John Sununu has denied the charge that he has a conflict of interest in regard to his work on the Congressional Oversight Panel for the TARP funds.
Over the weekend, we reported that the former New Hampshire GOP senator has joined the board of a firm that’s an affiliate of Bank of New York Mellon — which, in addition to receiving bailout funds itself, has contracted with the Treasury Department to help administer the program.
Yesterday, the Associated Press picked up the story, and got a response out of Sununu.
“ConvergEx Group is an independent company,” Sununu said in an e-mail Monday. “It is not eligible to apply for or receive funds through any programs established under TARP.” He pointed out that the bank “holds a minority position only” with ConvergEx.
That’s a 33.8 percent stake to be exact, the AP reports. Not enough for Bank of New York to control ConvergeEx, but perhaps enough so that ConvergeEx’s interests are at least somewhat affected by the TARP program.
Separately, a spokeswoman for the COP told TPMmuckraker that the panel has not yet formally addressed the issue, since it not met since Sununu’s appointment to ConvergeEx’s board was announced last week. We’ll keep you posted if and when it does.