And the second* campaign ad against Sununu '10 writes itself, thanks to TPM:John Sununu, who serves on the Congressional Oversight Panel monitoring the government's bailout progam, has joined the board of a subsidiary to Bank of New York Mellon -- a firm that, in addition to receiving bailout funds, has been hired by the Treasury Department to administer the program.
...According to its press release, the [BNY ConvergEx Group] is an affiliate of Bank of New York Mellon (BONY). Founded by Alexander Hamilton in 1784, BONY received $3 billion in TARP funds back in October -- less than some Wall Street firms, but not chump change.
Just as significantly, it was also picked to be the master custodian for the bailout funds. According to reports, that means it's charged with handling accounting and record-keeping for the program, and even with tracking limits on executive pay at banks that got TARP money.
When I posted Sununu's entry onto the board of BNY ConvergEx, elwood presciently noted, "Isn't this a pretty clear conflict of interest for someone on the TARP Oversight Board?," to which I joked that apparently BNY ConvergEx doesn't think so, since they bragged about his TARP oversight role in the very press release. So while I had it on my to-do list this weekend to check out, I figured it would lead to nothing because of that. What a fool am I.
*Here's the first self-inflicted wound. |
