Barney Frank accepted a free trip from a hedge fund manager who received $200 million in federal bailout money

Barney Frank

   Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank is one of the people who is considered to be duplicitous in the mortgage meltdown that led to the current recession. When President Bush tried to reform Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, it was none other than the Massachusetts congressman–who heads the  House Financial Services Committee–who denied that there was any looming problem with the mortgage industry, while at the same time accusing the Bush administration of fear-mongering; we all know how disastrous Barney Frank’s lack of insight turned out to be. Barney Frank went on to state that even if these entities did become troubled the government would never become involved with bailing them out. We also know how untrue that statement turned out to be.

 Now  we are finding out that one of Barney Frank’s friends is  S. Donald Sussman, who is the head of  Paloma Partners. Why is this significant? Because  Paloma Partners received $200 million in federal bailout money in 2009, shortly before the company gave Barney Frank a free vacation in the Virgin Islands with a free trip on a $25 million jet plane included.

  When Barney Frank reported the trip he estimated the value of the round trip at about $1,500 and included no expenses once he actually arrived at the Virgin Islands. It seems as if his whole trip was paid for by Paloma Partners yet he estimated no other costs but the plane trip. Experts are now estimating that the total cost of such a plane flight–not including expenses incurred during his stay at the Virgin Islands–is roughly $30,000 each way.

  Barney Frank claims that this trip was approved by the ethics committee before he left:

 I checked with House ethics (officials) and they gave it the OK

  Barney Frank’s opponent in the upcoming mid-term election has asked Barney Frank to release the documents related to this trip, but Barney Frank has so far refused to do so:

“Frank should release the opinion from the Ethics Committee so we know exactly what Frank was claiming,” said Sean Bielat, the Newton Democrat’s Republican opponent. “If he did not disclose all the gifts or undervalued them, he could be in violation of House ethics laws”

  Perhaps Barney Frank is telling the truth here, maybe the ethics committee did in fact approve of the trip, but if the actual value of the round trip flight alone is $60,ooo and Barney Frank reported the trip as costing an estimated $1,500 than it appears as if Barney Frank misled the ethics committee, and for this he should be investigated.

  Barney Frank’s defense is his claim that this was a gift from a friend; he is claiming that it is not a crime to have rich friends. I personally happen to agree with this statement but I think that Republicans might find this interesting considering that Democrats regularly vilify Republicans for being associated with the rich. His defense seems to be quite hypocritical to me.

   Barney Frank accepted a free trip to the Virgin Islands from a “friend” who just happened to receive bailout money while grossly underestimating the value of the trip and we are supposed to believe that there is nothing to see here?! If there is really nothing to this story than Barney Frank should release the documents pertaining to this trip.