that Icahn's appointment to the informal role, given his stake in refiner CVR Energy, represented a conflict of interest and could have put him atrisk of violating conflicts laws.
The rule in question requires refiners to blend ethanol, a renewable fuel, into gasoline. In an interview on CNBC's "Fast Money: Halftime Report,"Icahn said the Environmental Protection Agency should immediately revoke part of the rule that requires refiners that cannot blend ethanol into gasoline to buy credits instead.
If Icahn's advice in his capacity as special advisor on regulation contributed to such a repeal,he would have inherently aided in removing a disadvantage for CVR Energy. Repeal of the regulation could have potentially boosted CVR's stock price and enrich Icahn.
The markets were anticipating Icahn would help shape rules that would benefit CVR: Shares of the company rose 11.5 percent after Trump named him to the role. Icahn Associates held 82 percent of CVR Energy's outstanding shares at the time, according to FactSet data.
There’s also the story of the odd trip the Pruitt took to Morocco along with 7 members of his staff and also his full security details— who apparently missed a connecting flight in Paris and had to stay there for the weekend — and eventually met to pitch the idea of having Morocco import liquified natural gas from the U.S., a task which has absolutely nothing to do with his job as head of the E.P.A.
On the five-day trip that the EPA has said cost taxpayers around $40,000, Pruitt only worked one full day and had one-hour meetings the days before and after.
The main purpose of Pruitt’s trip was to tout American liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, a purpose that Democrats say is not within the EPA’s mission.
And in the time leading up to the Morocco trip, Pruitt met with numerous representatives of associations and companies with interests in LNG exports, including a Kinder Morgan meeting two days before the trip. That company is developing two LNG export terminals.
“If these were the individuals who advised you about your trip before you departed, it would suggest the purpose had little to do with EPA's mission and more to do with interests from your time in Oklahoma,” wrote Whitehouse, a senior member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
But then again it does have something to do with the fact the only company with the capability to export natural gas happening to be Chenier Energy, which is a company owned by Carl Ichan.
The chief executive of Cheniere Energy is standing down just days after Carl Icahn, the billionaire activist investor, increased his stake in the company, which will soon be the first to begin large-scale exports of liquefied natural gas from the US.Charif Souki has been replaced on an interim basis by Neal Shear, a Cheniere board member who was once co-head of Morgan Stanley’s commodities business, the Houston-based company said on Sunday.
And also happens to employ the lobbying firm of Steve Hart, the landlord for Pruitt’s sweetheart condo deal as I’ve previously noted.
According to Bloomberg Politics, EPA Director Scott Pruitt has been paying $50 a night for one bedroom in the townhouse owned through a limited liability corporation by Vicki Hart, a lobbyist who specializes in health care. Her husband J. Steven Hart is also a lobbyist with clients such as Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co. and Cheniere Energy Inc, he’s also outside counsel for the NRA and had released the statement that they had only taken money from one Russian which, of course, was Alexander Torshin who is being investigated by the FBI to see if his NRA contributions were illegal.
Torshin happens to be one of the 17 Russian Government officials who the Trump administration finally sanctioned this week. And not only does he have links to the NRA, he also has links to John Bolton who in turn has links to Cambridge Analytica through his SuperPAC.
And there’s more — lots more.
Daily Beast reports that Pruitt’s condo SugarDaddy Steven Hart and his lobbying firm have several clients with business before the EPA, including MillerCoors, Rocky Mountain Bottling Co, Cheniere Energy, Black and Decker, Stanley Oil and Gas, Smithfield foods, Coca Cola, American Airlines, Chrysler, General Motors and Ford.
AP reports that Pruitt’s condo lease agreement had originally had Steven Hart’s name as the landlord on it, but his name was scratched out by hand and his wife Vicky’s name was written in — while Steven is an energy lobbyist who might have conflicts being the landlord for the EPA administrator Vicky is a healthcare lobbyist who wouldn’t have that problem.
The Atlantic reports that Scott Pruitt overrode WH objections to give two of his long time cronies raises of up to $60k for Sarah Greenwalt and Millian Hupp. And if that isn’t bad enough EPA is also weakening Obama era Fuel standards and looking at blocking California from setting it’s own higher standard.
Thinkprogress reports that Scott Pruitt signed off on a pipeline deal for a client of his condo landlords lobbying firm.
Reports surface that Pruitt’s landlord had considered him an endless house guest like Kato Kaelin because the lease was only for a few weeks and Pruitt had stayed for months, Eventually they had to change the locks to get him out. Former Ethics Czar Walter Schaub points out that $50-a-night for one room was found to be a fair Air BNB style rate — but Pruitt’s daughter was also staying in the second bedroom for free which would amount to a potentially illegal gift.
So in addition to lobbying Morocco to buy LNG which would be profitable for Ichan and his landlord Steven Hart — who eventually had to lock him out of his room to get him to leave it — Pruitt also setup several other sweatheart deals for Chenier, Hart and Ichan.
