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Fed's Geithner Evaded
Taxes at IMF, Used Statute of Limitations Later, Mishanded Citigroup
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
January 14 -- While working for the
UN-affiliated International Monetary Fund earlier this decade, Treasury
Secretary-nominee Timothy Geithner did not pay required taxes to the
Treasury
Department's Internal Revenue Service. This would seem to be
problematize, to
be diplomatic, Geithner's ability to gain confirmation by the U.S.
Senate to
oversee the IRS.
This would seem to
be problematize, to be
diplomatic, Geithner's ability to gain confirmation by the U.S. Senate
to
oversee the IRS. But Democratic Senators and Barack Obama himself are
calling
Geithner's an "innocent mistake" which should not impinge on
confirmation. Some ask how a financial whiz, head of the Federal
Reserve Bank
of New York, would claim ignorance of basic tax law as a defense.
Worse,
Geithner initially
hid behind the statute of limitations to refuse to pay $25,000 in taxes
for 2001
and 2002: "A three-year statute of limitations had precluded the [IRS]
from
auditing the 2001 and 2002 tax returns." But his supporters argue that
Geithner's expertise is needed to confront the global financial crisis.
But what of
Geithner's role, as the President of the New York Fed, in
mis-regulating Citigroup,
an institution which has already swallowed $45 billion in Troubled
Assets
Relief Program funds, and billions more in guarantees for toxic loans
still on
its books? Said otherwise, how can those who oversaw -- or turned a
blind eye
to -- the origins of the financial meltdown be presented as the only
ones who
can now save the day?
Barack Obama introduces Timothy Geithner,
unpaid taxes and Citi-snafus not shown
Also
on
Citigroup, sources say that the Feds are pushing Richard Parsons to
take over
as the embattled company's chairman. He ran Dime Savings Bank, part of
the
now-collapsed Washington Mutual franchise. At Citigroup's annual
meetings, at
Inner City Press asked questions about predatory lending from the floor
of
Carnegie Hall, Parsons never spoke up.
What did he think of the questions, of Citigroup's
venture into
predatory lending with Commercial Credit, Associates First Capital and
CitiFinancial? The questions should be answered.
Leaving the
Federal Reserve Board is Randy Kroszner, who had served the Fed's point
Governor on community and consumer issues. A new Fed advisor on these
issues
was recently withheld from the press without explanation by the Fed's
public
relations office. Fed chairman Ben Bernanke hides behind the Federal
Open
Markets Committee news blackout requirements in order to skip speaking
to
non-financial audiences, but disagrees with and ignored the requirement
of
public notice and comment while granting bank holding company status to
Morgan
Stanley, CIT, Goldman Sachs and GMAC.
A cavalier
approach to the law, by both
Bernanke and Geithner -- is this what would help to solve the financial
crisis?
Click here for Inner City Press'
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Click here for Inner
City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
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City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
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Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
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UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
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