It turns out that the only major contributor to the collapsed Republican electoral college initiative is not only Northeastern finance chairman for Rudy Giuliani, but as a leading “vulture fund” operator is also a controversial figure.
Late yesterday, the New York Daily News revealed that the bid to change California’s winner-take-all Electoral College vote for the presidency to an allocation by congressional district — which could guarantee a Republican victory next year — got most of its previously secret funding from a New York hedge fund impresario who is Republican presidential frontrunner Rudy Giuliani’s top fundraiser in terms of dollars attributed to his personal efforts. He is also, it turns out, and you won’t see this in the New York Daily News report, seen as one of the most prominent “vulture fund” investors in the world.
Singer, research reveals, is very private, does not want his picture taken, and prefers to converse with the press — if at all — via e-mail.
“I contributed to the Take Initiative America because I believe in proportional voting in the Electoral College,” Singer, the founder of Elliott Associates, said in a statement e-mailed to the Daily News. “I made the contribution without any restrictions, including whether or how it would need to be disclosed. I left disclosure completely up to TIA.”
TIA, or Take Initiative America, is an unknown group based in a small Missouri town. Its purported proprietor, a young local Missouri lawyer, and its California consultant, Republican Jonathan Wilcox, had both cited the lack of a legal requirement for it to disclose the source of the $175,000 it contributed to the California initiative campaign. That is the money that enabled the campaign to hire consultant Mike Arno to start up a signature gathering drive, which has now ended.
The far right Flash Report web site — which heavily promoted the scheme — rather amusingly reported this: “The initiative was unable to garner the financial support it deserved, and, in addition, one of the donors had some apparent organizational difficulties.”
“One of the donors” being, of course, Singer. Who, with his secret $175,000, was the only major donor to speak of.
Singer is reported to be one of the most important “vulture fund” operators in the world. These so-called vulture funds are defined by the International Monetary Fund and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown as funds which buy up heavily discounted debt of poor nations and then sue to receive closer to the debt’s original value, plus interest, undermining the point of debt relief. The BBC attempted to interview Singer, described as “a reclusive billionaire” and the man who “virtually invented vulture funds,” in February of this year. But he didn’t want to talk to them.
In the ’90s, his company paid $11 million for deeply discounted Peruvian debt and then demanded, and got, $58 million. According to the BBC, Singer’s company is now suing Congo Brazzaville for $400 million for a debt it bought for $10 million.
With regard to the vulture fund phenomenon, in 2002, while Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer (finance minister), now Prime Minister Gordon Brown said:”We particularly condemn the perversity where vulture funds purchase debt at a reduced price and make a profit from suing the debtor country to recover the full amount owed — a morally outrageous outcome.”
“Nothing about this passed the smell test,” a Republican strategist says of the collapsed Electoral College scheme.
Singer has very close ties to Rudy Giuliani.
He is Northeastern finance chairman for the Giuliani campaign and a friend and policy advisor to the candidate. Giuliani frequently uses a jet owned by Singer’s company.
Singer is also a trustee of the Manhattan Institute, a conservative policy foundation that has been a source of many Giuliani policy proposals.
The Giuliani campaign denies any knowledge of Singer’s previously secret backing of the collapsed California initiative campaign.
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This is disgusting.
Amazing stuff. What makes guys think you can get away with it like this?
Sounds like he fits right into Rudy’s plans. Maybe he’ll get a cell phone call during one of Guiliani’s speeches.
Hey! Has anybody asked Rudy what he thinks of Singer’s activities – vulture funds – or secretiveness? I mean we know all about Norman Hsu!
Sounds like he fits right into Rudy’s plans. Maybe he’ll get a cell phone call during one of Guiliani’s speeches.
Hey! Has anybody asked Rudy what he thinks of Singer’s activities – vulture funds – or secretiveness? I mean we know all about Norman Hsu!
I’d imagine extreme arrogance accounts for it.
Giuliani was asked about the initiative yesterday afternoon, before the first revelation about Singer. He said he didn’t know anything about it.
>richard locicero :
Sounds like he fits right into Rudy’s plans. Maybe he’ll get a cell phone call during one of Guiliani’s speeches.
Hey! Has anybody asked Rudy what he thinks of Singer’s activities – vulture funds – or secretiveness? I mean we know all about Norman Hsu!
Sep 29, 2007 09:50 AM
No video?
Not today.
I am never sure if the Flash Report crowd are stupid or dishonest.
Jonny Flashman says the campaign is so happening. lol
There’s a certain lack of reality there.
These folks don’t even get how the California recall happened, much less how to do something like this.
That’s so nice. lol
“Vulture funds” are legal, unlike Norman Hsu’s Ponzi schemes.
The initiative is a partisan power play, and was seen as such (and when Democrats in other states tried the same thing, it was seen as a partisan power play there, and failed too). Putting money into trying to get it on the ballot is silly – the people who will vote for it are about the same percentage as who would vote for the candidate who lost the state the last time around, which by definition is not a majority.
“Vulture funds” are legal, unlike Norman Hsu’s Ponzi schemes.
The initiative is a partisan power play, and was seen as such (and when Democrats in other states tried the same thing, it was seen as a partisan power play there, and failed too). Putting money into trying to get it on the ballot is silly – the people who will vote for it are about the same percentage as who would vote for the candidate who lost the state the last time around, which by definition is not a majority.
Oh, and Gordon Brown can find something better to be morally outraged about. Third World debt relief has beeen in practice a giveaway to irresponsible lenders and governments who lent money to countries run by sticky-fingered dictators, at the expense of everyday taxpayers who either forked over the money to their government in the first place or are being called on to fork over the money to bail out the lender.
The real crimes in politics are what’s legal.
I mean the vulture funds. Norman Hsu is some wannabe, this dude is Rudy’s top money man.
How poetic. Guiliani looks like a vulture. Just add that fur collar and some pearls and he’s a dead ringer for a condor. It’s nice to know who your friends are. This proportional voting thing is hilarious. Come on. Ya think in 2007 we have the technology to count ALL the votes?
This seems not like Presidential leadership. If one is to sneak one should be not so easily caught out.
Electoral College Scheme: Good Reason For The Secrecy
More on the (hopefully) failed California electoral college initiative. Paul Singer, the reclusive billionaire who admitted to making the donation that funded the drive, is according to the BBC, the one who “virtually invented vulture funds.” So…
Election Fraud is a crime in California.
If the ties to Giuliani’s campaign are proven accurate, it could very well spell the end of his bid for the presidency, let alone a lengthy and costly legal battle over the method of ‘affecting’ the outcome of an election he is running in.
The ties are there, obviously, as I’ve reported. But ties alone to do not prove fraud.
Remember the “independent expenditure” campaign by Angelo Tsakopoulos for Phil Angelides’ California gubernatorial campaign last year.
He, too, was an official of the campaign. His company’s plane, too, was used to fly the candidate.
There is another angle of legal peril in this case, however, which I’ll get into later.
Condors? Vultures?
>Mike :
How poetic. Guiliani looks like a vulture. Just add that fur collar and some pearls and he’s a dead ringer for a condor. It’s nice to know who your friends are. This proportional voting thing is hilarious. Come on. Ya think in 2007 we have the technology to count ALL the votes?
Sep 29, 2007 11:24 PM
Condors? Vultures?
>Mike :
How poetic. Guiliani looks like a vulture. Just add that fur collar and some pearls and he’s a dead ringer for a condor. It’s nice to know who your friends are. This proportional voting thing is hilarious. Come on. Ya think in 2007 we have the technology to count ALL the votes?
Sep 29, 2007 11:24 PM