And then there’s the curious story of Samantha Dravis.
Politico and others report Pruitt aide Samantha Dravis, the senior counsel and associate administrator of the EPA’s office of policy, submitted her resignation last week.
It turns out that Dravis hadn’t been coming into work at the EPA for 3 solid months, but was till getting paid.
Samantha Dravis — the top policy adviser to Scott Pruitt, the chief of the Environmental Protection Agency — is said to be resigning. Senator Thomas Carper, Democrat of Delaware, raised questions about her work history in this letter to the E.P.A.’s inspector general.
I write to request that the Of?ce of Inspector General conduct an immediate review of EnvironmentalProtection Agency?s (EPA) efforts to prevent ??aud related to employee time and attendance, including an investigation of potential fraud committed by Administrator Pruitt?s political staff. Speci?cally, I have been informed that Ms. Samantha Dravis, Associate Administrator of Office of Policy, did not attend work or perform her duties for much if not all of the months of November 2017-January 2018. I am additionally informed that Ms. Dravis was likely compensated as a full-time employee throughout that time.This is not the ?rst time that reports of time and attendance problems have plagued the agency.
In 2013,EPA learned that John Beale, a senior career of?cial, had defrauded the agency for years by claiming that his months-long absences from work were attributable to his undercover work for the CIA. He was sentenced to 32 months in prison] and the case was the subject of considerable Congressional2interest} This matter also led to several reports, written by and by yous, recommending improvements in oversight of- employee time and attendance practices.
Yet somehow, even though she wasn’t showing up for work but was still getting paid she managed to go along on the Morocco trip.
Pruitt’s scandals of personal ethics where he’s shoveling federal money into his own pocket and taking advantages of perks, from trying to buy a bullet proof desk to the cone of silence in this office and over $3 Million for his person security detail.
The Environmental Protection Agency reportedly incurred $3 million in taxpayer-funded expenses for administrator Scott Pruitt's security detail and travel arrangements, according to news reports published on Friday.
Pruitt's security detail reportedly comprised of 20 full-time members — three times the size of former EPA administrator Gina McCarthy's part-time security staff.
Eric Weese, the former head of Pruitt's protective detail, voiced concern over Pruitt's expenses, which included taxpayer-funded first-class flights for short trips from Washington, DC, to New York City, according to The New York Times. Weese was eventually replaced with Pasquale Perrotta, a former Secret Service agent who operates a private security company
...
Pruitt's security detail accrued enough overtime to reach their annual maximum salary of around $160,000.
During his first three months as EPA chief, Pruitt's security detail cost over $832,000.
Weekly schedules revealed that over 36 people were assigned to Pruitt's security detail in a span of six weeks.
Pruitt was provided security during family trips and sporting events. Former EPA administrator McCarthy had roughly a half-dozen people on her security staff, and was not provided protection during off-hours.
During a trip to Italy, Perrotta hired private Italian security guards that arranged a motorcade for Pruitt. Members of the Italian security detail were reportedly personal friends of Perrotta and accompanied Pruitt to a posh restaurant for hours.
The agency spent around $9,000 in 2017 for increased security measures, such as biometric locks for his doors, and for hiring a private contractor to sweep Pruitt's office for hidden listening devices.
$43,000 was spent to install a soundproof phone booth at Pruitt's office.
A request for a $100,000-per-month private jet membership, a bulletproof vehicle, and $70,000 for furniture that included a bulletproof desk for an armed security guard was made. The requests were denied.
These efforts are not different from his official actions as head of the EPA where he is shoveling money into the pockets of his corporate buddies and pals like Ichan and others.
This is all about fleecing the American people and the Treasury and literally lighting that money on fire like the Health Ledger’s Joker in the The Dark Knight.
And that’s exactly why Trump won’t fire Pruitt.
He's doing exactly what Trump wants, burning it all down. They don’t care what happens to the environment in the process, they don’t care what happens to people as they try to drink water that’s been contaminated by coal ash and heavy metals they don’t care about us “little people”. They living high on the hog and they’re going to take every advantage, every sliver of fun and joy, and leave the rest of us all with the dregs.
WASHINGTON ? The Environmental Protection Agency announced plans Thursday to scrap Obama-era rules tightening restrictions on disposal of coal ash, the toxic byproduct from coal-fired power plants that has caused major water contamination problems across the country.
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt billed the new proposal as a bid to give states more independence over coal ash disposal, though he moved to reconsider the 2015 regulation in September at the request of fossil fuel utilities.
The EPA’s announcement makes no mention of the risks coal ash poses to human health and the environment. Rather, the agency justified its move by noting it is expected to save the utility sector between $31 and $100 million annually.
“Today’s coal ash proposal embodies EPA’s commitment to our state partners by providing them with the ability to incorporate flexibilities into their coal ash permit programs based on the needs of their states,” Pruitt said in a statement.
