Courtesy of Pam Martens.
Jack Lew Nominated by President Obama for U.S. Treasury Secretary as Tim Geithner Looks On
Today, an august body of the United States Senate will vote on President Obama’s nomination of Jack Lew to be the next Treasury Secretary, a post that oversees the paying of the country’s bills, collection of taxes, printing of the country’s currency, issuing the Nation’s debt securities and maintaining the stability of the financial system. The full Senate will likely vote in a matter of days thereafter.
And yet, the man who will be voted on by the Senate Finance Committee today will not give straight answers to the most basic of questions about $1.4 million in loans from his previous employer, New York University, and the assumption and modification of those loans by his next employer, the bailed out banking institution, Citigroup.
A mortgage loan is typically a straightforward matter that doesn’t require multiple rounds of written questions. But in Lew’s case, Senator Chuck Grassley has patiently probed the matter while Lew has steadfastly obfuscated.
Lew’s opacity on the matter led to the appearance that NYU, a nonprofit, was forgiving over a period of five years a whopping $1.3 million mortgage on Lew’s 4,584 square foot home in the upscale Riverdale section of the Bronx. Lew initially wrote to Grassley: “In short, the University provided a mortgage forgiven in equal installments over five years, and an additional shared appreciation mortgage. I do not recall the interest rate or other specific terms.”
In the latest round of questioning by Grassley on the matter, Lew now suggests that NYU was forgiving just $100,000 per year on the loan. Lew writes: “…NYU provided $200,000 in principal forgiveness (corresponding to my first two years of employment)…” Lew also says he “repaid the University” but fails to cite what amount he repaid.
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