Corruption And The Christie Brothers Of New Jersey

[Policing Wall Street]

On January 6, 2010 The New York Times published an article, “New Jersey Governor’s Brother Asset And A Risk.”

Chris Christie is Governor of New Jersey. But the question is: Who is Todd Christie his brother?

Todd was one of the top 10 senior managing directors at Spear Leeds and Kellogg when it was purchased in 2000 by Goldman Sachs for in excess of $6 billion.

But there is one glaring mistake in the Times article; the amount of money that Todd received as a partner in Spear Leeds and Kellogg when Goldman Sachs purchased SLK. And that error casts doubt upon this article.

The article states that Todd received $60 million when Goldman purchased Spear. That sum of $60 million is the cash, which Todd had in Spear Leeds. That does not include the shares (units) of Todd’s partnership stake in Spear. So let's examine the units, which various individuals held in Spear Leeds and Kellogg.

Stu Sternberg had 5 units with a value of $350 million. Note: Sternberg was the favored partner of Harvey Silverman, the number two at Spear Leeds and Kellogg- after Peter Kellogg. Larry Schaefer, a friend of Sternberg, had 1 unit with a value of $70 million.

Arnold Schumsky, another friend of Sternberg, had ¼ unit worth approximately $17 million. Peter Donohue, who was in charge of equities (stocks) at the American Stock Exchange for Spear Leeds and Kellogg had ½ unit worth $35 million. But should you doubt me, you can look up the Securities and Exchange Commission action against Robert Luckow.

Why Luckow? Well Luckow and Todd were the Co-Chief Executive Officers of Spear Leeds and Kellogg Specialists at the NYSE. The SEC valued Luckow’s stake in SLK at $400 million. Luckow had $100 million in equity (cash) at Spear Leeds and Kellogg. But he held 4 ½ units for a total of approximately $300 million in partnership interest at Spear Leeds and Kellogg.

But there is another statistic--which is more damaging to the efforts of The New York Times to downplay the wealth of Todd Christie. Todd was one of the top 10 senior managing directors of SLK. And each one of these top 10 managing partners had a stake valued at a minimum of $250 million in SLK. (This was verified by several sources.)

So it is readily apparent that Todd’s net worth was approximately $300 million. Not bad for 15 years of employment at SLK.

But there is an even more egregious oversight in the article. While the article did mention Todd’s settlement with the SEC and briefly touched upon his non-indictment by David Kelley, the former United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, there is something even more heinous.

In my article, “AIG And Stock Manipulation,” which was published in The Black Star News on November 5, 2007 I discussed the manipulation of the price of AIG, which was listed on the New York Stock Exchange, by Spear Leeds and Kellogg. This manipulation was done with the knowledge and collusion of Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, former CEO of AIG, and Richard Grasso, former Chairman of the NYSE.

Under pressure from Grasso, who could order the legal department to investigate Goldman, Goldman agreed to prop up the price of the stock by using its specialist unit and its stock trading unit to trade the stock of AIG in order to keep its price high. In 2003 it was reported that Goldman had lost $14 million since 2000, when it purchased Spear Leeds, to artificially maintain the price of AIG at a high level.

This was at Goldman’s trading desk and did not include losses from its specialist unit. At that time the Securities Exchange Act prohibited a brokerage firm from trading stocks in which it acted as the specialist. And as I proved in my article, “AIG And Stock Manipulation,” it is illegal for a specialist unit to support the price of the stock.

Now the question remains: “Who was the specialist in AIG stock for Goldman Sachs?” And that information is public information as recounted in “Blood On The Street” by Charles Gasparino. The specialist was Todd Christie.

Todd was never charged with violations of the Securities Exchange Act. The United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Richard Kelley was a Republican. Chris Christie was United States Attorney for New Jersey.

And according to published accounts, Todd Christie had donated $400,000 to the Republican Party coffers.

Such is the state of America.

Edward@blackstarnews.com

"Speaking Truth To Empower."