by Lily
DF’s Ethically Challenged Business Ventures
Dianne Feinstein has profited for 26 years from ethically challenged deals that have netted her and her crony husband tens of millions of dollars, enriching themselves at the expense of the US taxpayers.
According to investopedia, she and her husband are worth somewhere around $94 million dollars. Her salary is under $200,000 a year.
Who Are America’s Seven Richest Senators? | Investopedia
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D)
California’s Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s estimated $94 million net worth makes her the second-wealthiest serving senator. Blum Capital, a private equity firm founded in 1975 by her husband. Richard Blum, is the source for most of that wealth. Feinstein’s financial disclosure statement for 2014 revealed that she had anywhere from $5 million to $25 million invested in a blind trust. She also had between $3.1 million to $7.3 million in various money market accounts.
Read more:
www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/041516/who-are-americas-7ri...
There’s more to this story than investment, however,
With special thanks to the folks at Roots Action for links to sources as well as this article:
Unacceptable! Senator Profits from War and Post Office
Shortly after San Francisco’s then-Mayor Dianne Feinstein married private equity financier Richard C. Blum in 1980, those who knew them called theirs “a marriage of the public and private sectors.”
Although Feinstein lost a gubernatorial bid to Republican Pete Wilson, she soon took his seat in the U.S. Senate. Working across the aisle, her power rapidly grew along with her husband’s diversified investments and their mutual wealth.1
act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=7309
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Check is in the mail: Sen. Feinstein’s husband to cash in selling old post offices
Washington Guardian –
The real estate giant chaired by Richard Blum, the husband of California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, is cashing in on a new federal crisis.
Just a few years after the firm now known as CBRE Group collected more than $108 million from a contract to help the FDIC sell foreclosed properties, the company owned in part by Blum is selling off old post offices under an exclusive contract with the financially struggling U.S. Postal Service, records show.
Officials for the Postal Service, Feinstein’s office and Blum’s company say the contract signed in 2011 with CBRE involved no political influence and was awarded to CBRE after a competitive process that involved six other firms.
www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jun/12/firm-chaired-by-sen-feinst...
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GOVERNMENT SAYS COMPANY PART-OWNED BY FEINSTEIN’S HUSBAND ABUSES POST OFFICE CONTRACT
David Dayen
May 5 2015, 12:32 p.m.
(This post is from our new blog: Unofficial Sources.)
CBRE, a giant real estate company partially owned by Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s husband, Richard Blum, is costing the U.S. Postal Service millions of dollars a year in lease overpayments, and its exclusive contract should be immediately canceled, the service’s inspector general has found.
Eyebrows rose when the USPS made the contract with CBRE in June 2011 for all real estate transactions. Blum chaired CBRE at the time; he stepped down last year, but remains a director and a major shareholder. Feinstein, D-Calif., has always denied involvement in the deal, which proved lucrative as the cash-strapped Postal Service looked to its excess real estate to finance operations.
The contract enables CBRE to market and sell properties, and conduct negotiations for leases of postal buildings. Prior to the contract, USPS negotiated leases directly with landlords. Now, CBRE often represents both the Postal Service and the landlord in negotiations, known as “dual agency transactions.”
theintercept.com/2015/05/05/watchdog-slams-company-part-owned-feins...
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War brings business to Feinstein spouse / Blum’s firms win multimillion-dollar defense contracts in
SF Gate
When it comes to scoring mega-military-related contracts, Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s multimillionaire husband, Richard Blum, is right in the thick of things.
First up: a contract announced last week between the Army and URS Corp., the San Francisco planning and engineering company that specializes in defense work — and that happens to be partly owned by Blum’s investment firm.
The contract — which could grow to $600 million — is to help with troop mobilization, weapons systems training and anti-terrorism methods.
That’s on top of a $3.1 billion Army contract that URS snared back in February for weapons systems and homeland defense.
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But it’s Blum’s ties to URS — in which he controls about a quarter of the stock — that are certain to raise the most questions.
In July, URS acquired defense contractor EG&G (the technical services branch that won the $600 million contract) from the Carlyle Group investment firm. That’s the outfit that boasts ex-President George H.W. Bush, former Secretary of State James Baker and ex-British Prime Minister John Major as advisers.
www.sfgate.com/bayarea/matier-ross/article/War-brings-business-to-F...
