FEINSTEIN'S HUSBAND, RICHARD BLUM
HAS LONG HANDED OUT BRIBES TO
HALF THE SENATE SO THEY KEEP THEIR
MOUTHS SHUT ABOUT THE STAGGERING
CORRUPTION OF BLUM-FEINSTEIN-
BOXER.
HAS LONG HANDED OUT BRIBES TO
HALF THE SENATE SO THEY KEEP THEIR
MOUTHS SHUT ABOUT THE STAGGERING
CORRUPTION OF BLUM-FEINSTEIN-
BOXER.
Feinstein, like Pelosi, Reid, etc. has been
using her position in Congress to build a
personal fortune. Corrupt as can be.
Sen. Feinstein’s Husband’s Company to Bag $1 Billion for Government Deal
Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s husband, Richard Blum, could bag $1 billion in commissions for his company from a government plan to sell 56 US Postal Service buildings.
As the New York Post notes, “Blum’s company, CBRE, was selected in March 2011 as the sole real estate agent on sales expected to fetch $19 billion. Most voters didn’t notice that Blum is a member of CBRE’s board and served as chairman from 2001 to 2014.”
Feinstein’s office denies that she had anything to do with the USPS decision.
This is not the first time Feinstein and her
husband have come under fire for engaging
in crony capitalism.
In 2013, a construction group partially owned by Blum’s investment firm scored a construction contract for California’s high-speed rail project valued at $985,142,530.
Dianne Feinstein Still Dogged by Allegations of Conflicts of Interest
The victor in yesterday’s California primary in the U.S. Senate, incumbent DemocratDianne Feinstein, has long faced questions about potential conflicts of interest in Congress, according to Breitbart News sources. Specifically, for at least 15 years, Feinstein has appeared to support government contracts that push federal funds toward companies co-owned or governed by her powerful, billionaire husband, Richard C. Blum.
Breitbart News found
evidence of possibly inappropriate influence from the period when Feinstein
served on the Military Construction Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Subcommittee
(MILCON), which supervises military construction and oversees
quality of life concerns for veterans, including the building of clinics and
hospitals for wounded soldiers and housing for military families.
APPROPRIATING FUNDS THROUGH THE
U.S. SENATE MILITARY-CONSTRUCTION SUBCOMMITTEE
Financial
disclosure reports from 2001-2005 indicate that MILCON–under Feinstein’s
leadership–cleared appropriations that were eventually funneled as $1.551 billion worth of military construction contracts to URS Corporation, a San Francisco-based engineering services
firm, and Perini (now Tutor Perini), both partially owned by her husband’s
investment firms (and their investors) at the time (URS reportedly earned $791 million, and Perini earned $759 million).
Public
records reportedly show that Blum paid only $4 a share for the
Perini stock, but was able to sell three million shares in 2005 for $23.75
each. (Federal lawmakers are required to file financial disclosure statements
under the Ethics in Government Act of 1978. The forms are published each
year to disclose any potential conflicts of interest with their or their
spouses’ business decisions.)
The couple earned somewhere between $500,000 and $5M from
capital gains on URS and Perini stock, and another $1.3M-$4M from CB Richard Ellis, a global real estate service company. In
total, the couple’s worth rose $10 million to an estimated $40 million.
According to the San
Francisco Chronicle, Blum has served on the corporate boards for both URS and CB Richard Ellis.
Brian
Weiss, a press spokesman for Feinstein at the U.S. Senate, told Breitbart News
that no conflict of interest existed. In a detailed e-mail response to
questions, Weiss wrote the following:
Senator
Feinstein sought the advice of the Senate Ethics Committee about whether any
conflict existed. The committee indicated that Senator Feinstein could
consider, debate and vote on appropriations bills in the subcommittee, the
committee and full Senate. The Department of Defense awards contracts–not
Congress. Senator Feinstein (and her staff) had no involvement in which
entities were awarded military construction contracts.
According
to Peter Byrne, a veteran, left-wing, anti-war journalist who has
spent several years investigating Feinstein on location in California, that’s
not true.
“From
2002 to 2005, URS and Perini went from having very little in military
construction contracts to having billions of dollars in such contracts,” he told
Breitbart News in an series of exclusive interviews. “After December 2005,
Feinstein no longer had a discernible financial interest in the contracts
that were vetted by MILCON because her husband abruptly divested of
his family’s URS and Perini stock–taking a substantial profit worth many
millions of dollars that was directly caused by the military construction
bonanza.”
In
a March 21, 2007 Metroactive story penned by Byrne, he wrote: “As MILCON
leader, Feinstein relished the details of military construction, even
micromanaging one project at the level of its sewer design. She regularly took
junkets to military bases around the world to inspect the construction
projects, some of which were contracted to her husband’s inquiries, Perini Corp
and URS Corp.”
And
that’s not the only allegation involving MILCON.
According
to a 2004 San Francisco Chronicle report,
“Feinstein has also received scrutiny for husband Richard Blum’s extensive
business dealings with China and her past trade issues with the country.”
The
story was that after URS bought a substantial stake in EG&G, a leading provider of technical services and
management to the military, from the Carlyle Group in 2002, EG&G subsequently received a $600 million defense contract.
