03/26/09Once Again Greenwich Time Editor Bruce Hunter Is Late To The Party And His Niave Reporter Gets The Story Wrong

Good Ole Honest Abe Had It Right

At Was Abraham Lincoln who said....

"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.'

Hats off, as they would say in Honest Abe's time, to the out of town newspapers and bloggers who were not so easily fooled like the Greenwich Time amateurish news team

Compare And Contrast The Green Kitty Litter Liner's Reporting With That Of Out Of Town Newspapers And Bloggers

If You Want To Know What Is Really Going On In And Around Greenwich, Then You Have To Read The Out Of Town Newspapers, As Well As, Local And National Blogs.

AIG resignation hits close to home

By Susan Tuz
STAFF WRITER

REDDING -- Former Greenwich resident Jake DeSantis' resignation from a job with AIG Financial Products unit Wednesday came as no surprise to those who knew him....

...DeSantis is known for being civic-minded in the town. On arriving in Redding, he joined The League of Women Voters. However, his membership is no longer active, according to Jane Ross, president of the league.....

....In the open letter to Liddy, DeSantis rails against the unfair way in which he and other AIG executives have been vilified and about Liddy not supporting them before Congress, the Connecticut and New York attorneys general and the press.....

.....He said he will donate his retention payment from AIG of $746,006 after taxes to "organizations that are helping people who are suffering from the global downturn." ..... Blah .... Blah .... Blah ..... Blah ..... Blah ..... Blah ..... Blah ...... Blah ..... Blah ....... Boring And Ill Informed .....

If You Want To Know Whats Really

Going On You Have To Skip The Greenwich Time

And Read The Out Of Town Newspapers

03/26/09 Former Greenwich Resident Fake Jake DeSantist: "I didn't do nothin' .... Besides I deserve All That Cash ......"

Waaaaaa! AIG Brat Jason DeSantis whines and resigns

New York Daily News

....An AIG exec who got a payout of over $1 million quit his job Wednesday in a huffy public letter that was meant to generate sympathy - but instead landed like a lead balloon....

...."I am disappointed and frustrated over your lack of support for us," he wrote. "You didn't defend us against the baseless and reckless comments made by the attorneys general of New York and Connecticut."....

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal wasn't moved. He pointed out that DeSantis glossed over a key fact: Without a massive taxpayer bailout, AIG would have collapsed months ago.

"His company and his contract and his bonus would simply be nonexistent without the taxpayer, and that critical fact is ignored," Blumenthal said.

The letter caused a big ruckus online, where many branded it more unseemly whining from an entitled fat cat who still doesn't understand the pain financiers have wrought.

"Cry me a river," read one typical comment.

Adding insult to injury, DeSantis said he didn't need the money, acknowledged that he was overpaid, and said that he was taking his bonus - "$742,006.40 after taxes" - and giving it to charity instead of back to AIG, as Blumenthal and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo have demanded.

"I at least deserve to dictate how my earnings are spent, and do not want to see them disappear back into the obscurity of AIG's or the federal government's budget," he wrote.

He did not mention that since AIG is now 80% owned by the taxpayer, returning his bonus would have returned it to the taxpayer.

"I commend his motivation in wanting to help people who have been harmed by the economic downturn, but this is taxpayer money," Blumenthal said.....

ALSO:

If You Want To Know Whats Really
Going On You Have To Skip The Greenwich Time
And Read The Local Citizen Journalists And Bloggers

03/24/09 UNETHICAL BEHAVIOUR: Former Greenwich Resident And AIG Bum "Fake Jake" DeSantis Tries To Buck Efforts to Give Back Bonus Pay

......The Arrogant Little AIG SOB That Refuses To Give Back
His Neighbors Hard Earned Tax Dollars.......

I take this action after 11 years of dedicated, honorable service to A.I.G. I can no longer effectively perform my duties in this dysfunctional environment.......

..... Even Though Cry Baby Jake DeSantis Refuses To Ask For Forgiveness For Stealing From All Of His Neighbors .....

"Fake Jake" Desantis Still Wants Everyone To Love And Feel Sorry For Him:....

As most of us have done nothing wrong, guilt is not a motivation to surrender our earnings. We have worked 12 long months under these contracts and now deserve to be paid as promised. None of us should be cheated of our payments.....

