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Paul Singer (businessman)

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Paul Singer
Born
Paul Elliott Singer

August 22, 1944
New York
NationalityUnited States American
Alma materUniversity of Rochester (B.S.) Harvard Law School (J.D.)
Occupation(s)Investor, philanthropist
Known forElliott Management
SpouseEmily

Paul Elliott Singer (born August 22, 1944) is the founder and CEO of hedge fund Elliott Management Corporation and The Paul E. Singer Family Foundation.[2] According to The Guardian, "Elliott's principal investment strategy is buying distressed debt cheaply and selling it at a profit or suing for full payment." Singer is a longtime major donor to the Republican Party.[3]

Education and early career

Singer grew up in a Jewish family in the New York City metropolitan area.[4] He obtained his B.S. in psychology from the University of Rochester and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. Singer then spent the next four years working for corporate law firms in New York and the investment bank Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette.[5]

Elliott Management

In 1977, Singer founded the hedge fund Elliott Associates L.P. with $1.3 million from various friends and family members. Elliott Management oversees Elliott Associates and Elliott International Limited, which together have more than $16 billion in assets under management.[6]

Sovereign debt

Frequently called a vulture fund by detractors, Elliott Management trades heavily in sovereign debt. Recently, Elliott Management has targeted sovereign debt of Argentina and Congo-Brazzaville, through its association with the 'Kensington International' fund. In 1995, Elliott bought $20 million face value of defaulted Peruvian bank debt. After extensive litigation proceedings, Elliott Management won a court award of $58 million for these debts, including past due interest.

In 2008, Elliott Management bought $32.6 million in loan debt incurred by Congo-Brazzaville, allegedly for less than $2.3 million.[7] In 2002 and 2003 a British Court awarded Elliott Management more than $100 million for these debts, $39 million of which was subsequently recouped by interception of proceeds of the sale of oil by the Congo to Glencore International, a Swiss commodities and raw materials supplier.[8]

In October 2012, a Cayman Islands-based fund, NML Capital Limited, controlled by Elliot Management won a court order in Ghana to seize the Argentine naval vessel ARA Libertad (Q-2). The fund claimed that Argentina owed it $350 million, and offered to let the ship leave if Argentina's government put up a $20 million bond to be forfeited. It is unclear whether Singer has interests in Ghanaian debt, although his interest in 3rd world debt has accumulated since 2009.[9]

Paul E. Singer Family Foundation

Paul Singer founded the Paul E. Singer Family Foundation, which supports many charitable projects including the Harvard Graduate School of Education Singer Prize for Excellence in Secondary Teaching and VH1 Save The Music Foundation, the Food Bank For New York City, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund, and the New York City Police Foundation.[10][11][12][13][14] In addition, Singer, whose gay son married his partner in Massachusetts, where gay marriage is legal, has donated $425,000 of his own money and raised another $500,000 to support the drive for legalization of gay marriage in New York.[15]

Board memberships

Singer is Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.[16] He serves on the Board of Advisors of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University and the Board of Fellows of Harvard Medical School.[17][18] He serves on the Board of Directors of Commentary Magazine.[19]

Singer is a member of the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation.

Political activity

Singer has been active in Republican Party politics and was a major contributor to George W. Bush's presidential campaigns.[20] In 2007, Singer led a financial industry fund-raising effort for Rudolph Giuliani, first as regional finance chair and later as senior policy adviser.[21]

In 2007, Singer provided $175,000 to support a petition drive for a proposed California initiative to apportion the state's 55 electoral votes by congressional district. At least 19 of the state's 53 congressional districts could be expected to vote for a GOP presidential candidate, enough to change the national results in a close election.[22]

President George W. Bush appointed Singer to serve on the Honorary Delegation to accompany him to Jerusalem for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel in May 2008.[23]

In 2011, Singer played a major role in passing legislation that would allow same-sex marriage in the state of New York by, along with other major GOP donors, throwing his support behind it.[24] In 2011, he donated $1 million to Restore Our Future Inc, the Superpac supporting Mitt Romney.[25]

Lee Fang, writing for the progressive political blog ThinkProgress, claimed that "the rise of Singer’s political profile can be traced to his work as a top donor to pro-Bush character-assasination (sic) groups like the Swift Boat Veterans."[26]

In 2012, Singer provided $1 million to start a super PAC named American Unity PAC. According to the New York Times, the PAC's "sole mission will be to encourage Republican candidates to support same-sex marriage, in part by helping them to feel financially shielded from any blowback from well-funded groups that oppose it."[27]

Ship Detention Controversy

In 2012, Elliot's NML Capital orchestrated the detention of an Argentine naval ship, the ARA Libertard, off the coast of Ghana. It was done as a measure to recoup some of the money owed him by the South American nation.

