“A lot of people in this room have seen directly the damage that’s been done as a consequence of this recession,” said President Obama, speaking at a $38,500-per-plate fundraiser held at the home of Ralph Schlosstein, CEO of Evercore Partners, the hedge fund that advised General Motors during its bankruptcy and subsequent bailout, engineered by Obama to stabilize the company.
Yes, but a lot of people in that room managed to make quite a profit on the consequences of the Obama administration’s response to the recession. According to the New York Post, GM reportedly paid Evercore $46 million for its efforts.
UPDATE: Interesting how Evercore’s role is described in this CNN article from 2010:
Lest you think that a firm with just $314 million in revenue is a bit player, look at Evercore’s megadeals. In 2009, Evercore worked on the year’s largest merger, counseling Wyeth on its $65 billion sale to Pfizer; the biggest restructuring, guiding the $80 billion rescue of General Motors; and the highest value leveraged buyout, representing private equity shop TPG in its $5.2 billion acquisition of IMS Health.
Taxpayer money goes to GM, with the federal government set to lose about $14 billion in the process; GM hires Evercore for $46 million or so, and Evercore’s CEO hosts a top-level fundraiser for Obama, raising about $2.1 million for Obama and the DNC.
Everybody wins! Except you, that is.