Representative Issa's Letter to William Dudley Requesting AIG Bailout Disclosure
Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts Nov 02, 2009 - 06:12 PM GMTBy: Janet_Tavakoli
Mr. William C. Dudley
President
Federal Reserve Bank of New York
33 Liberty Street
New York, NY 10045
Dear Mr. Dudley:
As Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, I
am deeply concerned by news reports that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
(“FRBNY”) may have unnecessarily cost the American taxpayers billions of dollars.1
As you know, in late 2008 American International Group (“AIG”) was attempting
to negotiate a haircut for banks that held $62 billion in credit default swaps (“CDS”) from
AIG. AIG was reportedly seeking to persuade the banks to accept haircuts of as much as
40 cents on the dollar in order to retire these CDS contracts.2
On September 16, 2008, the FRBNY extended AIG an $85 billion line of credit,
effectively nationalizing it. According to news reports, late in the week of November 3,
then-FRBNY President Timothy Geithner, along with the U.S. Department of the
Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, took over negotiations with
AIG’s counterparties.3
News reports indicate that Mr. Geithner’s team circulated a draft term sheet to set
the terms under which AIG would settle its CDS obligations, including a blank space in
which the haircut for creditors was to have been inserted. However, the haircut provision
was reportedly crossed out and, after less than a week of secret negotiations between the
FRBNY and the banks, FRBNY ordered AIG to pay its creditors at par – 100 cents on the
dollar – not 60 cents as AIG had been attempting to negotiate.4
Thus, behind closed doors and with no approval from Congress, the FRBNY may
have added an additional $13 billion of debt on the backs of taxpayers.5 These
allegations, if true, amount to nothing less than a backdoor bailout of AIG’s creditors,
including Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Société Générale and Deutsche Bank.6
1 See Richard Teitelbaum and Hugh Son, “New York Fed’s Secret Choice to Pay for Swaps Hits
Taxpayers,” Bloomberg.com (October 27, 2009), available at
http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a7T5HaOgYHpE.
2 Id.
3 Id.
4 Id.
5 Id. Bloomberg.com reports that the excess payment was “at least $13 billion…40% of the $32.5 billion
AIG paid to retire the swaps.”
6 Id.
The lack of transparency and accountability in this transaction is disturbing
enough. However, there is evidence that this $13 billion expenditure was entirely
unnecessary. According to Janet Tavakoli of Tavakoli Structured Finance, “There’s no
way they should have paid at par. AIG was basically bankrupt.”7
Another expert has said that the typical outcome in cases like this involves
counterparties being forced to accept haircuts of anywhere from 30 to 50 cents on the
dollar. 8 This suggests that the FRBNY may have paid AIG’s counterparties at par to
surreptitiously provide another bailout for large financial institutions. According to Donn
Vickrey of Gradient Analytics, “Some of those banks needed 100 cents on the dollar or
they risked failure.”9
However, another source close to the transaction suggested the FRBNY may have
paid AIG’s counterparties at par out of pure expediency: “[S]ome counterparties insisted
on being paid in full and the [FRBNY] did not want to negotiate separate deals.”10
Furthermore, many of AIG’s counterparties reportedly hedged their exposure to
the troubled insurance giant, obviating any need for a taxpayer bailout of these large
financial institutions. According to Goldman Sachs’ Chief Financial Officer, “There
would have been no credit losses [at Goldman Sachs] if AIG had failed.”11
All of this begs the question why the FRBNY would not drive a better bargain for
the American taxpayer. If the FRBNY thought it was necessary to provide another
taxpayer bailout of AIG’s counterparties, it should have come to Congress and made its
case that this action was necessary. However, if the FRBNY simply paid AIG’s
counterparties at par out of expediency, it raises serious questions about its judgment and
motives.
It is also disturbing that, at the time this secret deal was made, FRBNY Chairman
Stephen Friedman, a member of the board of Goldman Sachs, purchased more than
50,000 shares of Goldman Sachs before knowledge of the FRBNY’s bailout of Goldman
Sachs and other AIG counterparties became public knowledge.12 According to news
reports, this transaction has earned Mr. Friedman over $5 million in profit.13
Finally, according to one AIG executive quoted in news reports, the FRBNY may
have attempted to manage public disclosure of its decision to pay AIG’s counterparties at
par by pressuring the company not to file pertinent documents with the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission (“SEC”):
7 Id.
8 Id.
9 Id.
10 Id.
11 Id.
12 See Kate Kelly and Jon Hilsenrath, “New York Fed Chairman’s Ties to Goldman Raise Questions,” The
Wall Street Journal (May 4, 2009), available at
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124139546243981801.html.
