Senator's Husband’s Firm Cashes In On Crisis
Just another day among the entrails in the bowel of the American dream. This one pushes the limits.
Feinstein is the 9th richest member of Congress, with a net worth of $45 million.
See the complete list:
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Take 2 minutes and read the whole thing at the source.
On the day the new Congress convened this year, Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation to route $25 billion in taxpayer money to a government agency that had just awarded her husband’s real estate firm a lucrative contract to sell foreclosed properties at compensation rates higher than the industry norms.
Mrs. Feinstein’s intervention on behalf of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was unusual: the California Democrat isn’t a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs with jurisdiction over FDIC; and the agency is supposed to operate from money it raises from bank-paid insurance payments - not direct federal dollars.
Documents reviewed by The Washington Times show Mrs. Feinstein first offered Oct. 30 to help the FDIC secure money for its effort to stem the rise of home foreclosures. Her letter was sent just days before the agency determined that CB Richard Ellis Group (CBRE) - the commercial real estate firm that her husband Richard Blum heads as board chairman - had won the competitive bidding for a contract to sell foreclosed properties that FDIC had inherited from failed banks.
• Read the rate list for the FDIC contract from CB Richard Ellis, the firm Sen. Feinstein’s husband heads as board chairman.(downloads 4-page pdf)
• Read the correspondence between Sen. Feinstein and FDIC chairman Sheila Bair (downloads 5-page pdf)
About the same time of the contract award, Mr. Blum’s private investment firm reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission that it and related affiliates had purchased more than 10 million new shares in CBRE. The shares were purchased for the going price of $3.77; CBRE’s stock closed Monday at $5.14.
Spokesmen for the FDIC, Mrs. Feinstein and Mr. Blum’s firm told The Times that there was no connection between the legislation and the contract signed Nov. 13, and that the couple didn’t even know about CBRE’s business with FDIC until after it was awarded.
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Video - Feinstein - April, 2009
Sep 2, 2011 at 4:11 PM
Reader Comments (68)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_C._Blum
[snip]
ControversyBlum's wife, Senator Dianne Feinstein, has received scrutiny due to her husband's government contracts and extensive business dealings with China and her past votes on trade issues with the country. Blum has denied any wrongdoing, however.[3] Critics have argued that business contracts with the US government awarded to a company (Perini) controlled by Blum may raise a potential conflict-of-interest issue with the voting and policy activities of his wife.[4] URS Corp, which Blum had a substantial stake in, bought EG&G, a leading provider of technical services and management to the U.S. military, from The Carlyle Group in 2002; EG&G subsequently won a $600m defense contract.[1]
In 2009 it was reported that Blum's wife Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation to provide $25 billion in taxpayer money to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, a government agency that had recently awarded her husband's real estate firm, CB Richard Ellis, what the Washington Times called "a lucrative contract to sell foreclosed properties at compensation rates higher than the industry norms."[5]
In 2009 the University of California Board of Regents, of which Blum is a member, voted to increase student registration fees (roughly the Univ. of California equivalent of tuition) by 32%. Shortly thereafter, Blum Capital Partners purchased additional stock in ITT Tech, a for-profit educational institution. These events suggest a conflict of interest on Blum's part.[6]
Note: he also sits on the board of Al Gores' network, Current TV.
Top 10 Richest US Senators' Top Stock Trades in 2007
and Potential Conflicts of Interest
http://insidertrading.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=001580
The Diploma Mill Profiteers
By MIKE WHITNEY
http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney04152011.html
This is outrageous...... Now here is a snip from my 10:27 post above...
In 2009 the University of California Board of Regents, of which Blum is a member, voted to increase student registration fees (roughly the Univ. of California equivalent of tuition) by 32%. Shortly thereafter, Blum Capital Partners purchased additional stock in ITT Tech, a for-profit educational institution. These events suggest a conflict of interest on Blum's part.
As a member of the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee, Sen. Feinstein voted for appropriations worth billions to her husband's firms
http://www.bohemian.com/metro/01.24.07/dianne-feinstein-0704.html
[snip]
From 2001 to 2005, URS earned $792 million from military construction and environmental cleanup projects approved by MILCON; Perini earned $759 million from such MILCON projects.
