While I was doing some research on the Carlyle Group I noticed an odd connection. It’s probably nothing but I figure these diaries are also intended to keep links and thoughts together.
This articleFormer IRS Commissioner joins Carlyle caught my attention. One major problem we have is the migration from government to private industry and conflicts of interest. It’s worth a look whenever it turns up.
Rossotti was IRS Commissioner from 1997 to 2002. He co-founded American Management Systems in 1970 and served in various executive roles until he was appointed IRS Commissioner in 1997.
Earlier this month, former XO Communications CEO Daniel Akerson joined the Carlyle Group as a managing director focusing on buyouts and venture investments in technology. In January, former IBM boss Lou Gerstner took over the chairman’s job at Carlyle, replacing former Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci, who had served as chairman since 1999.
Among other well-known advisers at Carlyle are former President George H.W. Bush, former British Prime Minister John Major, former Secretary of State James Baker and former SEC chairman Arthur Levitt.
JUDICIAL WATCH SUES FEC OVER ILLEGAL REPUBLICAN FUNDRAISING Predictably, Agency Failed To Investigate Charges That Tom DeLay and RCCC Sold Access To Campaign Contributors(Aug 21, 2001)
CORRUPTION AT THE IRS – IRS COMMISSIONER CHARLES ROSSOTTI SUED OVER CRIMINAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST AND COVER-UP
(Aug 2, 2001)
The negative return economy: a discourse on America's black budget*
AMS Inc., a computer software firm hired by HUD in 1996 to take over the management of its internal software for accounting and financial control, presided in two short years over an explosion in undocumentable transactions of nearly $76 billion. AMS violated fiduciary and control practices by installing its own equipment and software with no parallel runs against the legacy software and accounting system. In those same two years, HUD's management more than tripled the volume of loan and insurance business being pushed through the system. Anyone familiar with running such systems in a bank or an insurance company immediately understands that a decision such as this (for it had to be a decision) would result in huge losses. [iv] Is this incompetence or design? Only the credulous would believe accident: the reward for Charles Rossotti, president of AMS, was to be named Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner at the Department of the Treasury, from which position he oversaw significant Treasury contract amendments to AMS. He was a direct beneficiary of this as a special White House waiver permitted Rossotti and his wife to retain their AMS stock.This undisturbed transition from Democratic to Republican administrations represents a remarkable cross-party consensus, and highlights the real positions of power. With the exception of Rossotti, all these men are still in place in 2004. And Rossotti? He left the IRS to become a senior adviser to the Carlyle Group for information technology. A more richly symbolic and meaningful job move could scarcely be imagined. Carlyle's business is global venture venture capital, which is to say it invests in corporate acquisitions all over the world with a speciality in arms manufacturers and technology. The large levels of undocumentable transactions at HUD and the Department of Defense inevitably inspire curiosity. Where is the money associated with those transactions? It is no great leap of imagination to wonder equally where the Carlyle Group raises the money with which to finance its acquisitions. [vi]
It could very well be nothing at all but he was well connected and rewarded. He also had, besides strong ties to the financial network and neocons, the connections and oversight with the two agencies that control reporting of campaign donations such as those of Wilson-Plame.
Probably just another coincidence.