Busted: Bailed-Out Bank Blows Millions on LA Parties

Posted by Matt Corley, Think Progress at 8:10 AM on February 25, 2009.

Northern Trust received $1.6 billion in bailout funds and announced in December that it was eliminating 450 jobs because “the macroeconomic environment has been extraordinarily difficult.” But as TMZ reports, that hasn’t stopped the bank from spending “a fortune last week in L.A. hosting a series of lavish parties and concerts with famous singers”:

Northern Trust, a Chicago-based bank, sponsored the Northern Trust Open at the Riviera Country Club in L.A. We’re told Northern Trust paid millions to sponsor the PGA event which ended Sunday, but what happened off the golf course is even more shocking.

Northern Trust flew hundreds of clients and employees to L.A. and put many of them up at some of the fanciest and priciest hotels in the city. We’re told more than a hundred people were put up at the Beverly Wilshire in Bev Hills, and another hundred stayed at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel. Still more stayed at the Ritz Carlton in Marina Del Rey and others at Casa Del Mar in Santa Monica.

Northern Trust said in a statement that the parties were funded through “our normal cash flow,” not bailout funds. But lawmakers are having none of it. Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) called it “insulting” and “disgusting.” Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said that the bank should “pay the government back for the money it spent.”

Tagged as: la, bank, kerry, frank, bailout, bail out, northern trust, parties

Matt Corley is a Research Associate for The Progress Report and ThinkProgress.org at the Center for American Progress.