ILLINOIS POLITICS ARE ONLY GETTING WORSE: An Illinois Governor (elect) in trouble with the law. What a shocker. We know Governor-elect Bruce Rauner is rich. $60 million a year rich. We also know he has enough personal wealth – and friends like Illinois’ riches man, Ken Griffin – to have financed his $50 million gubernatorial campaign with a small dinner party. Yet, still he took money from his Wall Street pals. What David Sirota reports in International Business Times is that some of his campaign contributions were illegal. I mean, the guys not even Illinois Governor yet and he can face prosecution? Even Blago waited longer than that. Rauner accepted more than $140,000 worth of campaign donations from executives affiliated with firms in which Illinois pension systems have investments, says Sirota. That’s illegal. Small change as far as his campaign funds are concerned. Yet still illegal. Rauner is a longtime private equity executive whose firm, GTCR, manages public pension money. Financial disclosure documents show he still retains ownership stakes in 15 GTCR entities. Though Rauner said he retired from the firm in 2012, SEC documents show he retains a partnership stake in at least one GTCR subsidiary. The two state pension systems he will now oversee as governor list GTCR as managing state money. The SEC’s 2011 “pay-to-play” rule effectively bars executives at firms that earn fees from managing public pension money from donating to candidates for offices that can influence public pension investments. The Illinois governor appoints trustees to the boards overseeing the $40 billion Illinois Teachers Retirement System and the $13 billion Illinois State Board of Investment. During his gubernatorial campaign, Rauner raised millions of dollars from executives in the financial sector — and, despite the pay-to-play rule, some of the money came from executives at firms affiliated with funds that receive state pension investments. The SEC recently prosecuted its a pay-to-play case over donations totaling just $4,500.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 22:38:59 +0000
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