In 2009, President Barack Obama said he didn’t run for office to help out “fat cat bankers,” but it appears that he has no problem with fat cat bankers — or the fat cat law firms who represent them — helping him.
Monday night, Obama will attend a private fundraiser hosted by Dwight Bush, president of Urban Trust Bank, and his wife Antoinette, a partner at the international law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, and Flom. Skadden is the firm hired to handle the bankruptcy of MF Global, the large Wall Street firm headed by Jon Corzine, former governor of New Jersey and a strong ally of President Obama.
Tickets for the event are at least $17,900 per person.
The Center for Responsive Politics calls Skadden “a clearinghouse for donors to the Democratic Party.”
On it’s website, OpenSecrets.org, the Center for Responsive Politics writes, “Though the firm’s political action committee has remained dormant recently, individual donors associated with Skadden … have given hundreds of thousands [of dollars] to Democratic candidates and committees during the past 20 years.”
As previously reported by The Daily Caller, Corzine — also a former Goldman Sachs chairman — is a major bundler for Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. Overall, Corzine has raised more than $500,000 for Obama. (RELATED: Jon Corzine’s MF Global investigated for missing millions)
Corzine is also one of Obama’s point men for reaching out to Wall Street. Corzine co-hosted an Obama fundraiser at his house in April where tickets sold for $35,800 a piece. He was also present at a White House meeting between Obama and two dozen Wall Street execs and longtime donors.
In a 2009 interview, Obama said, “I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street.”
“They’re still puzzled [over] why is it that people are mad at the banks,” Obama said. “Well, let’s see: You guys are drawing down $10, $20 million bonuses after America went through the worst economic year that it’s gone through in decades and you guys caused the problem. And we’ve got 10 percent unemployment.”
Corzine is expected to receive a $12.1 million severance package — what critics of Wall Street excess, like Obama, often call “golden parachutes.”
MF Global is currently under investigation by both the FBI and the Securities Exchange Commission for losing $600 million in customer money.