Lehman Brothers. Remember them? Sure you do. They were one of the big investment firms that went down hard at the beginning of the latest recession. They were the one that was not bailed out and wound down, and then sparked the passage of the TARP program.
Well what you may not actually remember is that back during the Corzine Administration, someone decided that it would be a great idea to take $192 million of your tax dollars and make a hyper risky investment with the company not long before the financial world fell apart. The investigation into how that awful decision was made remains unanswered. Numerous letters and inquiries into the Corzine Administration have been ignored to this day, and all details from the records have been redacted in Open Public Records requested files.
According to Senator Pennacchio,
The state’s lawsuit against Lehman officials was never going to recover the full amount lost. It is far more important that the taxpayers find out whether an investment decision risking state pension money, was done as a favor by Wall Street insiders. The veil of secrecy surrounding this transaction leaves Main Street New Jersey distrustful and angry about how its money is invested.
To an extent I agree with the Senator, but to be honest, I think saying we did not get the full amount is an understatement. Out of the $192 million invested, we will get back $8.2 million through this settlement agreement. Seriously.
Senator Pennacchio is right on one thing though. After three years the fact that we can find no information on these investments points to nothing less than foul play. If we cannot get our money, we should at least demand some justice.
No problem here for our workers ,remember the pension is guaranteed by the taxpayers
Corzine was just another crony capitalist like our President.
S