QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; Trump appoint another ex-Goldman Sachs guy as the head of the SEC. Some say he is not draining the swamp but filling it. Care to comment?
ANSWER: Walter J. “Jay” Clayton III firm where he worked represented Goldman but he did not work for Goldman. He comes from Sullivan & Cromwell, which represents just about every bank in New York. They are extremely influential in New York City to a very very very large extent. I believe this is a bit misleading piece.
Clayton disclosed to the United States Office of Government Ethics that his clients have included Deutsche Bank, UBS, Volkswagen, SoftBank Group, The Weinstein Company, Reid Hoffman, Paul Tudor Jones, Ocwen’s leader, as well as both Pershing Square Capital Management and Valeant Pharmaceuticals.
He is a huge improvement over Mary-Jo White who has been a government groupie most of her life with no real experience in the field. She was a prosecutor who let Republic/HSBC plead criminally guilty, return $650 million, kept $400 million in profits, and no jail time.
This is Clayton’s first venture into government and he has made enough over the years to afford to take such a job.
