Rominger will work overseeing mutual funds and hedge funds under Dodd-Frank Act rules. She will earn $220,000 at the SEC.
Do multimillionaires (like Hank Paulson) make the best regulators? Does Goldman Sachs have a reputation for lobbying against Dodd-Frank? Has Goldman Sachs supported deregulation of the financial system forever?
You already know the answers to those questions! Now weep.
Ex-Goldman Exec Started SEC Job After Earning $57 Million
By Jesse Hamilton - Bloomberg
Weeks after Eileen P. Rominger left Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), she took the helm of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s investment management division as one of the wealthiest people to ever join the agency.
Rominger reported $57.5 million in income from New York- based Goldman Sachs in a financial disclosure form covering 2010 and 2011. She also reported making $2.3 million to $13.2 million in investment income since the start of 2010.
Rominger, 56, retired as global chief investment officer at Goldman Sachs Asset Management in December after 11 years with the firm. She was appointed by SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro in January to replace Andrew J. “Buddy” Donohue at the helm of the division that oversees mutual funds and will handle new oversight of hedge funds required by the Dodd-Frank Act.
The financial disclosure, obtained by Bloomberg News under a public records request, asks for ranges rather than specific dollar figures. It showed Rominger holding $9.3 million to $31.3 million in assets, at least $4 million of that in JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) money market accounts.
She listed compensation received from Goldman Sachs from January 2010 through July 2011 on two lines, one totaling $46.8 million and one for $10.7 million. It was unclear in what time period she may have earned the compensation.
The form didn’t specify whether the compensation consisted of salary, accumulated retirement benefits or other payments.
Federal officials are required to submit regular financial disclosure reports that detail income, assets and debt.
Rominger declined to comment on the disclosure report.
Judith Burns, an SEC spokeswoman, estimated Rominger will earn about $220,000 for her first year at the agency.
Millionaire Officials
Rominger is not the first regulator to report to work with an ample bank account. Another Goldman Sachs alumnus, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, amassed more than $500 million in a career that peaked with his job as chief executive officer of the Wall Street firm. Another Treasury Department official, Mary Miller, assistant secretary for financial markets, left a 26-year career at T. Rowe Price Group Inc. with about $15 million in stock options.
At the SEC, Schapiro arrived with an $8.99 million final distribution from her job as chief executive officer at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, including vested retirement benefits. One of her predecessors at the SEC, William Donaldson, owned assets worth $44 million to $129 million, including stocks in more than 50 companies, when he got the job.
Industry Expertise
As SEC chairman, Schapiro has sought to increase hiring of people with financial-industry expertise in response to criticism that the lawyer-dominated agency lacked the practical experience needed to police increasingly complex markets.
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