Coal-fired power plants in the United States produce roughly 140 million tons of coal ash per year, containing toxic heavy metals such as arsenic, lead, selenium and other carcinogenic substances. The waste product is typically stored in wet ponds, nearly 46 percent of which operated without liners to prevent hazardous chemicals from seeping into groundwater, according to 2012 data released by the EPA.
Living within a mile of a wet coal ash storage pond poses a greater health threat than smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, raising the risk of cancer to one in 50, an EPA study from 2010 found. Children are particularly at risk of learning disabilities, birth defects, asthma and cancer, with 1.54 million living near such storage sites, according to EPA data cited by the Sierra Club.
That’s what a corporate raider does, enriches himself no matter what it costs others. Gordon Gecko is their hero.
That’s who they are.
==
5/17
Eight Democratic senators asked U.S. regulators on Tuesday to launch an investigation into billionaire Carl Icahn’s activities in the U.S. biofuels blending credit market, saying the activist investor may have violated trading laws since becoming an adviser to President Donald Trump.
"We are writing to request that your agencies investigate whether Carl Icahn violated insider trading laws, anti-market manipulation laws, or any other relevant laws based on his recent actions in the market for renewable fuel credits," the senators said in a letter to the heads of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency.
The letter, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, was signed by Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Sherrod Brown of Ohio and five others. The agencies are not required to act on it.
Efforts to reach Icahn for comment were not immediately successful.
There have been months of public outcry from Democratic lawmakers and liberal watchdog groups concerned that Icahn's dual role as a high-powered investor and presidential adviser could lead to conflicts of interest.
Trump, a Republican, named Icahn as an unpaid adviser on regulation shortly after November's election, saying the choice could help him slash red tape and bolster economic growth.
In February, Icahn submitted a proposal to the White House to change the U.S. biofuels program in a way that would ease its regulatory burden on oil refining companies, already struggling with low profit margins. Icahn owns a majority stake in refining company CVR Energy Inc (CVI.N).
The White House is considering the proposal. An administration official did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
A Reuters review of securities filings last month showed that CVR had accumulated a large short position in biofuels blending credits, called Renewable Identification Numbers, or RINs, which many refiners are required to purchase under the biofuels law. That meant the company would have been in a strong position to profit if RIN prices fell.
In their letter, the senators pointed out that RIN prices dropped sharply in late February after Icahn’s proposal on the biofuels regulation was reported.
“We have no way of knowing at this time whether Mr. Icahn made any of his renewable fuel credit trades or decisions about trades based on material, non-public information or otherwise manipulated the market,” the senators wrote.
“But the publicly available evidence is troubling, and based on this evidence, we ask that your agencies investigate whether Mr. Icahn's conduct violated any laws under your jurisdiction,” they said.
Icahn previously dismissed accusations that his proposal to the White House to change the biofuels program was self-serving, saying the overhaul would help other refining companies too, including his competitors.
CVR Energy shares fell 0.4 percent to $22.20 on Tuesday. A CVR spokesman declined to comment.
Shares in Icahn's investment firm, Icahn Enterprises (IEP.O), fell 4.3 percent to $50.82.
'NOT SHY'
Icahn, 81, has spent decades doing battle with major companies as an activist investor, and has amassed a fortune that Forbes Magazine pegs above $20 billion. In recent years, he built up an 82 percent stake in CVR, making him a player in the niche biofuels market.
==
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/4/21/shocking_expose_reveals_trump_associates_isis
As Vice President Mike Pence railed against ISIS-linked terrorism Thursday, we speak with longtime investigative journalist Allan Nairn about his shocking new exposé that reveals backers of Donald Trump in Indonesia have joined army officers and a vigilante street movement linked to ISIS in an attempt to oust Indonesia’s president. Writing in The Intercept, Nairn reveals that Indonesians involved in the coup attempt include a corporate lawyer working for the mining company Freeport-McMoRan, which is controlled by Trump adviser Carl Icahn. Video has even emerged showing the lawyer at a ceremony where men are swearing allegiance to ISIS. According to Nairn, two of the other most prominent supporters of the coup are close associates of Donald Trump—Fadli Zon, vice speaker of the Indonesian House of Representatives, and Hary Tanoe, Trump’s primary Indonesian business partner, who is building two Trump resorts, one in Bali and one outside Jakarta. Nairn’s article is making waves in Indonesia.
insider trading 80's vouchers
==
TWA
http://blog.pmarca.com/2014/03/18/when-carl-icahn-ran-a-company-the-story-of-twa/
==
john doe with saic cohen
gXardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2016/sep/14/john-doe-files-scott-walker-corporate-cash-american-politics
The documents show the governor and his fundraising team going after, and receiving cash from, many of the most prominent rightwing donors in the country. In addition to Adelson, there was business magnate Carl Icahn who was approached for $100,000 though nothing in the files indicates that he donated; the hedge-fund billionaireStephen Cohen,who arranged a wire transfer of $1m; and Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone who gave $25,000....
