Protesters call for Treasury official to leave role in Puerto Rico debt crisis

[unhappycamper]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/24/protesters-treasury-official-puerto-rico-debt-crisis

Antonio Weiss accused of conflict of interest in letter signed by 21 groups
Weiss received $21m payoff from Wall Street firm with Puerto Rico interests

Protesters call for Treasury official to leave role in Puerto Rico debt crisis
Amanda Holpuch in New York
Thursday 24 September 2015 00.01 EDT

Senior Treasury department adviser Antonio Weiss should remove himself from the US response to the Puerto Rico debt crisis because of his former employers’ work in the country, a coalition of progressive groups said on Thursday.

Weiss, an adviser to the treasury secretary, Jacob Lew, left his former employer, leading financial advisory firm Lazard, with a $21m exit package. The company has traded extensively in Puerto Rico bonds and has marketed investments in debt to hedge funds.

“So it has a direct financial stake in the outcome and what Treasury’s response is, because obviously a lot of the bondholders want to push all the pain of the resolution of the crisis on to the people of Puerto Rico to get the maximum financial gain out of it,” said Kurt Walters, a campaign manager at Rootstrikers, which signed the letter and released a 21-page report that outlines Weiss and Lazard’s ties to the debt crisis.

Puerto Rico is facing $72bn in debt after suffering from years of government mismanagement of finances, including high-risk investments by Wall Street firms. Those same firms have been on a buying frenzy during the crisis, buying up land and debt in an attempt to make money off a crisis that has left residents with a disintegrating infrastructure.

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Shades of Lehman and Goldman Sachs.