Be Sure To Read Bonus Bum"Fake Jake" DeSantis' Fine Print:

....On March 16 I received a payment from A.I.G. amounting to $742,006.40, after taxes ......
(Jake DeSantis Is Such An Unethical AIG Bum That He Has Obviously Visited An Accountant To Calculate The Amount Of Taxes To The Penny. DeSantis Is Such A Greedy SOB He Couldn't Add $933.40 Of His Own Money To Make The Taxpayer Funded Package An Even $743,000)

....In light of the uncertainty over the ultimate taxation and legal status of this payment, the actual amount I donate may be less...... (Greedy Con Artist Jake DeSantis Really Has Hug Balls. This AIG Scamster Says I Am Going To Act Like A Big Shot Donating Your Tax Dollars, But If He Miscalculated The Tax Ramifications ..... He Is Going To Use Your Tax Dollars To Pay Any Additional Tax Liability That He May Incur. As Leona Hemsley Said,"Only The Little People Pay Taxes.")

.....This choice is right for me. I wish others at A.I.G.-F.P. luck finding peace with their difficult decision, and only hope their judgment is not clouded by fear......

WHAT AIG BONUS BUM "FAKE JAKE" DESANTIS WONT TELL YOU IS......

That he and the other AIG Bums decided to accelerate by three months more than a quarter of the amounts due under the contracts. That action probably net him $250,000.00 in taxpayer money and allowed him to stash $185, 501.60 after taxes in the bank......

.....Here Is How The Jake DeSantis Ponzie Scheme Will Probably Work:

First AIG Bum "Fake Jake" DeSantis Will Use Over $250,000.00 Of Your Tax Dollars To Pay His Tax Bill. Then He Will Claim Huge Tax Deductions For Donating $742,006.40 Of Your Tax Dollars To Help Those "Who Are Suffering From The Global Downturn".

Greedy " Fake Jake" DeSantis Will Then Be Able To Carry The The Taxpayer Funded Deduction Forward Three Years, Thus Allowing Him To Pay Virtually No Taxes.

The $742,006.40 Of Mr. Desantists' Neighbors Tax Dollars Will Need To Go Into A Financial Vehicle Like A Private Foundation To Distribute The Tax Dollars.

Of Coarse, There Will Be Expences Involved With Distributing Your Tax Dollars So Greedy "Fake Jake" Desantis Will Have To Be Compensated. Desantis May Even Need To Hire Friends And Family Members To Help Disburse Your Tax Dollars To Help Those "Who Are Suffering From The Global Downturn".

Then There Is Greedy Jake Desantis Mission Of Distributing Your Hard Earned Tax Dollars To Help Those "Who Are Suffering From The Global Downturn".

This Mission Statement Includes Virtually Everybody In The World .... Greedy Jake Desantis' Laws .... Greedy "Fake Jake" Desantis' Golfing Buddy ...... Greedy Jake Desantis' Business Associates ..... Etc.....

You Will Notice That Greedy "Fake Jake" Desantis' Wont Say I Am Giving Your Tax Dollars To Underprivileged Children.

You Will Notice That Greedy "Fake Jake" Desantis' Wont Say I Am Giving Your Tax Dollars To Pay The Medical Bills Of Uninsured Families.

You Will Notice That Greedy "Fake Jake" Desantis' Wont Say I Am Giving Your Tax Dollars To Senior Citizens In Danger Of Losing Their Homes

All Of The Above Mentioned , Charitable Mission Statements Would Be To Narrowly Focus And Make It Too Hard To Abuse

MOREOVER:

Fake Jake DeSantist Wont Tell You ThatThe Other AIG Shoe Has Not Dropped Yet.....

WHY ISN'T ANYONE LISTENING TO GREENWICH ROUNDUP

THIS WAS ONLY THE FIRST ROUNDOF BONUS PAYMENTS TO THE AIG FAT CATSLIKE "FAKE JAKE" DESANTIS

THE CLOCK IS TICKING ON A SECOND TAXPAYER FUNDEDAIG BONUS PAYMENT TO "FAKE JAKE" DESANTIS

The AIG Employee Retention Plan Has Two ComponentsThere Are Two Sets Of Bonus Payments

There Are Two Sets Of Bonus Payments
For "Fake Jake" Desantis And The Other AIG Pirates

This Was Only The First Bonus And Covers December 01, 2007 To November 30, 2008 That Was To Be Paid No Later Than March 15th of 2009.