In her annual Public Financial Disclosure Reports, Feinstein records a sizeable family income from large investments in Perini, which is based in Framingham, Mass., and in URS, headquartered in San Francisco.
http://rolandsanjuan.blogspot.com/2009/03/cia-who-is-it-benefiting-american.html
[snip]
It can be expected that the first to obstruct an investigation of CIA front companies and slush funds will be Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who has a huge conflict-of-interest with her investment banker husband, Richard Blum, whose companies -- CB Richard Ellis, Newbridge Capital, and Blum Capital -- are linked to various Asian operations, some of which may have crossed paths with the intelligence activities of AIG, especially in China, Singapore, Hong Kong, and in two nations for whom Blum serves as honorary consul in San Francisco -- Nepal and Mongolia. Blum was also an investor in URS Corporation, which bought EG&G, a top intelligence contractor, from The Carlyle Group. Carlyle has close business links to the grand-daddy of all CIA slush fund activities, George H. W. "Poppy" Bush. Blum is also the founder and Chairman of the American Himalayan Foundation. The CIA has a sordid history of covert operations in the Himalayas, particularly in Tibet and Nepal and, to a lesser extent, in Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Kashmir, and Bhutan.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Politics/story?id=5012995&page=1
10 days after he took office..........
H.W. Bush visits Obama at White House
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35159137/ns/politics/
Energy Manipulation
http://feinstein.senate.gov/03Speeches/engcr1081b.htm
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110422/ap_on_re_us/us_treasure_island
http://www.frbsf.org/news/releases/2010/0331.html
[snip]
San Francisco, March 31, 2010 — Richard C. Blum, chairman and founder of San Francisco-based Blum Capital Partners, has joined the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’s Economic Advisory Council for a three-year term ending December 31, 2012.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/san-fran-fed-defends-qe2-comparing-it-gold-arb-elimination-vehicle-%C3%B6peration-twist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3g9BfDDoQQ
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/25/for-profit-colleges_n_853363.html
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/04/25/state-department-wants-passport-applicants-to-reveal-lifetime-employment-history/
Flashback:
Chairman Feinstein Calls for Strengthening Passport and Visa Laws
http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=NewsRoom.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=4de6c90c-bed1-87c6-ff39-8f993f1b7ac1&Region_id=&Issue_id=
Dianne Feinstein Not Too Pleased With Panetta Pick
http://washingtonindependent.com/23827/dianne-feinstein-not-too-pleased-with-panetta-pick
[snip]
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who’s about to take the reins as chairwoman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, doesn’t appear to be too happy with Leon Panetta’s prospective appointment to head the CIA. Here’s what her office just sent me:
“I was not informed about the selection of Leon Panetta to be the CIA Director. I know nothing about this, other than what I’ve read,” said Senator Feinstein, who will chair the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in the 111th Congress.
“My position has consistently been that I believe the Agency is best-served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time.”
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/04/29/MNA51J994T.DTL
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/05/06/113858/feinstein-uses-private-bills-to.html
[snip]
Private bills, though controversial in some circles, have become a part of Feinstein's arsenal.
Feinstein this year has introduced 13 private bills to block deportations, more than any other member of Congress. Her private bills account for one-fifth of the 64 private bills introduced in the entire House and Senate, records show.
http://www.baycitizen.org/blogs/pulse-of-the-bay/sen-dianne-feinstein-opposes-release-bin/
Note: How much did Dianne and her husband make on military contracts?
http://www.bohemian.com/metro/01.24.07/dianne-feinstein-0704.html
http://richardbrenneman.wordpress.com/2010/09/10/difi%E2%80%99s-spouse-buys-into-berkeley-prof%E2%80%99s-company/
[snip]
U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein’s hubby Richard Blum has bought more than a million dollars worth of stock in UC Berkeley professor and federal-sponsored agrofuel scientist Jay Keasling’s Amyris Technologies, reports The Hill.
That makes the powerful Democrat a business partner of Bill Gates, who provided the funding Keasling used to launch his company, which was originally billed as a firm that would use genetically modified bacteria to produce anti-malarial drugs.
Amyris, once headquartered in Berkeley, has been commercially repurposed as a company that seeks to use GMO technology to produce agrofuels, transforming plants into transportation fuels.
Note: today Dianne voted against her own ethanol bill....
http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/saunders/
[snip]
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., was a co-author of the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit Repeal Act. As she explained, the subsidy bestows $15 million a day "on large oil companies with no good reason" and drives up food prices.
Yet Tuesday Feinstein voted against her own amendment.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/06/20/116146/us-military-ready-to-buy-affordable.html
[snip]
The main thing the Navy brings is a market, Mabus said. But the price, he added, "is going to have to be pretty competitive with fossil fuels."
The cost of biofuels now is about $35 a gallon, 10 times the cost of conventional jet fuel.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/07/20/sen-feinstein-britain-style-hacking-could-happen-in-u-s/
Note: Feinstein, was one of the loudest voices in the Senate for giving the telecommunications companies immunity from prosecution for their role in what was at the time, illegal wiretapping.
Perhaps the author would have better served the reader if he mentioned that they purchased stock worth 3.77 million that went as
high as 300 MILLION DOLLARS!!! That is correct people put 1 dollar in and get 100 back. This is the kind of money you can get when you lie, cheat and steal from the American tax payer. And all it takes to participate is one crooked member of Congress.
