So we’re confused about something.
Yesterday, as we reported, Sen. Carl Levin announced that the Treasury Department had agreed to release the contracts for bailout funds that it signed with 10 firms — though it remains unclear whether Levin’s office will release them publicly.
But at least some of those companies appear to have filed documents with the SEC covering their receipt of the funds. These “Letters of Agreement” are contracts signed by bailout czar Neel Kashkari and firm executives, which spell out in detail the amount of capital the firms are receiving, on what terms, and even cover issues like executive pay limits.
For instance, here’s the one for AIG (not technically a part of the TARP program) which seems similar to what Levin has obtained.
And here’s the agreement Treasury came to with American Express, signed by the firm’s CEO Kenneth Chenault.
And the database appears to contain similar Letters of Agreement for hundreds of other companies that have receive TARP funds — though it’s not clear that it contains such letters for all the firms Levin has asked for.
We called Levin’s office to ask whether there’s additional information — beyond what’s in the SEC filings — contained in the contracts Treasury has agreed to hand over, but have not yet received a response.
Late Update: And here’s what seems to be Bank of America’s “Letter of Agreement” with Treasury, signed October 26. B of A is another firm that Treasury has agreed to release its contract for, according to Levin’s announcement. It has received $15 billion in TARP funds.
And here’s the same thing for Bank of New York Mellon, which got $3 billion in TARP funds back in October, and is another firm for which Treasury has agreed to its release the contract to Levin.