Yes, Terry McAuliffe has a sleazy as hell financial history. [View all]

[cali]

Yesterday, lots of DUers had a fit about my pointing out the TRUE story about Sleazeball Terry's investment in a shady scheme to defraud dying people.

Prefer Terry over Cuccianelli? So do I. But I'm not willing to erase his background just because of that. He's the worst kind of corporate dem. Better than Cuccianelli? Yeah, just about anyone is better.

So yes, McAuliffe fucking damn well did make that investment and he accepted big campaign bucks from Caramadre.

The facts about McAuliffe can be denied from now until the end of time and they will still be facts.

I NEVER made the phony AP claims. I simply said he was an investor in this vile scheme and I caught holy hell for that with people demanding I take down the FACTS.

Here:

<snip>

Even after the AP retraction, the scheme is one that no political hopeful would want their name associated with. Caramadre and Radhakrishnan were accused of aiming to make money by signing up terminally ill and elderly people for annuities and bonds, paid out to investors after the people’s deaths to the tune of millions of dollars, according to an indictment and news reports.

McAuliffe has tried to repair some of the damage. “The allegations are horrible and he never would have invested if he knew he was being deceived,” spokesman Josh Schwerin said in a statement. McAuliffe and his campaign donated $74,000 to the American Cancer Society, Schwerin said. That amount is intended to offset the sum of campaign contributions McAuliffe received from Caramadre plus returns the candidate made from the investment, Schwerin said.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/terry-mcauliffe-investment-virginia-governors-race-2013-98152.html#ixzz2hPKHr72d

And here:

<snip>

In 1985, McAuliffe helped found the Federal City National Bank, a small bank based in Washington, D.C.[5] In January 1988, when he was 30 years old, the bank’s board elected McAuliffe chairman, making him the youngest elected chairman of a federally chartered bank in the history of the United States.[6]

The bank loaned $125,000 to a political action committee that supported Richard Gephardt's presidential campaign. McAuliffe told The New York Times that he abstained from voting on the loan because he was also the Gephardt campaign's finance chairman.[7] The bank also provided loans to former U.S. Representative Tony Coelho and the then-Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Jim Wright.[8]

In 1991, the bank was cited by federal regulators for unsafe or unsound business practices. McAuliffe helped to negotiate a merger with Credit International Bank (then under the management of Republican Richard V. Allen), which he called his "greatest business experience".[8] McAuliffe went on to become vice chairman of the newly merged bank, leading to questions from shareholders that he was given special treatment, which Allen denied.[8][9]

In 1979, McAuliffe met Richard Swann, a lawyer who was in charge of fundraising for Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign in Florida. In 1988, McAuliffe married Swann's daughter, Dorothy.

In the late 1980s, Swann's finances collapsed, entangling McAuliffe, who then used his political contacts to help Swann.[8] In 1990, federal regulators seized Swann's American Pioneer Savings Bank, causing Swann to file for bankruptcy and McAuliffe to lose $800,000 he had invested in American Pioneer.[8] The Resolution Trust Corporation, a federal agency, took over American Pioneer's assets and liabilities and sued McAuliffe and a former unit of the bank foreclose on a real estate loan.[8] Under the guidance of Swann, McAuliffe partnered with a pension fund controlled by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the National Electrical Contractors Association to buy some American Pioneer real estate, valued at $50 million, for $38.7 million from the Resolution Trust Corporation.[8][10] Of the purchase amount, McAuliffe paid $100, while the pension fund paid $38.7 million;[8] McAuliffe still received a 50% equity stake.[10] The deal was arranged by pension fund trustee Jack Moore, who was an acquaintance of McAuliffe from the Gephardt presidential campaign.[8][10] McAuliffe used some of the proceeds from the deal to purchase Jefferson National Title Insurance, a Florida company, and sold back some of McAuliffe's shares to the pension fund.[8] The Department of Labor then filed a lawsuit against McAuliffe and Moore, accusing them of imprudent business practices in the deal and also in a $6 million loan the fund made to a real estate company controlled by McAuliffe, which McAuliffe used to clear up his father-in-law's debt but soon defaulted on the loan.[8] With the help of a fundraising contact, McAuliffe bought a troubled house-building company that had been buying some of the land formerly held by Swann's bank and became its chairman.[8] After his bankruptcy, McAuliffe paid Swann to "help with the management" of his companies.[

In 2009, McAuliffe founded GreenTech Automotive, a holding company he then used to purchase the Chinese electric car company EU Auto MyCar for $20 million in May 2010.[18][19] McAuliffe moved the company headquarters to McLean, Virginia and built its manufacturing plant in Mississippi.[20][21]

McAuliffe resigned from GreenTech sometime before December 1, 2012. McAuliffe did not announce the resignation until several months later, and continued touting the company on the campaign trail.[22] McAuliffe's gubernatorial campaign spokesman said McAuliffe had "verbally" announced his intention to resign before running for governor.[22] McAuliffe still has a significant ownership stake in GreenTech.[23]

In December 2012, McAuliffe was questioned as to why he chose to locate the factory in Mississippi as opposed to Virginia. McAuliffe claimed that he wanted to bring the factory to Virginia but the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, the state's business recruitment agency, chose not to bid on it.[24] However, in January 2013, PolitiFact declared McAuliffe's claim to be false, reporting from emails obtained from VEDP under the Freedom of Information Act that VEDP was interested in building the factory in Virginia, and its representatives toured potential sites with GreenTech representatives, but GreenTech went ahead with the Mississippi plant before VEDP could complete its due diligence.[24] McAuliffe said he disagreed with PolitiFact's report, and said other GreenTech executives made the decision, but did not offer specifics as to how the report was mistaken.[25]

In April 2013, Watchdog.org obtained more emails and in a series of reports on GreenTech and McAuliffe revealed that VEDP was wary of GreenTech's financing because it relied heavily on the EB-5 visa program which provides green cards to foreign nationals who invest money in the United States. On April 12, 2013, GreenTech filed an $85 million lawsuit against Watchdog.org, alleging libel and saying the site's reports jeopardized millions of dollars in investments.[18][26] Watchdog.org has denied that it committed libel and McAuliffe's campaign has declined to comment and referred questions to GreenTech.[18] In July 2013, President Barack Obama's nominee for Deputy Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security came under investigation by the department's inspector general for mismanaging the EB-5 program and was accused of giving special treatment to McAuliffe and GreenTech,[27] while in August 2013, it was revealed that GreenTech had been under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission since May 2013 for the EB-5 program.[28] On August 16, 2013, McAuliffe wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post and said he had learned of the SEC investigation two weeks prior, and that the document in question was prepared for potential investors, which he wrote was not something he was responsible for as chairman.[29]

In October 2013, Watchdog.org obtained emails that showed McAuliffe pressured Homeland Security officials to grant visas for GreenTech's foreign investors, and warned that the company's Mississippi plant would close immediately if the visas were not granted within days.[30][31][32]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_McAuliffe

It's dangerous to deny reality and to pretend someone is something they aren't. I'm sorry VA dems aren't running a better candidate. That he's better than the vile, crazy religiously insane wingnut he's running against is faint praise indeed.