Byrne
also reported in his March 2007 expose that according to SEC filings listed in
December 2006 report, Blum’s entities owned a total of $1 billion in stock in three companies that all “won considerable favor from the
budgets of the Department of Defense and the Department of Veteran’s Affairs,”–Boston Scientific Corporation, Kinetic Concepts, Inc., and CB Richard Ellis.
Owen Blicksilver, Blum’s personal spokesman, dismissed any
improper connection between MILCON, Perini and Feinstein: “Positions in
Perini and URS were both fully liquidated in 2005. My assumption is they
have received government contracts in the last six years and undoubtedly
received them in the years prior to Blum Capital’s investment.”
Surprisingly,
MILCON isn’t the only shadow haunting the California senator.
ALLOCATING TARP FUNDS TO THE
FDIC – THE CB ELLIS CONNECTION
On
April 21, 2009, the Washington Times broke
an exclusive story that Feinstein proposed legislation to direct $25 billion in
taxpayer money to the Federal Depository Insurance Corporation.
The
alleged Blum connection was that the FDIC had just awarded Blum’s real estate
firm a profitable contract to resell foreclosed properties at compensation
rates higher than the industry norms.
According
to the Washington Times,
“Mrs. Feinstein’s intervention on behalf of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
was unusual: the California Democrat isn’t a member of the Senate Committee on
Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs with jurisdiction over FDIC; and the agency
is supposed to operate from money it raises from bank-paid insurance
payments–not direct federal dollars.”
Documents
obtained by the newspaper exposed that Feinstein had sent a letter to the FDIC on October 30, 2008 offering to
help it secure funds to help them stave off ensuing foreclosures.
That
letter was sent only a few days before CB Richard Ellis Group (the commercial
real estate firm that Blum serves as board chairman) had won a contract to sell
foreclosed properties that FDIC was taking on from failed banks.
According
to Weiss, “this is an allegation that has totally been discredited.”
Feinstein’s
explanation was that the senator simply introduced legislation to allocate $25
billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in 2009 because
California had the third highest number of foreclosures in the nation.
“Senator
Feinstein learned of FDIC Chair Sheila Bair’s proposal for foreclosure relief
from news reports, expressed her support in a letter, and introduced legislation
to implement it,” Weiss wrote to Breitbart News. “She was unaware of
CBRE’s bid for an FDIC contract so it clearly played no role in her decision to
introduce legislation. The Inspector General at the FDIC reviewed this and
concluded there was ‘no improper influence’ in the awarding of the
contract.”
LaJuan Williams-Young, a spokeswoman for the FDIC, declined to
explain why CBRE was chosen and instead simply defended the agency: “There are
four other contractors that perform similar work for the Corporation.”
According
to Tom Fitton, President of Judicial Watch, a non-profit organization dedicated to
monitoring Washington ethics, Feinstein’s explanation isn’t adequate. He says
that neither the FDIC nor MILCON connections pass muster under the U.S. Senate Ethics Rules or the U.S. Criminal Code.
“In
these cases, she was voting on bills that ultimately benefited her husband’s
companies . . . she knew, everyone knew what would come out of those bills, and
at the least she should have known where that money could have gone, and that
simply doesn’t stand scrutiny.”
When
asked about Feinstein and her husband benefitting from all of these contracts
as well as the FDIC legislation, Weiss simply responded, “All items referred to
above are Richard Blum’s separate property relating to his business . . .
Senator Feinstein is not involved with and does not discuss any of her
husband’s business decisions.”
Blicksilver
mirrored Weiss’ response, saying that, “Blum Capital Partners has a strict confidentiality policy
which Mr. Blum and other members of the firm adhere to. As such, he does
not discuss the Firm’s investments with the Senator.”
A MYSTERIOUS GRANT FROM THE
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Feinstein’s
most recent controversy emerges from Breitbart News editor Peter Schweizer’s book Throw Them All Out,
which reveals that on November 18, 2009 she and her husband invested $1 million
into Amyris Biotechnologies, a “green” company focused on
plant-based renewable fuels and chemicals.
Just
weeks after her investment in Amyris, the company received a $24 million grant from
the Department of Energy (DOE) to build a pilot plant where
altered yeast would turn sugar into hydrocarbons. Shortly thereafter, Amyris went public with an IPO that collected $85 million. It
is unknown at this time how much Feinstein’s investment benefited from the
grant.
Weiss’
response?
“The
purchase of the stock in Amyris by Richard Blum was disclosed on Senator Feinstein’s financial disclosure in May of 2010.
In addition, the value of the stock in Amyris is also disclosed on Senator
Feinstein’s financial disclosure forms as an asset that is owned solely by her
spouse. Senator Feinstein never discussed the purchase of this stock with
her husband. Senator Feinstein is not involved with and does not discuss
any of her husband’s business decisions.”
Feinstein
revealed the Amyris connection in her May 2010 public disclosure reports, but Schweizer says that’s
not what’s most important.
“This is the standard politician’s response,”
Schweizer told Breitbart News. They say, ‘I disclosed it, so that makes it
okay, or ‘I don’t talk to my spouse about their financial decisions so I’m in
the clear.’ There’s a reason members of Congress are required to disclose
their spouse’s financial transactions. Let’s face it–politicians have
been known to be less than straightforward with the truth.”
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