And As We Read Above ..... The Greedy AIG SOB's Like "Fake Jake" Desantis Couldn't Wait Till March 15, 2009 So They Accelerated 25% Of The Bonus To Be Paid Last December.

Most People Don't Realize ThatThe Clock Is Already Ticking On ASecond Round Of Bonus Payments For"Fake Jake DeSantis And The Other AIG Pirates:

The Is Second Bonus Payments Cover December 01, 2008 To November 30, 2009 That Was To Be Paid No Later Than March 15th of 2010.

MORE ON THAT ECELERATEDDECEMBER BONUS PAYMENT:

03/21/09 SUPRISE AIG LIED:Greenwich Resident Richard Blumenthal Says AIG Paid It's Fat Cat Pirates $218 Million In Bonuses !!!!!

PLEASE ALSO SEE:

03/20/09 Fat Cats In The Backcoutry Of Greenwich Watch In Horror As Fellow Town Resident Richard Blumenthal Sends Out Subpoena To AIG Bonus Bums

03/20/09 READER SUBMITTED COMMENTS: Hatred palooza 2009 on Sat AM for AIG FPG execs.

03/20/09 New York Post's Jackpot Jimmy Cries Like A Baby As He Gives Back His AIG Multi Million Pirate Booty Back To The Taxpayers

03/18/09 The Jack Pot Jimmys Of The Greenwich Backcountry Are Shaking In Terror As The New York Post Shows Up In New Canaan And Fairfield

The Fact Is That "Fake Jake's" Desantis' AIG Retintion Contract Would Not Have Been Worth The Paper It Was Written On If His Nieghbor's Hard Earned Tax Dollars Had Not Been Stolen

UPDATE:

Why I Have No Sympathy for Jake DeSantis
Huffington Post

Mitchell Bard

On Tuesday the New York Times ran on its op-ed page the resignation letter written by Jake DeSantis, a vice president of AIG's infamous financial products ...

....I am not the least bit moved by DeSantis's point of view, because over the last several years, he has tremendously profited from a larger financial culture that is completely out of whack. Those working in the financial industry made untold sums of money from a bubble that was bound to burst, and they did so in an environment that rewarded risk with no consequences for failure......

.....In other words, DeSantis has become wealthy beyond his wildest dreams, with no worries about money for the rest of his life, at the expense of most Americans and the financial system as a whole, all by taking advantage of a set of rules that skewed in his favor. He profited from an industry that rejected decades of regulations and took crazy risks that a bubble could be sustained against all logic to the contrary, and that firm's could leverage themselves at unhealthy levels with no consequences. And now that some semblance of order is trying to be applied to the financial industry, with the bill being footed in billions of dollars by the American people, he has the audacity to complain that he is being treated unfairly? It's like someone finding a hole in the side of a bank vault and stopping by once a year to take millions of dollars from the structure, only to complain on the 15th trip when the hole has been sealed up......

.....My point in listing DeSantis's bloated salary isn't, as my friends on the right will probably immediately accuse me of doing, an effort to attack wealth or wealth creation. Rather, my quarrel with DeSantis's letter is that it represents an unwillingness to confront the culture that not only caused the current financial collapse, but that will prevent true recovery if it's not addressed.....

.....You would think that those who created this mess would have some humility. But you would be wrong. DeSantis's letter is just one example. In a front-page New York Times article on Monday discussing the administration's attempts to get private equity firms and hedge funds to buy into Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner's new plan to purchase toxic assets from banks, the chief executive of a "major investment firm" is quoted as saying

"The deal is good, but it's not worth it if I'm buying myself into a retroactive tax or a Congressional hearing."

The article notes that

"some executives at private equity firms and hedge funds, who were briefed on the plan Sunday afternoon, are anxious about the recent uproar over millions of dollars in bonus payments made to executives of (AIG)."

