Edolphus Towns

Congress: IG Firing Was "Legitimate" And Lawful

Zachary Roth | July 21, 2009, 3:11PM

A congressional committee looking into the White House's firing of the AmeriCorps inspector general has said that the firing was carried out for "legitimate reasons" and did not violate the Inspector General Act.

Late last week, Gerald Walpin filed a lawsuit against three officials from the Corporation for National and Community Service, accusing them of unlawfully firing him as inspector general for the agency last month.

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Topics: Edolphus Towns, Gerald Walpin, House Oversight

Ben Bernanke

Congress To Bernanke: Hand Over Docs On BofA-Merrill Deal

Zachary Roth | June 9, 2009, 6:16PM

Congress has subpoenaed the Federal Reserve, to force it to hand over documents about its role in Bank of America's takeover of Merrill Lynch during the financial crisis last fall, reports Reuters.

Staffers for the House Oversight committee, chaired by Rep. Ed Towns of New York, had been allowed to view the documents at the Fed. But Towns has now concluded that the committee needs to have the documents in its possession. The Fed has said it will comply with the subpoena.

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Topics: Bank of America, Ben Bernanke, Edolphus Towns, Federal Reserve, Financial Crisis, House Oversight, Ken Lewis, Merrill Lynch, Wall Street

AIG

Congress To DOJ And SEC: Hand Over AIG Docs Or We'll Subpoena Them

Zachary Roth | April 28, 2009, 10:21AM

Congress is upping the ante in its bid to get access to those insider reports on AIG compiled by a government monitor.

House Oversight chair Ed Towns, joined by ranking GOPer Darrell Issa, yesterday sent letters to the Justice Department and the SEC, threatening them with subpoenas if they don't hand over the information by this Thursday*.

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Topics: AIG, Bailout, Edolphus Towns, Financial Crisis, House Oversight, Justice Department, Securities and Exchange Commission, Wall Street

AIG

Congress To Ask Liddy: "What Caused The Downfall Of AIG?"

Zachary Roth | April 27, 2009, 10:22AM

AIG CEO Ed Liddy has already testified once before Congress about his firm's starring role in the financial crisis. But it looks like he'll soon be doing so again.

Last week, Rep. Ed Towns -- who chairs the House Oversight Committee, which is probing the causes of the crisis -- sent a letter to Liddy inviting him to appear May 6th. Among the topics that Towns intends to cover, according to the letter: "What caused the downfall of AIG?" and "what has AIG done with its Federal financial assistance?"

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Topics: AIG, Bailout, Ed Liddy, Edolphus Towns, Financial Crisis, House Oversight, Wall Street

AIG

Source: SEC (Unlike DOJ) Cooperating With Congress's Request For AIG Docs

Zachary Roth | April 15, 2009, 12:17PM

Earlier this morning, we reported that the Justice Department is dragging its heels on a demand from Congress to hand over information compiled by a highly placed government monitor at AIG.

But DOJ's recalcitrance is underlined by the approach of the SEC, which was also asked to turn over the monitor's information. According to a source on the House Oversight committee, the SEC has said it's complying with the request, and is expected to turn over the information shortly.

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Topics: AIG, Edolphus Towns, Financial Crisis, House Oversight, Justice Department, Securities and Exchange Commission, Wall Street

AIG

AIG Responds On PR Expenses: We'll Give Congress What It Wants, And Then Some

Zachary Roth | April 15, 2009, 9:06AM

AIG has responded to the letter from Rep. Ed Towns requesting information about the company's PR expenses, that we first reported on yesterday -- and which has now been picked up by Reuters, Bloomberg, and ABC News, among others.

Here's the statement they sent us:

In more than 30 media appearances since the beginning of the year and elsewhere, Mr. Greenberg and his lawyers have made false and misleading statements about AIG, including his role in creating AIG Financial Products and its credit default swap business, as well as the circumstances surrounding his forced departure from AIG during an accounting fraud investigation. We look forward to providing Congressman Towns with background on why it has been necessary to correct these and other misstatements, which are both misleading to the American public and damaging to AIG and its ability to repay taxpayers.

This issue is not about AIG's corporate public relations expenditures, which are down sharply since last year. It is about correcting Mr. Greenberg's false and damaging statements.

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Topics: AIG, Bailout, Edolphus Towns, Financial Crisis, House Oversight, Wall Street

AIG

Congress Probing AIG Spin Shop

Zachary Roth | April 14, 2009, 12:57PM

Congress is demanding information from AIG about reports that the bailed-out insurance giant has four PR firms on its payroll -- and about its recent PR blitz aimed at discrediting former CEO Hank Greenberg.

In a letter sent this morning to AIG chief Ed Liddy and obtained exclusively by TPMmuckraker, House Oversight committee chair Ed Towns requests detailed information on AIG's PR expenses, specifically mentioning Hill & Knowlton, and Mark Penn's Burson-Marsteller, two high-priced experts in Washington spin that have signed on to represent the firm.

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Topics: AIG, Bailout, Edolphus Towns, Financial Crisis, House Oversight, Wall Street

Bailout

Congress To Probe Geithner's "Special Purpose" Plan To Skirt Pay Caps On Bankers

Moe Tkacik | April 7, 2009, 2:53PM

Yesterday we puzzled over the mixed messages we were hearing from Obama officials over the veracity of a Washington Post report that it was using Enron-style "special purpose vehicles" to undermine executive pay restrictions on bailed out banks: senior adviser David Axelrod sheepishly defended the strategy on one Sunday talk show, while Tim Geithner denied it altogether on another. But newly-promoted House Oversight Chairman Ed Towns is getting to the bottom of it, reports the Post today, in a story that sheds some much-needed light on the conflicting stories: the strategy began with the Treasury Department's $1 trillion consumer and business lending initiative, which is in part an expansion of the Federal Reserve's Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, which is open to the American subsidiaries of foreign banks, which Treasury presumably wants to participate in the programs without having to deal with the added diplomatic headache of subjecting foreign bankers to rules designed to satisfy American voters. Unsurprisingly, not everyone in Congress is opposed to that.

A senior House aide said he agreed with the Treasury's policy and that he believed a recent vote by the House on another piece of executive compensation legislation showed that Congress did not intend the restrictions to apply to firms that did not receive direct capital injections. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment.

Oversight sees things differently, however.

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Topics: Bailout, David Axelrod, Edolphus Towns, Oversight Committee, Tim Geithner