==
Separately, Trump also is naming one of the nation's richest men to be a special advisor on issues regarding regulatory reform.
Carl Icahn, a veteran of Wall Street who founded his own securities firm, will serve as an outside advisor, Trump said. He will not have a government position or receive a salary. As a result, he will not have to comply with government conflict-of-interest rules the way he would if he had a formal appointment.
Icahn, an early Trump supporter, is estimated to be worth more than $16 billion. Trump said a statement that the 80-year-old Icahn, one of the nation's leading investors, is “not only a brilliant negotiator, but also someone who is innately able to predict the future, especially having to do with finances and economies.”
==
10 worst:
7. Carl Icahn ($20 bn)
Icahn’s face should be placed beside the term “corporate raider” in any dictionary of financial chicanery. C.E. Meyer, the chairman of Trans World Airlines, which was taken over by Icahn, famously called him [20] “one of the greediest men on earth.” Also referred to as “Icahn the Barbarian,” his specialty has been taking over a company, selling its assets to pay the debt used for the purchase, and sending jobs down the toilet while enriching himself. The elderly vulture capitalist has lately been thinking about his legacy and is attempting to rebrand himself as a “shareholder activist.” That’s rather a tall order for the man who, along with Ivan Boesky, served as the inspiration for Gordon Gekko in the film Wall Street.
Carl Celian Icahn (born February 16, 1936) is an American business magnate.
Contents |
Biography
Icahn was raised in Far Rockaway, Queens, New York City, where he attended Far Rockaway High School.[3] His father was a cantor, his mother was a schoolteacher.[4] He was educated at Princeton University (A.B., philosophy, 1957) and New York University School of Medicine, but left without graduating.[5][6]
Icahn began his career on Wall Street in 1961. In 1968, he formed Icahn & Co., a securities firm that focused on risk arbitrage and options trading. In 1978, he began taking control of positions in individual companies.[3] He has taken substantial or controlling positions in various corporations including RJR Nabisco, TWA, Texaco, Phillips Petroleum, Western Union, Gulf & Western, Viacom, Uniroyal, Dan River, Marshall Field's, E-II (Culligan and Samsonite), American Can, USX, Marvel Comics, Revlon, Imclone, Federal-Mogul, Fairmont Hotels, Blockbuster, Kerr-McGee, Time Warner and Motorola.
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Business career and interests
Little is known about Carl Icahns' endeavors prior to the 1990s, yet still many have regarded him as a main player in the "junk bond," and "mortgage bond," industries which transformed corporate America and S & L's into a profitable enclave susceptible to investment bankers and corporate raiders.
In 2004, Icahn purchased a large block of stock of Mylan Laboratories, after Mylan had announced a deal to acquire King Pharmaceuticals. Icahn threatened a proxy fight over the acquisition, on the ground that the deal required Mylan to overpay. In early 2005, Mylan gave up its efforts to acquire King, but according to the management, the decision was made after it monitored relevant facts, not due to pressure from Icahn.
In 2006, Icahn sold his stake in KT&G (Korea Tobacco & Ginseng) for a substantial profit.
In 2007, Icahn and his affiliates owned majority positions in firms including ACF Industries, American Railcar Industries, XO Communications, Philip Services, and NYSE-listed Icahn Enterprises, formerly known as American Real Estate Partners.
Icahn made an attempted run as a major shareholder of Time Warner, owning about 3.3% of the company valued at billions of dollars. He has been actively seeking to influence the direction of Time Warner, often in conflict with its former chief executive, Richard Parsons. Although Time Warner recently sold 5% of its AOL division, Icahn has been pressing for additional action to increase shareholder value. On February 7, 2006, a group led by Icahn and Lazard Frères CEO Bruce Wasserstein unveiled a 343-page proposal calling for the breakup of Time Warner into four companies and stock buybacks totaling approximately $20 billion. On February 17, 2006, the Icahn-led group agreed with Time Warner to not contest the re-election of Time Warner's slate of board members at the 2006 shareholders meeting. In exchange for the Icahn group's cooperation, Time Warner would buy back up $20 billion of stock, nominate more independent members to the board of directors, cut $1 billion of costs by 2007, and continue discussions with the Icahn group over their proposal, particularly on the future of Time Warner Cable.
In 2008, Icahn showed interest in the takeover of Yahoo! and the ousting of Jerry Yang from his position as CEO to allow Microsoft to purchase the web company.[7]
Icahn sold his casino interests in Nevada on February 21, 2008. They included the Stratosphere, Arizona Charlie's Boulder, Arizona Charlie's Decatur, and Aquarius Casino Resort which are operated through American Entertainment Properties, a subsidiary of Icahn's major company, Icahn Enterprises. The sale price of $1.3 billion was roughly $1 billion more than he paid for the properties.
In June 2008, Icahn launched The Icahn Report which campaigns for shareholder rights. It hosts United Shareholders of America where individual investors can sign up and take part.
