M E M O R A N D U M
To: Reporters and Editors
Re: Jack Lew, Cayman Islands
Da: Friday, February 08, 2013
Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa made the following comment on the revelation that Jack Lew, President Obama’s Treasury secretary nominee, had money invested in a hedge fund based at the Ugland House in the Cayman Islands, according to various documents. The Finance Committee will hold a hearing on the Lew nomination next week. Grassley is a senior member of the Finance Committee.
“President Obama has been almost obsessively critical of offshore investments. He called Ugland House ‘either the biggest building or the biggest tax scam on record.’ That makes this Cayman Islands investment of his top official and now Treasury Secretary nominee worthy of attention. The irony is thick. Members of the Finance Committee will question Mr. Lew about his foreign investments at the hearing. On the White House claim that Mr. Lew previously disclosed his Ugland House investment, it was disclosed only if you knew where to look and then were able to put the pieces together. To say this information was fully disclosed to the public is misleading, at best.”
Lew’s public disclosure form listing the hedge fund is available here. Please see p. 5, box 3.
SEC files documenting the hedge fund address are available here and here.
The source of the President’s quote in the Grassley quote is available here.
Another comment from the President on Ugland House is from a 5-5-09 Bloomberg story:
President Obama referred to Ugland House yesterday.
“On the campaign, I used to talk about the outrage of a building in the Cayman Islands that had over 12,000 businesses claim this building as their headquarters,” Obama said. “And I’ve said before, either this is the largest building in the world or the largest tax scam. And I think the American people know which it is: The kind of tax scam that we need to end.”