“The Governor shall not have any direct or indirect interest, financial or otherwise, or engage in any business or transaction or professional activity that is in substantial conflict with the proper discharge of the Governor’s duties in the public interest.” — Governor Jon Corzine’s Executive Order No. 1
Senate Republican Budget Officer Anthony Bucco said Governor Corzine should re-read his Executive Order No. 1, which lays out the rules for conduct of a governor’s financial affairs. “It is obvious that the governor is invested in a hedge fund whose managers also own casinos,” Bucco said. “Clauses in Governor Corzine’s executive order No. 1 would seem to prohibit such an investment.”
Financial ties to casino companies are off limits for New Jersey’s governor, and Governor Corzine knows that, Bucco pointed out. In 2005, the governor said the decision to sell his holdings in a hedge fund controlled by Carl Icahn, the billionaire Wall Street financier, was “a no brainer” because Ichan owned a casino company. Hedge fund TPG-Axon is a part of an investment group, TPG (Texas Pacific Group), that owns four casinos, Bucco said.
“The Icahn standard clearly applies to the governor’s TPG investment,” Bucco said. “Corzine should shed his substantial stake in a TPG fund because TPG owns four casinos.”
The Star-Ledger reported TPG-Axon was launched in February 2005 as a $2.8 billion joint venture between TPG and Dinakar Singh, a former top trader at Goldman Sachs, the giant Wall Street investment bank where Corzine made his fortune as chief executive and chairman. Corzine will not reveal how much money he has invested but on a 2009 disclosure form, he listed TPG-Axon as producing more than half million dollars in interest and dividends.
“Hedge funds can keep manyof their activities secret under federal law, but the governor shouldn’t be allowed to use legal loopholes to avoid complying with, at a minimum, the spirit of his own executive order,” Bucco said. “The governor should divest and disclose.”
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