Treasury Hides Citigroup (NYSE:C) Executive Names Connected to Bailout Negotiations

Names of the executives connected to negotiations between Citigroup (NYSE:C) and the Treasury Department over terms of the 2008 bailout were hidden in order to protect them from potentially being “harassed.”

When Bloomberg News received email and documents after requesting the information based on the Freedom of Information Act, the names were blacked out to hide their identities, said Bloomberg News.

As expected, a large number of the documents were related to communications between the Citigroup executives involved with the negotiations and representatives of the government concerning limits related to executive pay.

Citigroup supposedly had concerns over competitors getting hold of the communication documents, saying it could reveal some of their competitive strategies.

“If this information were to find its way into the hands of Citigroup’s competitors, which I presume would occur if these documents were disclosed to a FOIA requester, those competitors would gain valuable insights into Citigroup’s strategies,” Bloomberg quoted Citigroup personnel head Paul McKinnon as asserting.

Concerns about the harrassment aspect of it came from the experiences many executives from American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG) went through, who were targeted when the large bonuses they received were made public knowledge.
 
Interestingly, other parts of the documents were also blacked out, with the explanation being there were internal company conversations exempt from being disclosed.
 
While that is probably true, it does give some doubt about information being given out under the guidance of the government in a way that makes it look like they collaborated with Citigroup on what they wanted the public to be allowed to see.

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