Treasury ‘Avoidably Deterred’ Smaller PPIP Managers
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U.S. officials may have hurt taxpayers by needlessly favoring the biggest money managers in choosing participants for a program designed to buy toxic debt from banks, according to an audit of the selection process.
The Treasury Department told prospective applicants in the Public-Private Investment Program, or PPIP, they must show they could raise $500 million in private capital, then waived the threshold for two firms that failed to reach it, according to the 42-page report released today by the watchdog appointed to supervise the government’s financial-bailout efforts.