Dick Blumenthal's Private Equity History
Today's news cycle is all about Richard Blumenthal, the Connecticut senatorial candidate called out for falsely claiming to have "served in Vietnam" (common mistake -- I used to think I stormed the beach at Normandy). This über-gaffe obviously has nothing to do with private equity, but it's worth taking a moment to remember that Blumenthal is the same guy who once sued one of the world's biggest buyout firms for breach of fiduciary duty: Blumenthal was first elected Connecticut's Attorney General in 1990, and had his first private equity encounter later that decade when the state pension system became emroiled in a massive pay-to-play scandal. Federal prosecutors were responsible for sending then-Treasurer Paul Silvester to prison, but Blumenthal was instrumental in helping to recover certain monies and was widely lauded for efforts to stem government corruption. But it was in February 2002 that Blumenthal really caught the private equity industry's attention. That was when he sued Forstmann Little & Co. for breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract and securities law violations.
