Jeb Bush At Lehman Brothers: Florida Official Joked About Bush’s Influence Over State Pension

[kpete]

It was early 2008, and Florida lawmakers were under pressure to explain how the state’s pension officials had come to buy massive quantities of toxic assets from Lehman Brothers. After the investments defaulted, politicians wanted to know whether Jeb Bush -- who joined the Wall Street firm in 2007 as a consultant just months after leaving the governor’s office -- had been involved in persuading his former government colleagues to invest state money in Lehman.

Bush has denied any involvement in the transactions, which might eventually cost Florida taxpayers as much as $1 billion.

But a state official named Michael Lombardi -- who managed investments for the part of Florida’s pension that bought Lehman assets -- invoked Bush’s name in a Jan. 9 email exchange with a Lehman managing director who was announcing his new job at the firm.

“Congratulations on the new career!” Lombardi wrote in the email, which was obtained by International Business Times through an open-records request. “Of course, you understand we can never speak to each other unless I get the word from Jeb! (Ha, ha!)”

Lombardi’s suggestion -- that Bush, as a Lehman consultant, wielded influence over Florida pension decisions -- looks like a joke, but the email may rekindle questions about the former governor’s role at the doomed Wall Street bank.


http://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/jeb-bush-lehman-brothers-florida-official-joked-about-bushs-influence-over-state

[randys1]

1. And he committed thousands of crimes in the 2000 election. Should be in prison

but flies in private jets instead.

[Faux pas]

2. K N R