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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI know some of the scumbag's relatives- How Ted Cruz’s best friend drew him into Jamaican
politics and business.
Right wing to the core - a Seaga man. Married a Jamaican Miss World - then had a child with a Trinidadian Miss Universe. Father was in charge of the Canadian Bauxite Company
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-ted-cruzs-best-friend-drew-him-into-jamaican-politics-and-business/2016/01/22/5bc43d90-bade-11e5-829c-26ffb874a18d_story.html?postshare=4421453555729326&tid=ss_mail
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The ambitious young men sat for hours at a restaurant here to map out plans for a business venture that could make them millions.
In a group that included three Jamaican entrepreneurs, one participant seemed out of place a 27-year-old former U.S. Supreme Court law clerk of Cuban descent who was visiting from Washington.
Ted Cruz had been invited by his roommate from Princeton and Harvard Law, David Panton, who was eager for the group to win the rights to manage a new Caribbean-focused investment enterprise launched by one of the islands most prominent executives.
The idea was modeled after U.S. private equity companies that made fortunes by using investor dollars to remake underperforming companies. The Caribbean concept came with a twist the investor dollars would be drawn in part from governments, including from the United States, leveraging funds intended to boost the developing world.
It was an odd fit for Cruz, who as early as high school and college expressed a strong belief in limited government. But the plan held potential for big profits. And Cruz was welcomed by Pantons fellow Jamaican partners as a skilled negotiator well suited to help hone their pitch for managing the new firm.
A good devils advocate, said Jeffrey Hall, one of the partners at the meeting.
With Cruzs help, they won the right to control what they hoped would be a $150 million fund. The firm, founded in 1998, lost its contract within five years, in part because of a dispute over an investment decision, and was soon shuttered.
Nevertheless, it provided a tidy sum for Cruz. He initially pitched in $6,000 for start-up costs and exited the partnership shortly before it disintegrated with a payout of $25,000, plus a promise of an additional $75,000 to come later, according to Panton.
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)And every time I see a picture of him with that smirk, the only thing I can think of is the class snitch.