To: Jack Lew, Treasury Secretary
Antonio Weiss must go!
Secretary Jack Lew, I’m calling on you to remove Antonio Weiss from any role in the Treasury’s response to Puerto Rico’s debt crisis, and replace him with someone who does not have ties to the banks and hedge funds that manufactured this crisis and seek to profit from it.
Why is this important?
Remember Antonio Weiss? He’s the notorious Wall Street banker whose appointment to the Treasury Department got blocked by Elizabeth Warren and grassroots groups like Rootstrikers because of his outrageous history of helping corporations use ‘inversions’ to avoid U.S. taxes.
Now he’s back at it again. He managed to sneak into an unconfirmed position at the Treasury Department and he is currently leading the response to Puerto Rico’s debt crisis.
Weiss’s old investment bank, Lazard, has too much to gain from the outcome of the debt crisis in Puerto Rico – and he is way too closely tied to Lazard, having just receiving a $21 million golden parachute from them when he joined the government.
Sign the petition to tell Treasury Secretary Jack Lew: Remove Antonio Weiss from the response to Puerto Rico’s debt crisis.
Rootstrikers and our allies at Hedge Clippers released a report that makes it clear it’s unacceptable for Weiss to make these decisions: “The Antonio Weiss Files: Vultures, Bribes & Conflicts of Interest in Puerto Rico.”[1]
Predatory lending by Weiss’s bank, Lazard, and hedge funds are a big part of what drove Puerto Rico to take on an unsustainable level of debt. Top Lazard bankers were even accused of bribing Puerto Rico’s governor to get better roles in debt deals!
Hedge funds have swooped in to buy as much distressed Puerto Rico debt as they can – and made it clear they will use every option available to make sure the pain of resolving the debt crisis falls on Puerto Ricans, through drastic austerity measures.
We need a response to this debt crisis that’s fair and equitable for the people of Puerto Rico, not based on what’s most profitable for Lazard and its hedge fund friends.
Sign the petition: Tell Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to pull Antonio Weiss off the Treasury’s response to the debt crisis in Puerto Rico and let someone without his conflict of interest lead the effort.