Reply #2: "Who's controlling the money"? At GM and Chrysler: Madoff's partner, Ezra Merkin, and Bank Leumi

[leveymg]

From an earlier posting: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/leveymg/400

Among the Madoff feeder-funds, closest attention has focused on Ascot Partners. But, J. Ezra Merkin also operates a hedge firm, Gabriel Capital, which partnered with Cerberus in the takeover of the distressed U.S. auto industry and made a big move into the defense sector during the Bush years. The partnership left companies in both sectors worse off for their attentions, but made these hedge funds owners hundreds of millions richer. Money lost in operating failing companies have been made up by lucrative government contracts and bailouts, a not entirely unexpected bonus. The new TARP loans now being sought are in addition to the $13.4 billion the US Treasury lent earlier to Merkin's GM, and Fineberg's Chrysler. In 2006, GM sold 51 percent of Merkin's GMAC to Feinberg's private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP (which also owns Chrysler). In May 2004, Feinberg's private equity group, Cerberus Capital Management, LP (Cerebrus is the three-headed dog that guards Hades), became majority owner of IAP Worldwide Services, Inc, one of the US Army’s largest contractors in Iraq. IAP was at the center of the Walter Reed Army medical center privatization scandal. For the sordid details of this fetid corner of pirate capitalism, see, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/3/10/21...