John Podesta has won thousands of consultants for green energy billionaires. He now oversees a federal fund that could enrich them.
- December 15, 2022
Staff, ShrinkDlink
John Podesta, the powerful Democratic consultant whom President Joe Biden tapped to oversee a multibillion-dollar climate investment fund, discussed those investments with an environmental group that hired him a few months earlier, according to a news report. financial disclosure.
Galvanize Climate Solutions, a green energy investment firm founded by billionaire Tom Steyer, took part in a meeting Oct. 31 with Podesta and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to discuss how best to use the $369 billion dollars of federal funds. Galvanize paid Podesta $84,000 in advisory fees from December 2021 through August 2022, according to Financial Disclosures. Ethics watchdogs say Podesta did not technically break any laws, but hosting his former employer at the meeting was ethically questionable.
“Alas, it’s a similar story these days, with sophisticated actors ticking the necessary boxes to avoid obvious violations while still seeming to advance the interests of former employers and clients,” said Michael Chamberlain, group director of ethics oversight Protect the Public’s Trust.
Podesta’s net worth has skyrocketed since he last served in the White House as an adviser to former President Barack Obama. His net worth ranged between $4.6 million and $9.2 million in 2014, according to his financial disclosure that year. In 2022, his net worth soared between $9.3 million and $28.4 million, according to a copy of his latest financial disclosure obtained by the Free Washington Beacon.