Results tagged “loan”

Celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz, who had been facing a lawsuit because she failed to pay back a $24 million loan, worked out a deal with her creditor, which will allow her to buy back control of her photographs and pay back the money under new terms. Originally, Leibovitz had signed over the rights to all her photographs (past and future), as well as her three West Village townhomes and Rhinebeck estate, as collateral for the loan, which was supposed to have been paid back on Tuesday. It's unclear when the loan will be repaid at this time, but Art Capital is now letting "Ms. Leibovitz...retain control of those assets within the context of the loan agreement which shall prevail until satisfied." In a statement, the photographer said, “In these challenging times I am appreciative to Art Capital for all they have done to resolve this matter and for their cooperation and continued support. I also want to thank my family, friends, and colleagues for being there for me and look forward to concentrating on my work"—and maybe selling off some of that real estate.

New York investor Hassan Nemazee, whose prolific political fundraising for Democrats like Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Charles Schumer, was released on $25 million bond yesterday. Nemazee is " accused of lying about his assets to obtain a $74 million loan from Citibank." The NY Times further explains, he "orchestrated the fraud by using forged documents showing that he held accounts with collateral worth hundreds of millions of dollars," but the accounts never existed or were closed. Nemazee did end up paying the money back to Citibank on Monday, but was arrested on Tuesday. He is under house arrest—monitoring device plus no computer or Internet access—at his Upper East Side duplex, which the Daily News says is worth $20 million (that plus his $8 million Katonah estate are what's securing his bond). Vice President Joe Biden, Rep. Carolyn Maloney and Sens. Barbara Boxer, Chris Dodd and Schumer told Politico they plan to return his donations. Time has a 2-minute look at Nemazee.

It's the Hillary Clinton we all know and love! The NY Times reports that the Secretary of State-designate is seeking to make the State Department "more powerful... with a bigger budget, high-profile special envoys to trouble spots and an expanded role in dealing with global economic issues at a time of crisis." However, "Given Mrs. Clinton’s prominence, expanding the department’s portfolio could bring on conflict with other powerful cabinet members." In other HRC news, she is not expecting to receive her $13 million loan to her presidential campaign yet, since she, via papers filed with the Federal Election Commission, is formally writing off the loan.

The NY Post suggests that a "homeless man was better off than the city employee paid to protect him," because the employee--Department of Homeless Services security officer Robert Proctor--borrowed $600 from the homeless man in November 2006. Apparently the homeless man filed a complaint against Proctor when he only paid back $350 of the money by March 2007. Proctor admitted he violated the City Charter and "agreed to a 10-day suspension, worth $1,499.50, a loss of 10 vacation days, which total $770 in value, and a one-year probation period." He has also since paid off the loan. Other things the Conflicts of Interests Board has been dealing with: Term limits.

Last night, the federal government gave insurer AIG a new lease on life with an $85 billion loan--in exchange for a 79.9% stake in the company. The NY Times reports, "The decision, only two weeks after the Treasury took over the federally chartered mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is the most radical intervention in private business in the central bank’s history." As the Wall Street Journal noted, the Fed decided not to bail out Lehman Brothers, but "this time, the government decided AIG truly was too big to fail."