Where Carl Icahn the Adviser and Carl Icahn the Investor Meet
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who has corporate holdings across a variety of industries overseen by numerous federal agencies, faces multiple potential conflicts as he advises the incoming Trump administration on regulatory matters.
President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday named Mr. Icahn a special adviser to the president on overhauling federal regulation, expanding the activist investor’s potential influence in the Trump administration. Mr. Icahn was already informally advising Mr. Trump on such matters as appointments for departments, commissions and agencies that oversee American business.
In one sign of the market’s view on Mr. Icahn’s new appointment, his own publicly traded entity, Icahn Enterprises LP, rose 6.9% to $61.89 Thursday, among its biggest gains of the year.
The overlap of Mr. Icahn’s business dealings and his upcoming advisory role is apparent in several of his current stock bets, for instance, where a regulation component could help determine his future profits.
(snip)
Mr. Icahn said on CNBC on Thursday that he was surprised by questions about potential conflicts, saying the problem he sees with regulation in the Obama administration is that business leaders weren’t consulted. He said he won’t have specific duties and the title only cements the role he has been playing by sharing ideas with Mr. Trump. He said he would only see an issue if he was actually making policy. He said he isn’t required to give up his business dealings in the role and isn’t being paid.
More..
http://www.wsj.com/articles/where-carl-icahn-the-adviser-and-investor-meet-1482439919