When I read observations like these, I just cannot believe that these people are so blind as to what has happened to the financial industry in the last six months. I know these individuals profited from a bubble, but apparently they are also living in one.....

.....A plan to rescue the banks without addressing and changing the compensation culture on Wall Street is like treating a cancer patient's symptoms without eradicating the tumors. The relief will be only temporary......

.....If DeSantis doesn't want to be a part of the solution, if he wants to hold onto a system in which it is reasonable to pay him (and, presumably, many others) $742,006.40 after taxes, by a company accepting hundreds of billions from the federal government, I can only come to the conclusion that he doesn't understand where we need to go. He is part of the problem, not the solution. Good riddance to him, and let the door hit him on the butt on the way out. DeSantis may have a valid contract, but it's a product of a corrupt system. And it's time for the system to change, if we truly want to rebuild the nation's financial institutions and economy.

The apocalyptic rich
Baltimore Sun

The next day, that long whine by AIG executive Jake DeSantis appeared on the Times' op-ed page, proving my point. This fool is completely oblivious to the fact that he wouldn't be in position to earn a million-dollar bonus were it not for taxpayers. And if he deigns to send it anywhere, in his attempt at martyrdom, DeSantis's $742,006.40, after taxes, should come right back to the U.S. Treasury.

Some at AIG Buck Efforts to Give Back Bonus Pay

Wall Street Journal

....Wednesday, employees at the insurer gave a standing ovation for Jake DeSantis, an executive in AIG's financial-products division, who was the first to publicly refuse to return his retention bonus despite an outcry over the payments.

Joining in the ovation was Gerry Pasciucco, attendees said. Mr. Pasciucco heads the division that had $40 billion in losses last year that nearly sank AIG and triggered the government rescue. About five employees of the unit quit Wednesday, said a person familiar with the matter.......

.....In recent days, employees have huddled in small groups in conference rooms off the division's main trading floor in Wilton, Conn., debating what to do.....

........One employee said he had instructed his wife to call the police in the event his identity became known and a news truck appeared at his home.....

AIG Exec Whines About Public Anger, and Now We're Supposed to Pity Him? Yeah, Right ...

AlterNet

AIG exec Jake DeSantis' NY Times letter asking for us to chill out about his poor overworked employees is a sick joke.....

....AIGFP only had 377 employees. Those 400-odd folks received almost $3.5 billion in compensation in the last seven years, a very large part of that money coming from the sale of credit default protection. Doing the math, that averages out to over $9 million of compensation per person.

Ask yourself this question: If your company made that much money, and the boss of the unit made almost $280 million in just a few years, exactly how likely is it that you wouldn't know where that money was coming from?

Are we supposed to believe that Jake DeSantis knew nothing about Joe Cassano's CDS deals? If your boss and the top guys in your firm were all making a killing selling anything at all -- whether it was rubber kayaks, generic Levitra or credit default swaps -- you really wouldn't bother to find out what that thing they were selling was? You'd really just mind your own business, sit at your cubicle and put your faith in the guys up top to fill you in if there was something you needed to know?.....

.....But all of this is really secondary to the tone of DeSantis' letter. He acts like he's a victim because he didn't get to keep his after-tax bonus of $742,006.40 in the middle of a global depression. And he really loses his fucking mind when he writes:

"None of us should be cheated of our payments any more than a plumber should be cheated after he has fixed the pipes but a careless electrician causes a fire that burns down the house."

First of all, Jake, you asshole, no plumber in the world gets paid a $740,000 bonus, over and above his salary, just to keep plumbing. Second, try living on a plumber's salary before you even think about comparing yourself to one; you're inviting a pitchfork in the gut by even thinking along those lines. Third, Jake, if you were a plumber, and the electrician burned the house down -- well, guess what? If you and that electrician worked for the same company, you actually wouldn't get paid for that job.

Out in the real world, when your company burns a house down, you're not getting paid by that client. It's only on Wall Street, where the every-man-for-himself ethos is built into an insanely selfish and greed-addled compensation system, that people like you expect to get paid in a bubble -- only there do people expect their performance bonuses no matter how much money the shareholders lose overall, no matter how many people get laid off after the hostile takeover, no matter how ill-considered the mortgages lent out by your division were.

