NAME THAT PARTY: Sen. Dian Feinstein’s husband profits for 15 years from federal funds

1/20/2015
Richard Johnson

Cash D'Jour!!!

Sen. Dianne Feinstein

My report Sunday on the lucrative deal Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s husband has to sell 56 post office buildings barely scratched the surface of her conflicts of interest.

The California Democrat’s financier husband, Richard C. Blum, is estimated to be a billionaire from his shrewd investments in companies that profit from federal policies.

“For at least 15 years, Feinstein has appeared to support government contracts that push federal funds toward companies co-owned or governed by her powerful, billionaire husband, Richard C. Blum,”Breitbart News reported.

CBRE, the global commercial real estate company Blum co-owns, took issue with my report that CBRE stood to make $1 billion in commissions from the sale of the post office buildings.

“CBRE won the USPS assignment in a competitive bid process. The revenue that CBRE stands to earn from the USPS account — if we are successful in selling the buildings — is de minimis,” a CBRE spokesman told me. “Mr. Blum personally does not earn any compensation from this or any other account.”

Blum has bigger deals with the University of California.

“After Mr. Blum was appointed to the Board of UC Regents in 2002, UC invested $748 million in seven private equity deals in which he or his firm, Blum Capital Partners, was a major investor,” investigative reporter Peter Byrne said.

CalPERS, the California Public Employees Retirement System, invested more than $5 billion in Blum’s funds.

Blum’s representative had no comment on the California deals.

Byrne said, “It almost goes without saying that the Blum-Feinstein family fortune is founded upon its uncanny ability to command billions of dollars in publicly owned capital.”

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