Icahn was a director of Blockbuster until January 2010, and the chairman of Imclone, Icahn Enterprises, XO Communications, WestPoint Home, Cadus, and American Railcar Industries. He is a beneficial owner of Adventrx Pharmaceuticals, Vector Group and has had significant holdings in Time Warner. Icahn tried to take over Marvel Comics, coming into conflict with Avi Arad, Ron Perelman, and Ike Perlmutter.[8] Marvel ended up being acquired by The Walt Disney Company in late 2009.
Icahn's hedge funds currently own 5.6% of biotechnology company Biogen Idec. Beginning in 2007, Icahn has steadily increased his stake in Biogen, seeking to possibly acquire, break up, and/or sell off various parts of the company.[9] As of June 2009, Icahn has managed to seat two of his allies on Biogen's board with the apparent goal of splitting the company into two entities and possibly replacing CEO James C. Mullen, of whom he has been highly critical.[10][dated info]
In July 2010, Icahn acquired 14 percent stake in Mentor Graphics because of which Mentor Graphics signed a Poison Pill provision. As of September 2010, Icahn owns just less than 15 percent of Mentor Graphics. On February 22, 2011 he made an offer to buy Mentor Graphics for about $1.86 billion in cash in a move to push other suitors to declare themselves.
Recent developments
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- XO Holding in 2005 announced to sell the wired part of its business for $700 million to its majority shareholder and Chairman Icahn himself to pay back its debts and buy back its preferred stock for about $600 million – all owned by Icahn himself. He would end up owning XO's traditional wired phone business outright, and still own his 60 percent stake in what would be left of XO. In the SEC filings, XO explained that a special committee of its BOD weighed Icahn's bid and declared it the best interest to shareholders. Investment bankers determined Icahn's offer to be "fair." And the stockholders would approve the transaction because Icahn owned 60% of the common stock and the directors, named by Icahn, hired the investment bankers to put their stamp of approval on his offer. However, R2 and other minority shareholders successfully defeated the attempt and the Delaware Court On March 31, 2008 entered a final judgment order: 1. Reduced by 1.5% of the interest on the debt held by Icahn; 2. Waived, through the due date of July 15, 2009 for any breach of the financial covenants with the Chairman; 3. Awarded $8 million to R2's and other minority shareholders’ attorneys at Icahn's cost and other damages to the business caused by Carl Icahn's self-dealing and/or conflict of interest.
- In August 2006, he bought stock in the video game publisher Take-Two Interactive. He increased his stake to 11.3% on December 21, 2009, making him the company's second largest shareholder.[11]
- In January 2007, he purchased a 9.2% stake in Telik (Nasdaq: TELK), a biotech company engaged in cancer research, because he believed its shares were undervalued.
- On January 16, 2007 it was disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that Icahn is the beneficial owner of 14.57%, or 6.1 million shares, of WCI Communities (NYSE: WCI) [1]. In the filing Icahn indicated that he intends to contact WCI to discuss how to "unlock the inherent value" of its shares.
- On January 30, 2007 Motorola (then NYSE:MOT, now two separate entities: Motorola Mobility(NYSE: MMI) and Motorola Solutions (NYSE: MSI)) said it received notice that Icahn owns about 33.5 million shares, representing a 1.39% interest in the company and pressed for a seat on its board. But he was turned down by the majority of the stock holders in the election for Board Directors which was held on May 8.
- On February 9, 2007, Lear Corporation's (NYSE: LEA) board of directors agreed to a $2.3 billion takeover offer from Icahn, pending a 45 day solicitation period for other offers, which it did not receive, and shareholder approval.[12][13]
- On February 27, 2007, Icahn invested $50 million in Motricity, a North Carolina-based provider of mobile content delivery technology.
- During April 2007, Icahn successfully pressured Medimmune (MEDI) to consider takeover bids. The company was bought out by AstraZeneca.
- On May 7, 2007, Icahn's quest for a board seat on Motorola is effectively ended, as the company announced the next day that in a preliminary count of the votes for board members Icahn did not have enough to be elected. Icahn stated that he would not sell his shares in the company.
- On September 14, 2007, Icahn disclosed his ownership of 8.5% of outstanding shares in business software company BEA Systems. BEA Systems shares rose more than 4% after Icahn disclosed his stake in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In the filing, Icahn, known for forcefully pushing an agenda at companies where he acquires ownership, suggested that BEA Systems should put itself up for sale. By September 21, Icahn increased his stake to 9.88% of BEA, and on October 3, to 11.05%, and then to 13.22% on October 4, 2007.[14] On January 16, 2008, Oracle Corporation announced it was purchasing BEA Systems.[15]
- On February 21, 2008, Carl Icahn sold his American Casino & Entertainment Properties which owned four casinos in Southern Nevada (3 in Las Vegas, and one in Laughlin).The announcement had been made on April 23, 2007. The purchaser was an affiliate of Goldman Sachs and the price was $1.3 billion.
- On March 9, 2008, a story about Carl Icahn aired on American news program, 60 minutes, with reporter Leslie Stahl.
- On March 21, 2008 Icahn appeared on Nightly Business Report and discussed his views on proxy fights.
- On March 24, 2008 Icahn sued Motorola as part of his efforts to gain 4 seats on Motorola's Board and force a sale of its mobile business.
- On May 13, 2008 Carl Icahn purchased as many as 50 million shares of Yahoo, leaning toward launching a proxy contest.
- On May 15, 2008 Icahn confirmed that he would be commencing a proxy fight to remove Yahoo's Board of Directors in response to their "irrational" actions in rejecting Microsoft's takeover bid.
- On June 18, 2008 Icahn launched *The Icahn Report*.
- On July 21, 2008 Icahn agreed to join Yahoo's Board of Directors in a deal that would end the proxy fight. According to the agreement, the Yahoo Board will expand by two directors to eleven members. Eight directors will stand for re-election while the remaining three seats will include Icahn and two nominees that Icahn will recommend.[16]
- In September/October 2008 Icahn has been involved in the attempted purchase of Imclone by Bristol Myers Squibb (which was turned down) and eventual sale of Imclone to Eli Lilly in an all cash deal valued at $6.5bn. Icahn had described Bristol Myers Squibb's upwardly revised offer of $62 per share as "absurd".[17]
- In December 2008, Icahn filed suit against Realogy over a proposed debt swap.[18]
- On April 20, 2009, Apparently, Carl Icahn's proxy battle for Amylin is an attempt to engineer a sale to Lilly. Icahn aims Amylin [AMLN] for sale to Lilly [LLY] [19]
- On September 28, 2009, XO Holdings (XOHO) rejected Icahn's offer to buy out the remaining shares of XO he doesn't own already for 55 cents a share as "substantially undervalues" company. Icahn previously attempted to buy the telecom assets from XO but dropped the bid because of shareholders opposition. A lawsuit filed by the hedge fund and minority shareholder R2 in August 2009 alleges Icahn as director and majority owner of XO - hurt shareholders by refusing refinance of the debts owned by Icahn when capital was easily available and repeatedly denying acquiring attempts at prices several times higher than Icahn’s offer. On October 26, 2009 Icahn raised his offer to 80 cents a share. The offer expired on the same day a filling disclosed its existence.
- On October 23, 2009, Icahn announced his resignation from the board of directors at Yahoo![20]
- On February 16, 2010, it was revealed that Icahn had reduced his equity stake in Yahoo! from a one-time high of 75 million shares to 12 million shares.[21]
- On February 18, 2010, Icahn, through a subsidiary of his Icahn Enterprises LP, have acquired from Fontainebleau Las Vegas, LLC and certain affiliated entities the Fontainebleau property and improvements thereon located in Las Vegas, Nevada for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $150 million. Icahn is confident with the acquisition of the 70% complete Fontainebleau property stating that "The acquisition of the Fontainebleau property was a great opportunity to purchase a distressed asset that I believe has considerable value." [22]
- On March 8, 2010, a group of lenders, headed by Icahn, closed on the purchase of Tropicana Casino and Resort Atlantic City, bringing the company out of bankruptcy for $200 million.
- On March 23, 2010, Lions Gate Films rejected a takeover bid.[23]
- On May 17, 2010, Icahn reported that he owns almost 12% of Hain Celestial Group Inc. (HAIN).[24]
- On May 25, 2010, Icahn reported that he bought an 8.54% stake in Lawson Software as of May 11. (LWSN).[25]
- On May 27, 2010, Icahn reported that he had accumulated a 6.9% stake in Mentor Graphics. (MENT).[26] On March 15, 2011, Mentor's board issued a strong warning to its shareholders against a proxy action by Icahn.[27]
- On February 11, 2011, Icahn reported that he had accumulated a 9.08% stake in The Clorox Company (CLX).[28] Shares jumped over 9% that day on the news.
- In January 2011, he again proposed to purchase all the XO Holder common stock he does not already own for $0.70 per share. The board hired JP Morgan for evaluation. On July 12, 2011, Icahn and his affiliates raised the price to $1.40. In addition to R2’s suit, five additional class actions complain the inadequacy of the offer and Icahn’s self-dealing and illegally depressing the stock price in order to take the company private cheaply and using the $3.5 billion NOLs by himself.
- On July 15, 2011, Icahn offered to purchase The Clorox Company for $76.50 a share in a deal worth $12.6 billion. He then stated that if the deal falls through, he will pay Clorox $100 million.[29]
- On September 27, 2011, Icahn rumoured to have purchased a stake in Canadian telecoms company Research in Motion, sending their share price up by as much as 7%.[30] On October 17, 2011, Icahn denied the rumour.[31]
Personal life
Icahn has been married twice.
