#HEDGEPAPERS NO.7: RAHM EMANUEL AND HIS HEDGE FUND FLASH BOYS
RAHM’S TOP BACKERS — HIGH-FREQUENCY TRADERS CRITIQUED IN THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “FLASH BOYS”
When looking at the top donors to Rahm Emanuel’s campaign, a theme eventually emerges out of the dark pools of campaign cash.
Many of Rahm’s top contributors are heads of “high-frequency trading” funds—a murky and controversial trading strategy that is currently the subject of several class-action lawsuits.
Two of the largest high-frequency trading funds in Chicago—Ken Griffin’s Citadel LLC and Donald Wilson’s DRW Trading Group— have poured over a million dollars into Rahm’s campaign.
But their combined contributions pale in comparison to what these funds have gotten from Rahm: a mayor who has (a) lobbied for loosening regulations on high-frequency traders, (b) landed a $55 million TIF subsidy for a high-end convention center hotel managed by a company in which Griffin has a major investment, and (c) secured a huge tax break for a major trading partner.[1] read more »
RAHM’S HEDGE FUND HAUL: $4,623,716.63 AND COUNTING
Rahm Emanuel and political funds backing his campaign have raked in millions of dollars from high-frequency traders, including $900,000 from Ken Griffin, the CEO of Chicago’s largest high-frequency trading firm, Citadel LLC.[2]
Rahm has also taken $270,300 from employees and principals of DRW Trading, another high-frequency trading firm with a big Chicago footprint.
An analysis of contributions to Rahm and Chicago Forward shows that Rahm has raised at least $4,623,716.63 from hedge fund managers, with much of that cash coming from high-frequency traders.
ONE HAND WASHES THE OTHER — HEDGE FUND MANAGERS SUPPORT THE RAHM AGENDA ON SCHOOLS & FISCAL POLICY
Besides the hundreds of thousands in campaign cash these high-frequency traders have lavished on Rahm’s campaign, they have also spent untold millions backing components of Rahm’s agenda, particularly in the areas of education and finance.
Donald Wilson’s name is emblazoned on a Nobel Street campus, a network of schools often touted by Rahm despite controversial disciplinary practices.[3] [4]
Griffin and Donald Wilson are both major funders of Stand for Children, which is strongly aligned with the mayor’s education platform, and has lobbied to limit the right of Chicago teachers to strike.[5]
By his own admission, Griffin is “one of the largest contributors” to DFER in Chicago,[6] the organization that gave Rahm political cover during the 2012 Chicago teachers strike.[7]
In the municipal finance arena, Citadel’s Ken Griffin bankrolled the creation of a fiscally conservative website, Reboot Illinois, in 2012.[8] Less than a year later, Rahm installed Citadel’s Dan Widawsky as the city’s comptroller.[9]#HedgePapers No.7: Rahm Emanuel and his Hedge Fund Flash Boys — Hedge Clippers:
