Posted on 10/23/2002 6:05:57 AM PDT by Libloather
Citi's Weill Denies He May Face Charge
Wed Oct 23, 3:01 AM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) chief Sanford Weill on Wednesday denied a newspaper report saying that state prosecutors informed Citigroup that the interests of Weill and Citigroup have diverged and that Weill could face separate legal action.
Citing sources familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that the New York attorney general's office will question Weill, Citigroup's chairman and chief executive, after gathering new evidence in its investigation of the company's research practices.
The Journal said in its online edition that the move signals that the attorney general's office could be considering legal action against Mr. Weill personally, in addition to Citigroup, according to people familiar with the matter.
Martin Lipton, whose firm had previously been retained to advise Weill, gave this response in a statement: "The notion that there could be any charge against Sandy Weill is inconceivable. There is no divergence between the interests of Sandy and Citigroup," Lipton said in a statement.
In the statement, Weill said that as part of an ongoing cooperation with various regulatory inquiries, he had expected that New York State Attorney General and other regulators would want to hear from him personally and that he volunteered to testify.
A Citigroup spokesman was not immediately available for comment.
New York attorney General Eliot Spitzer has been leading broad investigation into conflicts of interest between Wall Street research and investment banking at a number of U.S. financial heavyweights.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - From Big Labor to Big Tobacco, the largest 100 donors in U.S. politics have given over $1 billion to political parties and federal candidates since 1989, a nonpartisan research group said on Tuesday.
Six of the 10 biggest donors in U.S. politics are labor unions, and they give overwhelmingly to Democrats, said the new report by the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks money in politics.
But 68 of the top 100 U.S. donors are corporations or professional associations, and Republicans collected 59 percent of their money, said Larry Makinson, the author of the report.
The donors' generosity may or may not buy them wished-for changes in public policy, but it doubtless buys access in Washington, Makinson told a news conference.
"These are the people who can get into see any member of Congress, basically any time they want," he said, pointing to the donors' list.
"Every single member of Congress got something from one of these groups."
Although he ran only one federal campaign during the period surveyed, President Bush ranked second on the top recipient list, garnering $3.2 million.
Top recipient was the House Democratic leader, Rep. Richard Gephardt of Missouri, who received $3.8 million since 1989, and is serving in his seventh term since that time.
The biggest single donor was the public service and health care union known as the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees. It has made nearly $30.7 million in contributions since the center began systematically tracking contributions, the report said.
Five other labor unions, and three professional associations representing real estate agents, trial lawyers, and doctors, took nine of the top 10 slots on the donors list.
Only one corporation, tobacco giant Philip Morris, made the top 10, with contributions of $18.6 million. Three-fourths of that money went to Republicans.
LIST IS TOP-HEAVY WITH LABOR
Twenty-seven labor unions in the top 100 donors gave a total of $345,730,591, 94 percent of which went to Democrats, the report said.
Nonetheless the proportion of dollars going to Democrats has fallen over time, from 71 percent in 1989-90 to 57 percent so far in the current two-year congressional election cycle.
The biggest shift toward the Republicans followed that party's takeover of Congress in 1994, Makinson said. Donors favor incumbents, and business donors in particular are pragmatic and "cover their bets," he said.
The predominance of labor unions among the biggest donors is somewhat misleading since there are many more businesses among the smaller donors below the top 100, Makinson said.
"You're going to see almost all of the labor money on this list of 100, and only a very small slice of the business money," he said.
The other unions in the top 10 were the National Education Association, a teachers' union; the Teamsters Union; the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers; the Service Employees International Union, and the Communications Workers of America.
By industry, the U.S. financial sector had the deepest pockets among the top 100 donors, with banks, insurance companies and accountants making $226,749,297 in contributions, the majority to Republicans, the report said.
BUYING STALEMATE
Sometimes donations on both sides of an issue appear to buy a stalemate in Washington, "with more and more money coming in," said Larry Noble, executive director of the Center.
He cited the Tauzin-Dingell bill, which failed to pass Congress but for months pitted local telephone giants against long-distance companies like WorldCom in a high-stakes advertising and lobbying war.
Since 1989 three of the local telephone companies donated more than $10 million each while bankrupt WorldCom donated $7.4 million and AT&T donated $17.5 million to political parties and candidates.
The fastest-rising donor was Microsoft, which gave virtually nothing prior to 1998. After the Justice Department launched an antitrust investigation into the company, it "became one of the most generous political givers in the country," donating $9.5 million so far, the report said.
The bankrupt energy-trader Enron Corp . ranked 77th on the list of 100 donors, and auditor Andersen, which has been fined for obstructing justice in a probe of Enron, ranked 82nd. But if a company gets into too much trouble, Makinson noted, "your money is going to be returned to you."
The National Rifle Association, one of five "ideological" or single-issue groups on the list of 100 donors, gave $13.4 million, 82 percent of which went to Republicans
One perp at a time. (Great title for a country song...)
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