Why does General Motors take it up the tailpipe? You could probably come up with at least handful of reasons, but at a breakfast hosted by Fortune this morning, Steve Rattner wanted to highlight one in particular. Over bagels and lox, the retired Car Czar, who last month was finally able to get it off his chest that automaker’s PowerPoint presentations were for shit, said that the higher-ups took no responsibility for their action and spent most of their time smack talking the “competition.”
On Rattner’s conversation with former GM CEO Rick Wagoner when he told him he was fired: “The most curious part of it was that after three to four minutes of chit chat he asked ‘Well are you going to fire Ron Gettelfinger too?’…And I said, ‘Look I’m not in charge of firing Ron Gettelfinger’… One of the problems with GM is that they blame everyone but themselves for their problems…But the fact is, Ford is doing OK and there is no reason why GM had to be in this position.”
Also, don’t talk to him about socialism.
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Steven Rattner, head of the U.S. Treasury Department’s automotive team, has a net worth of at least $188 million and held shares in an investment fund run by the majority owner of Chrysler LLC, according to his financial- disclosure statement.
Rattner, co-founder of Quadrangle Group LLC, also bet as much as $150,000 on General Motors Corp.’s senior secured loans using a credit-default swaps index that guarantees the secured debt of 100 companies, including GM, the filing shows.
Rattner Worth at Least $188 Million, Disclosures Show [Bloomberg]
So, it would be one thing if Steven Rattner’s firm was the only one accused of being tied up in a “pay to play” scandal for access to New York’s pension funds. It isn’t. Neither is Riverstone Holdings the only other fund stuck in the “fund my shitty movie distribution and I’ll send few hundred million your way” morass.
The New York Attorney General on Thursday charged Aldus Equity Partners managing partner Saul Meyer with violating the Martin Act. He surrendered to authorities and bail was set at $200,000.
Also on Thursday, the Securities and Exchange Commission asked a federal judge to add Aldus and Mr. Meyer as defendants in its complaint in the New York state pension fund investigation.
Paul Shechtman, Mr. Meyer’s lawyer, said: “I learned years ago that it’s far easier for a prosecutor to file a complaint than to prevail at trial. … It’s true and the evidence will show that Saul Meyer did no wrong.”
Aldus Managing Partner Charged in N.Y. Pension Probe [The Wall Street Journal]
CNBC is reporting that the President’s men have “full confidence” in the personage (and presumably the taste) of Mr. Rattner, who’s cinematic production genius has graced the world with Chooch.
A more ringing endorsement of the film we have not yet encountered.
What would a movie produced by New York’s Deputy Comptroller and his siblings look like? This trailer from the wry folks over at Cityfile should give you a hint. Think the shockingly bad Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay but with a lower budget and sung in an accent from Queens. No, we aren’t kidding. In other words, so eye wateringly bad, so indescribably abysmal that one could not possibly imagine $88,000 changing hands for its distribution rights but for the fact that this same $88,000 from an affiliate of Quadrangle was a kickback for something else.
What does this mean for Riverstone Holdings that supposedly invested $100,000 in the same film? We suppose it would imply not only that the deal was crooked, but that Riverstone’s kickback DCF valuation team scooped up their MBAs from the University of Phoenix.
We are thinking that as soon as the prosecutor wheels in the DVD Player the scratching of pens drafting plea allocutions will be loudly heard.
Rattner Involved In Inquity On Fees [The Wall Street Journal]
