Senator Dianne Feinstein's hubby gets a $25 Billion sweetheart deal?

Senator Dianne Feinstein's hubby gets a $25 Billion sweetheart deal?

Senator's husband's firm cashes in on crisis


can he be charged with insider trading ?

On the day the new Congress convened this year, Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation
to route $25 billion in taxpayer money to a government agency that had just awarded her husband's real estate firm a lucrative contract to sell foreclosed properties
at compensation rates higher than the industry norms.

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 reviewed by The Washington Times show Mrs. Feinstein
first offered Oct. 30 to help the FDIC secure money for its effort to stem the rise of home foreclosures. Her letter was sent just days before the agency determined that CB Richard Ellis Group (CBRE) - the commercial real estate firm that her husband Richard Blum heads as board chairman - had won the competitive bidding for a contract to sell foreclosed properties
that FDIC had inherited from failed banks.

Read the rate list for the FDIC contract from CB Richard Ellis,
the firm Sen. Feinstein's husband heads as board chairman. (downloads 4-page pdf)

Read the correspondence between Sen. Feinstein and FDIC chairman Sheila Bair

About the same time of the contract award, Mr. Blum's private investment firm reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission that it and related affiliates had purchased more than 10 million new shares in CBRE. The shares were purchased for the going price of $3.77; CBRE's stock closed Monday at $5.14.

Spokesmen for the FDIC, Mrs. Feinstein and Mr. Blum's firm told The Times that there was no connection between the legislation and the contract signed Nov. 13, and that the couple didn't even know about CBRE's business with FDIC until after it was awarded.


The FDIC contract "highlights the problem of a senator with a spouse
who has extensive business interests that intersect frequently with the federal government," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility
and Ethics in Washington (CREW). "Even if there is no actual conflict of interest, it often has the appearance of a conflict."

A 'very sweet deal'?

Real estate specialists also question the government's generosity in the CBRE contract.
The firm, known for its commercial real estate services, is to be paid monthly maintenance fees for each foreclosed property it handles, as well as commissions and incentives. The total compensation can range from 8 percent of the sales price on many residential properties to 30 percent for properties worth $25,000 or less. A smaller firm also won a slice of the work with similar terms, records show.
Most real estate agents earn no more than 6 percent on residential, even on foreclosed properties, and
CBRE doesn't have as much experience in foreclosure sales as other firms, the experts said.

"From everything I know about it, it is a very sweet deal and went to somebody
who is less than qualified in dealing with foreclosed residential properties.
Their expertise is in commercial real estate," said Cynthia Kenner, a Colorado
real estate agent who specializes in selling bank-owned residential properties
and last year helped sell more than 600 foreclosed properties.
"There are companies that are more experienced in selling such properties than CB Richard Ellis," she added.


see source at ...........
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/21/senate-husbands-firm-cashes-in-on-crisis/
by Chuck Neubauer (Contact)

this has also been reported on by Glen Beck tv show and the Bill O'Reilly Factor


Richard Blum,Chuck Neubauer ,CB Richard Ellis,Senator Dianne Feinstein