VA Gov Youngkin-R, Recd $8.5 Mill in Carlyle Group Stock, Pd $0 Tax. PGH Pension Funders Got Nothing

- 'An unusual deal gave Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin-R $8.5 Million in stock. He paid $0 in tax on it.' NBC News, Aug. 11, 2022. - Ed.

- A shareholder of the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm formerly led by Youngkin, alleges in a new lawsuit that a 2020 deal enriched execs at the expense of Pittsburgh cops & firefighters. -

In Jan. 2020, Glenn Youngkin, now the Republican governor of Virginia, got some welcome news. A complex corporate transaction had gone through at the Carlyle Group, the powerful private equity company that Youngkin led as Co-Chief Executive. Under the deal, approved by the Carlyle board and code-named “Project Phoenix,” he began receiving $8.5 Mill worth of Carlyle stock, tax-free, according to court documents.

The payout came on top of $54 Mill in compensation Youngkin had received from Carlyle during the previous 2 years, regulatory records show.

Youngkin retired from Carlyle on Sept. 30, 2020; he won the Va. governor’s election in Nov. 2021. He was not alone in receiving the 2020 windfall, noted in the court documents- 8 other wealthy Carlyle officials received over $200 Mill of company shares in the deal, tax-free and paid for by the company. David M. Rubenstein, Carlyle’s Billionaire founder and co-chairman, received $70.5 Mill worth.

The transaction is under attack by a Carlyle shareholder in Delaware Chancery Court. The suit, filed last week by the city of Pittsbg. Comprehensive Municipal Pension Trust Fund, says the $344 Mill deal harmed Carlyle’s stockholders, who received nothing in return when they funded the payday. The Carlyle insiders who received the payouts escaped a tax bill that would have exceeded $1 Bill, per the complaint, which accuses Rubenstein, Youngkin & other Carlyle officials of lining their own pockets at the expense of people like police officers & firefighters.

The kind of impunity that Carlyle’s control group acted with is shocking and unacceptable,” lawyers for the pension fund said. “The beneficiaries of the city of Pittsburgh Comprehensive Municipal Pension Trust Fund are municipal fire & police personnel serving the city of Pittsburgh. Many are 1st responders putting their lives on the line every day. They depend on the integrity of the financial markets to provide for their retirement.”..The Carlyle payout exemplifies the private equity industry’s laser focus on avoiding tax bills..TRAs are becoming increasingly popular...
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/unusual-deal-gave-virginia-gov-glenn-youngkin-85-million-stock-paid-0-rcna42091
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- The Carlyle Group, global investment group, private equity,
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Carlyle_Group

- David Mark Rubenstein (b. Aug. 11, 1949) is an American billionaire businessman. A former government official & lawyer, he is a co-founder & co-chairman of the private equity firm The Carlyle Group, a global private equity investment company based in Washington, D.C. He is chairman of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts...https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Rubenstein