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World Affairs
Last week, the conservative-dominated U.S. Supreme Court handed down a ruling empowering 401(k) holders to sue finance executives that invest their savings in inappropriately risky or predatory private equity investments. Blackstone Group CEO Steve Schwarzman previously stated that accessing the $7 trillion in Americansâ 401(k) was one of his companyâs top goals
Still The Bidenâs administration just approved this policy, authorizing retirement plan administrators to shift workersâ savings into high-risk, high-fee private equity investments, despite regulatorsâ long-standing interpretation that federal laws prohibited such moves , even as federal law enforcement officials are warning of rampant malfeasance in the private equity industry.
The Biden administrationâs ruling to help private equity titans access retirees 401(k) accounts coincides with the SEC sounding an alarm about the industryâs practices. Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a risk alert saying that the agencyâs examiners are finding pervasive malfeasance and fraud throughout the private equity industry. The report found some firms havenât been calculating management fees according to the terms in their fund disclosures, which âresulted in investors paying more in management fees than they were required to pay.â a gift to the Democratâs own finance
In the meantime, Blackstone announced stronger than ever. fourth-quarter results last week driven by real estate returns.
âToday Blackstone reported the most remarkable results in our history on virtually every metric,â said CEO and co-founder Stephen Schwarzman The firm nearly doubled its net income to $2.9 billion from $1.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020. Earnings hit $1.92 per share, up from $1.07 in the year-ago period. Blackstone nearly doubled its real estate assets under management to $279.5 billion in the quarter, from $187.2 billion in the previous year while private equity, the firmâs next biggest segment, grew by just under one-third.