The way to make money on Wall Street (and make no mistake this was a stock play from start to finish-her husband didn't give a
damn about the company per say) is to ONLY BET ON A SURE THING! How do you do that? Easy lie, cheat, steal -business as
usual. These people should ALL be in jail.
http://itwasjohnson.impiousdigest.com/jonestown.htm
Private immigration bills were once common, with hundreds passing annually. The Congressional Research Service noted private bills began to decline after the 1970s following "a series of corruption scandals ... involving payoffs for the sponsorship of private immigration laws."
Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/05/06/113858/feinstein-uses-private-bills-to.html#ixzz1TE4uFzkp
I read that under Reagan, Ruppert Murdoch was given citizenship to get around the law against foreign ownership of media. I wondered how citizenship could be conveyed that way. Must have been one of those privatized options.
Well, I have more news for our Talmud-handicapped friends. Here in the real world, the benefits of society are enjoyed by all who can help. When one wakes up in the morning, realizing the obnoxious sound of the neighbor's weed-eater is the only evil we will face during the day, the belief in gratitude toward our fellow beings is automatic, and brings a deep, warm, fuzzy feeling of joy to the heart. Civilized people know to feed the joy. You, Feinstein, have a problem. You are a low-life blind-sider.
This incessant, sneaky, self-righteous opportunistic mugging in every facet of representative government should stop before it IS stopped. We civilized people all wake up with a sense of fair play and tolerance for a myriad of personality quirks designed to annoy. You take it beyond annoy. I read some of the hot parts of your Talmud book. It is wrong. You are WRONG. We can't spend our lives babysitting and coddling your corrupt, nasty world. I can feel the rage build when I imagine you and dame Botox scheming on how to get the taxpayers to bale out your personal greedy misadventures. Get some class. STOP IT.
And Pelosi, you owe the American taxpayers at least the $12 million for your share of the AIG bail-out.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/07/secret-senate-dragnet/
[snip]
The FISA Amendments Act was passed in the election year of 2008 — creating intense political pressure for legislators to vote for it or be tarred as weak on defense. Earlier this year, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, backed an ultimately unsuccessful measure to extend the FISA Amendments Act until December 2013. Feinstein chairs the Senate intelligence panel, although her office would not comment on any potential extension of the surveillance act.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/07/31/118874/for-mexicans-fast-and-furious.html
[snip]
The bureau's acting director, Kenneth Melson, wrote in a recent letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., that of the 29,284 weapons recovered in Mexico in 2009 and 2010 and submitted for tracing, 20,504, or 70 percent, came from the United States.
"All of the available evidence shows that the weapons come from the U.S.," said Sergio Aguayo, an academic and newspaper columnist.
http://www.geoffmetcalf.com/bixman_20010615.html
[snip]
Fife was commenting on recent information that indicates tens of billions of dollars in gold deposits and huge real estate swindles may be the motivating factors behind the act.
Sponsored by Senator Diane Feinstein, the Desert Wilderness Protection Act and its companion bill known as the California Desert Protection Act created e three new national parks and seventy- four new wilderness areas in the desert of California that total 8 million acres (an area the size of Maryland). This closes acreage to development, forces out private owners within the protected area and closes mines and ranches. It also expands the Death Valley and Joshua Tree national monuments and upgrades them to national parks.......
......It seems that the real motivation for passage of this bill lies with the special interest groups that would benefit monetarily.
Through a complex series of land exchanges, Catellus Corporation, a subsidiary of Santa Fe Pacific, will receive land that contains some of the richest gold deposits in the world.
Note: Who is Catellus?
The Blum Trail
http://www.uhuh.com/1calfraud/trails/blumtrail.htm
[snip]
Richard Blum
U. S. Senator Feinstein's husband
Money manager
Real estate developer
Stock marked investor
Controls (may own) Catellus, a key Player in the Game.
Different Century; Same Shit. The only thing that can keep us from repeating this over and over is education (and not just the technical kind, but especially history and the arts). Of course that is the thing they are attacking either directly de-funding (see: Texas), or in more subtle ways (I cannot watch TV at all any more for this reason, it's like the equivalent of a week-old cheeseburger from Burger King).
If this unspoken war of the classes really is a war, then I can only recall what Hemingway once wrote - "In modern war there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason." There may not be physical death but the powerlessness and pointless sacrifice of protest (the quick route to a "watch list"), of votes "thrown away", of the increasing police state, of watching your options shrink as modern feudalism begins to take hold, is a kind of death.