13 See note 1, supra.
They’d tell us that they don’t think that this or that should be disclosed.
They’d say, “Don’t you think your counterparties will be concerned?” It
was much more about protecting the Fed.14
These allegations raise serious questions about the transparency, accountability
and wisdom of the FRBNY’s actions. The American people have a right to know the full
details behind the FRBNY’s decision to stop negotiations with AIG’s counterparties and
pay them billions of dollars of taxpayer money.
To assist the Committee with its investigation of this matter, please provide the
following information no later than close of business on Friday, November 13, 2009:
All records and communications referring or relating to the FRBNY’s negotiations
with AIG’s CDS counterparties, including but not limited to:
a) Emails, phone logs and meeting notes of the following people: Timothy
Geithner, Stephen Friedman, Tom Baxter, and Sarah Dahlgren;
b) Term sheets, including drafts, relating to AIG’s payments to its CDS
counterparties;
c) Emails, phone logs and meeting notes referring or relating to public
disclosure of AIG’s payments to its CDS counterparties including
disclosure to the SEC.
Please note that, for purposes of responding to this request, the terms “records,”
“communications,” and “referring or relating” should be interpreted consistently with the
attached Definitions of Terms.
Thank you for your cooperation in this matter. If you have any questions
regarding this request, please contact Christopher Hixon or Brien Beattie with the
Committee staff at (202) 225-5074.
Sincerely,
Darrell E. Issa
Ranking Member
cc: Hon. Edolphus Towns, Chairman
14 Id.
Attachment
Definition of Terms
1. The term "record" means any written, recorded, or graphic matter of any nature
whatsoever, regardless of how recorded, and whether original or copy, including,
but not limited to, the following: memoranda, reports, expense reports, books,
manuals, instructions, financial reports, working papers, records notes, letters,
notices, confirmations, telegrams, receipts, appraisals, pamphlets, magazines,
newspapers, prospectuses, interoffice and intra office communications, electronic
mail (e-mail), contracts, cables, notations of any type of conversation, telephone
call, meeting or other communication, bulletins, printed matter, computer
printouts, teletypes, invoices, transcripts, diaries, analyses, returns, summaries,
minutes, bills, accounts, estimates, projections, comparisons, messages,
correspondence, press releases, circulars, financial statements, reviews, opinions,
offers, studies and investigations, questionnaires and surveys, and work sheets
(and all drafts, preliminary versions, alterations, modifications, revisions,
changes, and amendments of any of the foregoing, as well as any attachments or
appendices thereto), and graphic or oral records or representations of any kind
(including without limitation, photographs, charts, graphs, microfiche, microfilm,
videotape, recordings and motion pictures), and electronic, mechanical, and
electric records or representations of any kind (including, without limitation,
tapes, cassettes, disks, and recordings) and other written, printed, typed, or other
graphic or recorded matter of any kind or nature, however produced or
reproduced, and whether preserved in writing, film, tape, disk, videotape or
otherwise. A record bearing any notation not a part of the original text is to be
considered a separate record. A draft or non-identical copy is a separate record
within the meaning of this term.
2. The term "communication" means each manner or means of disclosure or
exchange of information, regardless of means utilized, whether oral, electronic, by
document or otherwise, and whether face-to-face, in a meeting, by telephone,
mail, telexes, discussions, releases, personal delivery, or otherwise.
3. The terms "referring or relating," with respect to any given subject, means
anything that constitutes, contains, embodies, reflects, identifies, states, refers to,
deals with or is in any manner whatsoever pertinent to that subject.
By Janet Tavakoli
web site: www.tavakolistructuredfinance.com
Janet Tavakoli is the president of Tavakoli Structured Finance, a Chicago-based firm that provides consulting to financial institutions and institutional investors. Ms. Tavakoli has more than 20 years of experience in senior investment banking positions, trading, structuring and marketing structured financial products. She is a former adjunct associate professor of derivatives at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business. Author of: Credit Derivatives & Synthetic Structures (1998, 2001), Collateralized Debt Obligations & Structured Finance (2003), Structured Finance & Collateralized Debt Obligations (John Wiley & Sons, September 2008). Tavakoli’s book on the causes of the global financial meltdown and how to fix it is: Dear Mr. Buffett: What an Investor Learns 1,269 Miles from Wall Street (Wiley, 2009).
© 2009 Copyright Janet Tavakoli- All Rights Reserved
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