[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]
|
Status: Not Logged In; Sign In
United States News Title: Pelosis lose big bet on pro football Pelosis lose big bet on pro football By JAKE SHERMAN & JOHN BRESNAHAN & MANU RAJU | 6/17/10 7:40 AM EDT Paul Pelosi spent $12 million last year buying the California Redwoods of the Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul lost up to $5 million on his investment in a new professional football league, according to the latest congressional financial disclosure reports released Wednesday. Mr. Pelosi, a wealthy investor, spent $12 million last year buying the California Redwoods of the United Football League, according to report last October in the Washington Post. Yet the speaker’s annual disclosure report valued the team at only between $1 million and $5 million. It is unclear why there is a discrepancy in what Paul Pelosi paid for the Redwoods as described in the Post story and the team’s valued as stated in the disclosure report. The disclosure report further shows that the Pelosis suffered a loss of up to $5 million on the football franchise, although no exact figure is provided. The UFL was the brainchild of Bill Hambrecht, a Pelosi friend and deep-pocketed investment banker who helped take Google public in 2004. The UFL was designed to be an alternative to the mega-powerful National Football League in smaller media markets, but it hasn’t lived up to its backers’ expectations so far. The Sports Business Journal, a sports-industry publication, reported last fall that the UFL lost $30 million during its inaugural season, which is millions more than initially projected. Pelosi’s office declined to comment on the financial losses the couple suffered. Despite the football debacle, the Pelosis remain very rich by any objective standard. Overall, the Pelosis are worth between $24.6 million and $89 million, minus their liabilities. Their holdings include a vineyard in St. Helena, Calif., worth between $5 million and $25 million; several commercial properties in San Francisco; hotel partnerships in Rutherford and Sonoma, Calif.; and an Asian investment fund worth up to $5 million. Paul Pelosi also sold between $5 million and $25 million in Apple stock last year. He may have used the proceeds from those sales to finances his purchase of the California Redwoods, since his first payment to the UFL took place only days after his initial sale of Apple stock in April 2009, according to the disclosure report. As speaker, Pelosi herself earned $223,000 in congressional salary in 2009, plus another $102,161 in book royalties. The annual disclosure reports filed by members and senators include a broad range of values for assets and transactions, giving the press and American public an overview of lawmakers’ personal wealth and investments. Personal homes are exempted from the reports, as are other assets like cars, artwork and antiques. The reports show several members of Congress offloaded major assets. Late last year, Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) liquidated between $1,000,000 and $5,000,000 of his Nucite Sales profit-sharing retirement plan. Nucite was a plastics company that provided the bulk of his wealth. Boehner’s office says he did not control the investment in the retirement fund. On the day he sold off his Nucite assets, Boehner bought at least $698,000 in companies such as Goldman Sachs, BP, AT&T, Chevron, ExxonMobil, JPMorgan, Pepsi and Microsoft and others. Boehner’s holdings in BP are worth between $1,000 and $15,000. In addition, Boehner purchased $81,000 on bonds and notes from companies like AT&T Wireless, Duke Energy, General Electric and the now-shuttered Wall Street firm Bear Stearns. “Mr. Boehner closed out his retirement account from the small business he ran before coming to Congress, and, on the advice of his financial adviser, shifted the funds to other investments,” said Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner. Based on the minimum possible estimate of his personal fortune, Boehner is worth at least $1.7 million Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) remained largely unchanged in their personal wealth, although McConnell was able to get rid of liabilities worth in excess of $1.1 million. Most of that personal debt came from McConnell’s hard-fought 2008 reelection campaign. Last year, McConnell and his wife, former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, disclosed that they had received a gift worth between $5 million and $25 million from her father, Dr. James S.C. Chao, a wealthy Chinese-born businessman. The financial disclosure forms also reveal some interesting moments in Congress. For example, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) flew Reid and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) to San Francisco on a private jet after the landmark Dec. 24 health care vote. Feinstein dropped $3,625 each on Reid and Boxer for the cross-country flight. "She was flying to San Francisco and offered a ride west," said Gil Duran, Feinstein's spokesman. "It wasn’t for an event." Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) remains one of the richest members of Congress, with a minimum net worth of over $184 million. This was a roughly 10 percent increase from Kerry’s worth the previous year. Kerry is married to Teresa Heinz Kerry, who late husband, Sen. John Heinz (R-Pa.), was an heir to the ketchup fortune. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the second richest member in 2008, reported a net worth of $156 million, down roughly $8 million from the year before. After a tough 2008 financially, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) saw her net worth jump to $152 million in 2009. Harman, who is married to businessman Sidney Harman, was worth $112 million the previous year. The financial disclosure forms show that many lawmakers tried to cut ties to companies involved in financial scandals. For instance, Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), a former Goldman Sachs vice president, dumped at least $500,000 in Goldman stock and options. Elizabeth Kerr, Himes’ spokesman, said he dumped all stock or options in financial service companies after being appointed to the Financial Services Committee. “This divestiture was completely voluntary and not required by House rules, but Mr. Himes wanted to avoid even the appearance of a conflict,” Kerr said. Other items of note in the disclosures: * Rep. Gary Miller (R-Calif.) owns between $15,000 and $50,000 of stock in Transocean, one of the companies intricately involved with the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and massive Gulf oil spill. * Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.) owes Miami-based law firm Greenberg Traurig between $250,000 and $500,000. Bishop came under investigation by the Office of Congressional Ethics after reports that he earmarked several hundred thousand dollars to a non-profit group that employed family members. Bishop said on Wednesday that the OCE case “was unanimously dismissed.” * Sen. Maria Cantwell's (D-Wash.) revealed that she has between $15,001 to $50,000 in credit card debt. * Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) wife Cindy incurred debt in 2009 on several charge cards and promissory notes that appear to exceed $1 million, as well as $250,000 to $500,000 for a credit line. Cindy McCain's common stock with Hensley&Co., a beer distribution company in Phoenix, is worth at least $1 million. *Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), who is retiring at the end of this Congress, reported earning nearly $4,500 from the “sale of chestnuts and royalties on seedling sales.” * Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.) claimed $753.72 of winnings on XpressBet and $698 on http://TVG.com – both horse racing websites. * And the Philadelphia Phillies gave retiring Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) a World Series ring last year, which was valued at $12,300. Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/sto..._Page2.html#ixzz0r8Ix71Ov
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: All (#0)
I found it interesting NBC,CBS,ABC, and MSNBC all skipped over the lead in this story to report on Boehner...(laughing)
Just 10 days prior to the explosion, the Obama administration’s regulators gave the oil rig a pass, and last year the Obama administration granted BP a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) exemption for its drilling operation.
|
|
[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]
|