Corzine's Claims Don't Hold Water: Major Publications Confirm Corzine Partners With Casino License Holders

Campaign Calls on Jon Corzine to Release Documents that Shed Light on Extent of Relationships Between Casino License Holders and TPG Axon

PARSIPPANY, NJ - While Jon Corzine and his campaign attempt to deflect from the seriousness of the governor's partnership with casino license holders, major publications confirm the connection between Texas Pacitfic Group (TPG) and TPG-Axon. Hoover's, Dun and Bradstreet, The Wall Street Journal and others all confirm that TPG-Axon Capital Management is "a subsidiary of" TPG Capital Partners.


"Texas Pacific Group founder David Bonderman said at a recent industry conference that his company's move to start a hedge fund was a way for the firm to find new uses for the 'intellectual capital' gleaned from researching buyouts, such as buying and selling stock in other companies in the same industry as a company TPG was trying to acquire, without sharing any inside information." (Jason Singer, "Carlyle Will Join Financiers' Moves Into Hedge Funds," The Wall Street Journal, 8/1/06)

In fact, TPG's own website includes a Financial Times article from July 3, 2006 stating, "In 2004 TPG formed a hedge fund, a move that has since been replicated by several rivals. The new venture, called TPG-Axon, is based in New York and managed by Dinakar Singh, a former high-flyer at Goldman Sachs." (Peter Smith and James Politi, "Against the flow: how 'private equity's Google' is profiting from contrarianism," Financial Times, 07/03/06)

TPG founders David Bonderman and James Coulter are identified in documents prepared by the Attorney General's Division of Gaming Enforcement, and released by the Corzine campaign yesterday, as the individuals who hold the ultimate authority to make decisions on behalf of the various companies that hold the casino licenses issued in 2008 to Harrah's, Caesar's, Bally's and the Showboat casinos in Atlantic City.

"No matter how you slice it, Jon Corzine is partnered with people who hold a casino license. Corzine needs to release any and all documents that shed light on the casino licensee holders relationships with TPG-Axon," stated Campaign Manager Bill Stepien.

In order to fully understand the extent and nature of the relationship between TPG-Axon and the casino license holders, Jon Corzine should release all documents from the DGE that reveal Bonderman and Coulter's role in TPG-Axon.

"The DGE's letter to the Casino Control Commission references a number of other reports including a financial analysis of the license applicants and also reports detailing the 'credentials of the initial individual qualifiers' involved with license. We need to know if the Attorney General's office ever investigated the role that TPG, and those who exercise control over it, play in TPG-Axon," added Stepien.