Sorry for being a pessimist today.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/09/13/MNQ01L4779.DTL
[snip]
Sen. Dianne Feinstein's $5.2 million re-election war chest may or may not be "wiped out" by a trusted - and now arrested - treasurer, campaign officials for California's senior senator suggested Tuesday.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/09/24/feinstein-campaign-sues-bank-ex-treasurer-over-missing-funds/
[snip]
"The fraud alleged herein constitutes not only the personal betrayal of Senator Feinstein, but also an unforgivable crime against the public trust and the millions of California citizens who have long supported Senator Feinstein and other public officials and nonprofits in this state," the lawsuit said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/22/us-campaign-california-fraud-idUSTRE79L1S120111022
http://www.counterpunch.org/2010/02/26/difi-and-blum-a-marriage-marinated-in-money/
http://www.counterpunch.org/2010/03/01/who-runs-the-university-of-california/
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-57323518-10391709/questioning-pelosi-steve-kroft-heads-to-d.c/
http://biggovernment.com/whall/2011/11/15/sen-feinstein-loaded-up-on-biotech-stock-just-before-company-received-24-million-govt-grant/
http://articles.sfgate.com/2003-04-22/news/17487250_1_eg-g-division-george-r-melton-president-urs-corp-s-eg-g
We are a bit tired if your spam but thanks for reminding me to post something here so I will.... If you will remember that Ms. Feinstein had a secret meeting with Obama and Hillary to decide who will get the nomination (then they slithered off to a Bilderberg meeting). Remember that Richard Blum is involved in this too. (see the 3rd name on the partial list below).
Clinton Turns to Naked Corporate-Fascism
http://www.activistpost.com/2011/12/clinton-turns-to-naked-corporate.html
Excerpt of the list contained in the above story:
Notable Brookings Board Members:
Dominic Barton: McKinsey & Company, Inc.
Alan R. Batkin: Eton Park Capital Management
Richard C. Blum: Blum Capital Partners, LP
Abby Joseph Cohen: Goldman, Sachs & Co.
Suzanne Nora Johnson: Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
Richard A. Kimball Jr.: Goldman, Sachs & Co.
Tracy R. Wolstencroft: Goldman, Sachs & Co.
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=201643
http://blog.sfgate.com/nov05election/2012/10/10/elizabeth-emken-dianne-feinstein-arrogant-for-not-debating-video/
[snip]
Elizabeth Emken is the Danville Republican who has taken on a task that few — no, make that, NO — big name Republicans had the guts to do: Challenge Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
Feinstein has refused to debate her. No, not even at 3 a.m. on a Saturday on a cable access station in Turlock. As Feinstein’s campaign manager Bill Carrick told us a while back after Emken challenged DiFi to a series of debates : “This is the sort of typical cliche move from someone is 19 points down and has $25,000 in the bank and 35 percent name recognition,” Carrick said.
Editorial boards all up and down California — including our very own Ivory Tower-dwellers — have called out Feinstein for the democracy dodge.
Emken ramped it up when the San Francisco Chronicle/SFGate.com’s Shaky Hand Productions video crew caught up with her. She called DiFi “arrogant” and “dismissive” for not agreeing to debate:
Video: Feinstein walks out on reporter when asked about debating Emken.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=09gDvV_zHHk
Note: Feinstein's husband made millions in Iraq building contracts.
http://articles.sfgate.com/2003-04-22/news/17487250_1_eg-g-division-george-r-melton-president-urs-corp-s-eg-g
Death by shooting would be to good for them. they should live a slow long death by having to go out and live like someone working two jobs honestly and making 30,000 to raise a family of 4-5 on, pay a morgage or rent, pay for a car and insurance.
They should have every penny stripped from their bank accounts and that money be put into balancing the budget seems how they contributed to it by their staeling,cheating and fraudulant ways.
The law dictates we can not take these Feinstein and Feinstein wannabes out behind the Hart Building and ....well, you know. But we can recognize their in House support and see that they are birds of a feather. Which reminds me of a second option...no, too messy. I recommend emergency legislation to carry on with the first option, since Feinstein's ilk gets their hutspa from queen lizard, herself. How dare one go up against 250,000,000 people unless one has them hypnotized by the CFRtv(Council on Foreign Relations) and the Rothschild's Associated Press. I am SO glad I don't read or watch their crap anymore. Their time is gonna come.
This garbage of how the U.S. was recolonized in 1871 into the City Corporate Empire, including The Vatican and The City of London is another SNEAK oozing out onto the floor that needs to be addressed with a stern reprimand. The foreign based entity is the same stupid pack of morons who know who double mini-nuked the Fukushima nuclear plant. WE can not afford their genetic unfitness any longer.
Please reread HTLIII 7/26/2011,5:16PM. Feinstein's crimes are simple. The U.S.A. has been overthrown by the queen lizard's minions, half of whom are not even aware of it. Holder is the shill's shill. That means a lot of investors and stock brokers may soon be out of a job. They are not making the mess for any investors and stock brokers. Queen lizard can legally inside trade on the NYSE and London Exchange. . Their sole loyalty is to themselves. They use their dogs, then throw them out. Like Feinstein does.
This shit just never ends.