In 1979, he married Liba Trejbal, an ethnic Czech ballerina from the former Czechoslovakia.[32][33][34] They separated in 1993 and divorced in 1999 after years of litigation. Liba had sought to invalidate a prenuptial agreement she had signed prior to their marriage claiming duress as she was pregnant at the time.[35] Liba originally fought Icahn's offer of roughly $1.5 million a year because he was worth billions at the time and eventually settled for an undisclosed amount.[34][36] They have two children, Brett (b. 1979) and Michelle (b. 1982)[32]
In 1999, he married his longtime assistant and former broker, Gail Golden.[34] She has two children, Shana L. Golden and Christie R. Golden, from a prior marriage.[32]
Philanthropy
Icahn Stadium on Randall's Island in New York City is named after him, as is the Carl C. Icahn Center for Science and Icahn Scholar Program at Choate Rosemary Hall, a New England prep school. This organization pays for tuition, room and board, books, and supplies for 10 students every year for four years (freshman-senior), an expense that adds up to about $160,000 per student.
Icahn made a substantial donation to his alma mater, Princeton University, to fund a genomics laboratory which bears his name, the Carl C. Icahn Laboratory at the University's Institute for Integrated Genomics. He also made large donations to Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, of which he is a trustee, which in return named a building the Icahn Medical Institute designed by Davis Brody Bond.
His foundation, the Children's Rescue Fund, built Icahn House in The Bronx, a 65-unit complex for homeless families consisting of single pregnant women and single women with children, and operates Icahn House East and Icahn House West, both of which are homeless shelters located in New York City.
Icahn has received numerous awards, including the Starlight Foundation's Founders Award and its 1990 Man of the Year Award. He was also named Guardian Angel 2001 Man of the Year. In 2004, he was honored by the Center for Educational Innovation - Public Education Association for his work with charter schools. In 2006, he was honored with the 100 Women in Hedge Funds Effecting Change Award for his outstanding contributions to improving education.
Wealth
As of March 2012 his net worth is estimated to be $14 billion.
King Icahn
In 1993, a book was written on the life of Carl Icahn by Mark Stevens. Titled King Icahn, it is the only biography written on the wealthy business man.[37]
Thoroughbred horse racing
In 1985 Carl Icahn established Foxfield Thoroughbreds, a horse breeding operation. At that year's Newstead Farm Trust sale run by Fasig-Tipton, he paid $4 million for Larida, a 6-year-old mare and a record $7 million for the 4-year-old bay mare Miss Oceana who was in foal to champion sire, Northern Dancer.
Icahn's Meadow Star won the 1990 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies and was voted the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Two-Year-Old Filly. In 1992, Foxfield ended its racing operation and became a commercial breeder. Having bred more than 140 stakes horses, in 2004 Icahn shut down Foxfield, selling all his mares and weanlings without reserve at the Keeneland Sales November breeding stock auction.
See also
- Dan Raviv
- Avi Arad
- Toy Biz
- T. Boone Pickens
- Icahn Stadium
- Theo Botha
- Mark Stevens (writer)
- Steven A. Cohen - Hedge-fund manager
References
- ^ http://www.jewishjournal.com/hollywoodjew/item/jewish_billionaire_carl_icahn_wants_to_buy_all_of_lionsgate_20100319/
- ^ "Forbes - Carl Icahn". www.forbes.com. March 9, 2011. Retrieved May 13, 2011.
- ^ a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Icahn#cite_ref-icahnreport1_2-0) b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Icahn#cite_ref-icahnreport1_2-1) About Me, The Icahn Report. Retrieved October 8, 2009.
- ^ *BUSINESS: Icahn could tower over Stratosphere*. Reviewjournal.com. 1997-06-27. Retrieved 2011-07-28.
- ^ http://www.biography.com/people/carl-c-icahn-9348875
- ^ Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/10/L1XF.html.
- ^ Schmidt: Independent Yahoo better for competition - Yahoo! News
- ^ *Comic Wars* by Dan Raviv, Broadway Books, April 2002
- ^ *Biogen Idec appears to be in Icahn's sights*
- ^ *Icahn Places Two Allies on the Biogen Idec Board*
- ^ Icahn stake raises chance of Take-Two buyout, by Gabriel Madway, Reuters, December 21, 2009
- ^ Lear agrees to Icahn buyout, may seek other offers, by David Bailey, Reuters, February 9, 2007
- ^ Lear Announces Expiration of Solicitation Period for Alternative Acquisition Proposal, Lear Corporation Press Release, March 27, 2007
- ^ Icahn further raises BEA stake to 13.22 percent, Reuters, October 3, 2007
- ^ Oracle To Buy BEA Systems For About $8.5 Bln.
- ^ Yahoo! Announces Settlement with Carl Icahn: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance
- ^ Eli Lilly to buy ImClone for more than $6B: Associated Press
- ^ Prasad, Sakthi (2008-12-03). "Icahn sues Realogy over debt deal". Reuters. Retrieved 2008-11-04.