You expect that money because you think it's owed to you. But what money? The money is gone. Your boss, if not you, set it all afire. You want the money, but where exactly do you think it's coming from?

Do you just not understand that that money now would have to come out of someone else's pocket? That it would have to come from middle-class taxpayers, real plumbers, people who didn't make millions over the years in equity and commodity trading?.....

.....Only a person with a habitually overinflated sense of self-worth could think he deserves a $700,000 retention bonus, even if it has to be paid by taxpayers....

.....Hey Jake, it's not like you were curing cancer. You were a f**king commodities trader. Thanks to a completely insane, horribly skewed set of societal values that puts a premium on greed and severely undervalues selflessness, communal spirit and intellectualism -- values that make millionaires out of people like you and leave teachers and nurses, the people who raise your kids and clean your parents' bedpans, comparatively penniless .

Good for you. Consider yourself lucky. But your company went belly-up and broke, almost certainly thanks in part to you, and now you don't get your bonus.

So be a man and deal with it. The rest of us do, when we get bad breaks, and we've had a lot more of them than you. And stop whining......

John Walker Lindh presents Enemy Combatant t-shirt to Jake ...

TPMCafé

In a moving ceremony today, John Walker Lindh, the "American Taliban" convicted of treason in the wake of the Sept. 11 disaster and resulting war with Afghanistan, handed off the "enemy combatant" t-shirt he has worn for the past eight years to Jake DeSantis, a former employee of AIG Corporation who has refused to return his negotiated compensation, controversially dubbed a "bonus," to American taxpayers, electing to donate the money instead.

"Man, it's weird," opined Lindh in his remarks prior to the presentation. "One day, you're just a feckless kid from Marin County, or an egghead from MIT in Jake's case, out in the world doing what you more or less believe in. The next day history catches up with you and you're in the bright lights with everybody calling you a traitor. I can't say the last eight years have been great for me or that I don't kind of want to scream 'Your turn, asshole!' to Jake. I mean, guys like him are exactly the guys I was trying to fight against. But wearing this Enemy Combatant t-shirt isn't easy, and on a human level I hope he doesn't end up dead or spending 20 years in prison. I'm pretty sure he has more friends in high places than I did, so it doesn't seem likely."

DeSantis, after accepting the Enemy Combatant t-shirt, said only "I bet all you Liberal freaks are thinking 'Hey, what goes around comes around.' I told you I'm giving the money to charity, just like Jesus would have. Now either crucify me or get off my effing back."

No elected officials have yet commented on the event.

A Response to AIG’s Jake DeSantis - Victim

Wrecking Ball Report (satire)

AIG’s Jake DeSantis is a self-righteous wealthy person who likes to remind us how hard he works. This reminds us of numerous Hollywood stereotypes designed to make us dislike various wealthy characters so we can root for the plucky young working class hero.

And that makes us really hate Hollywood for getting inside our heads, because although his guest Op-Ed in the New York Times made us throw up our leftover Mac and Cheese.....

....DeSantis is quitting his job at AIG and giving whatever part of his bonus he has left after (possibly massive) taxes to charity. Sounds noble enough, but there’s a catch:

Jake Desantis wants us to see him as a victim, perhaps even feel sorry for him......

....The pledge to donate to charity - nice, we like it. Tough not to see it as a clever play for positive PR in a world that’s ready to throw you to the wolves, while we all play the part of the wolves ....

....But here’s the thing - that shit is really happening. There are fucking tent cities springing up in California, dude. And it isn’t to film a Slumdog Millionaire sequel. These are your countrymen in this day and age, unemployed and homeless, many through no fault of their own. Now, if you want to see yourself as blameless, that’s your right. Maybe you are. But you are an executive for AIG’s Financial Products division - whether or not the paperwork for CDS’ crossed your desk or not, you have become a rich man by working at a company that in the end, f**ked us all.....

....Go home to your family, dude. We’re sorry about your sh*tty boss and that lost year of your life, but we’ve got to clean the puke off our second-hand clothes and go whore ourselves to make rent - we don’t have time for your f**king pity party.

...

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Self Outed Public Figure Jake DeSantis Is Encouraged By Greenwich Roundup To Respond To This Post If He So Chooses.