Writings and commentary

Singer has written columns in the Wall Street Journal.[19] In August 2009, fellow hedge fund manager Jim Chanos said that he and Singer warned G7 finance ministers in 2007 that ‘a systemic financial collapse could happen because major banks were creating ‘radioactive’ securitizations from things like subprime mortgages.[28]

At a September 2006 financial conference in New York City, Singer delivered a speech called "Complexity Made Simple," advising that the purchase of collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) was a serious mistake, anticipating the collapse of the housing market by nearly a year.[5]

Notes

  1. ^ Forbes Billionaires: Paul Singer retrieved September 23, 2012
  2. ^ "Elliott Management Corporation Company Profile". Yahoo! Finance. Retrieved 2007-07-18.
  3. ^ Sheehan, Michael (November 15, 2011). "Vulture funds – the key players". The Guardian. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
  4. ^ JTA: "Jewish, Republican, pro-gay rights" By Ron Kampeas May 14, 2011
  5. ^ a b Kambiz Foroohar (February 2008). "The Opportunist". Bloomberg Markets.
  6. ^ "Elliott Management Corporation". Hoovers.
  7. ^ "Vultures of Profit: Judgments Totaling $996M from 11 Countries, including Cameroun Republic". Frontier Telegraph. June 24, 2008. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
  8. ^ Foroohar, Kambiz (January 8, 2008). "Vulture Fund Founder Singer Helps Back Giuliani Bid (Update1)". Bloomberg. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
  9. ^ "Argentine crew to vacate ship seized in Ghana". Aljazeera.com. October 23, 2012. Retrieved October 26, 2012.
  10. ^ [1], "Harvard Awards the First Singer Prize", May 31, 2007
  11. ^ [2], "Dr. Shiela Johnson and Gordon Appointed to VHI Save the Music Foundation Board of Directors", March 19, 2007
  12. ^ [3], "New York City Police Foundation Donors List", June 30, 2009
  13. ^ "Can-Do 2010 Supporters".
  14. ^ Eric Lichtblau (August 27, 2010). "Financier's Largess Shows G.O.P.'s Wall St. Support". The New York Times. New York Times.
  15. ^ Nicholas Confessore and Michael Barbaro (May 14, 2011). "Donors to GOP are backing gay marriage push". The New York Times. New York Times.
  16. ^ [4], "Manhattan Institute Trustees", 2010
  17. ^ "Advisors". 2008.
  18. ^ "Board of Fellows".
  19. ^ a b Paul Singer (March 23, 2010). "The Dodd bill and U.S. Competitiveness". Wall Street Journal.
  20. ^ "Hedge Fund Chiefs, With Cash, Join Political Fray". The New York Times. New York Times. January 25, 2007,. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  21. ^ "Romney Attracts More of Bush's Top Donors Than Rivals (Update2)". Bloomberg. July 20, 2007.
  22. ^ Andrew Malcom, "Giuliani fundraiser was mystery initiative backer", Los Angeles Times, November 28, 2007
  23. ^ http://www.nysun.com/foreign/bush-visit-may-boost-olmert/76303/
  24. ^ Barbaro, Michael (June 25, 2011). "The Road to Gay Marriage in New York". The New York Times.
  25. ^ http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/dcdev/forms/C00490045/763780/sa/ALL
  26. ^ Fang, Lee (October 10, 2011). "Journalists Funded By 'Vulture Capitalist' Paul Singer Campaign To Smear Wall Street Protests". ThinkProgress. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
  27. ^ Bruni, Frank (June 9, 2012). "The G.O.P.'s Gay Trajectory". The New York Times. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
  28. ^ Benner, Katie (August 26, 2009). "Chanos: G7 ignored crisis warning". CNN.

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