- ^ Amylin: Icahn aims for sale to Lilly
- ^ Yahoo: Icahn Quits Board, Having Accomplished…Not Much
- ^ Icahn Cans Yahoo
- ^ "Icahn Enterprises Acquires Fontainebleau Property in Las Vegas - NEW YORK, February 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/". Nevada, New York: Prnewswire.com. Retrieved 2011-07-28.
- ^ "News Headlines". CNBC. 2010-03-23. Retrieved 2011-07-28.
- ^ . http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100517-714743.html.[dead link]
- ^ "Lawson Software's new shareholder: Carl Icahn". Star Tribune. 2010-05-25. Retrieved 2011-07-28.
- ^ "Icahn Reports 6.9% Stake In Mentor Graphics, Seeks Mgmt Talks". The Wall Street Journal. 2010-05-27.[dead link]
- ^ "Mentor Graphics, Carl Icahn, EDA, Vendor | Mentor urges shareholders to nix Icahn proxy". Eetimes.com. Retrieved 2011-07-28.
- ^ "UPDATE 3-Icahn takes 9 pct stake in Clorox, shares soar". Reuters. February 11, 2011.
- ^ "Icahn makes a $10.2B bid for Clorox: It's more than bleach". Usatoday.Com. 2011-07-15. Retrieved 2011-07-28.
- ^ "RIM Shares Jump Amid Rumors of Icahn Stake". nytimes.com. 2011-09-27. Retrieved 2011-09-27.
- ^ "Exclusive: 'RIM is Not on Our Radar,' says Carl Icahn". cnbc.com. 2011-10-17. Retrieved 2011-10-17.
- ^ a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Icahn#cite_ref-NewYorker_31-0) b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Icahn#cite_ref-NewYorker_31-1) c(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Icahn#cite_ref-NewYorker_31-2) Auletta Ken (March 20, 2006). "Annals of Communications: The Raid". The New Yorker
- ^ Slater, Robert (1999). *The Titans of Takeover*. Washington: Beard Books. p. 83.
- ^ a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Icahn#cite_ref-businessweek_33-0) b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Icahn#cite_ref-businessweek_33-1) c(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Icahn#cite_ref-businessweek_33-2) Business Wekk: "Icahn: The Once And Future Dealmaker" June 11, 2000
- ^ Brede, Scott (May 3, 1999). "A Wall Street Icon's Divorce War". The Connecticut Law Tribune.
- ^ Smith, Gayle Rosenwald (March 15, 1999). Philly.com: "Couples Take Divorce Out Of The Courtroom And Reinvent The Way It's Settled"
- ^ "BARNES & NOBLE | King Icahn: The Biography of a Renegade Capitalist by Mark Stevens | Hardcover, Audiobook". Search.barnesandnoble.com. Retrieved 2011-07-28.
- Connie Buck, The Predators' Ball (1988); Chapter 8 ("Icahn-TWA: From Greenmailer to Manager-Owner")
External links
- Carl Icahn's Stock Portfolio: Always Updated
- Icahn Acolyte Lichtenstein Must Duel Hero
- Icahn and BofA Take Steel Partners to Court
- Guest Video Lecture by Carl Icahn at Yale Finanacial Markets Course (2008)
- - Dealscape: Icahn wants you for the United Shareholders of America! - blog
- The Icahn Report - Icahn's personal blog
- The Icahn Lift, 60 Minutes' Lesley Stahl Profiles The Billionaire Investor accessed March 14, 2008
- Forbes profile page on Carl Icahn
- MarketWatch.com: Icahn's recent track record and Motorola
- Carl Icahn Invests $50 Million in Mobile Content Distributor Motricity
- "If He Ruled the World" Knowledge at Wharton (Registration required)
- Carl Icahn agreed to support MGM restructuring plan
- MGM Creditors including billionaire investor Carl Icahn and Spyglass Entertainment would write off approximately $5 billion in debts
Donors who identified their last name as icahn and first name as carl in the current election cycle.
25 results found, showing 1 - 10
Q2-2011
New York, NY
$35,800 donation to boehner for speaker fojb-nrcc
Q2-2011
New York, NY
$30,800 donation to national republican congressiona
Q3-2011
New York, NY
$2,500 donation to friends of connie mack
Q3-2011
New York, NY
$2,500 donation to friends of connie mack
Q3-2011
New York, NY
$2,500 donation to jon huntsman for president, inc.
Q1-2012
new
NEW YORK, NY
$2,500 donation to romney for president, inc.
Q2-2011
New York, NY
$2,500 donation to friends of john boehner
icahn associates corp./chairman
Q2-2011
NEW YORK, NY
$2,500 donation to hatch election committee inc
Q2-2011
New York, NY
$2,500 donation to friends of john boehner
icahn associates corp./chairman
Q2-2011
NEW YORK, NY
$1,000 donation to hatch election committee inc
Q2-2011
NEW YORK, NY
$35,800 donation to boehner for speaker fojb-nrcc