New York – We are GE — the 800 pound gorilla — we can do whatever we want.”
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That’s a quote that an executive in GE’s healthcare finance business used while negotiating with the operators of nursing homes in Louisiana and Texas that were financed with tens of millions from GE, according to a lawsuit filed earlier this month in federal court in the Southern District of New York by the nursing home operators.
The suit also claims that the executive, Richard Arrowsmith, who is based at a GE office in Bethesda, Md., required the nursing-home operators to reimburse his expenses – “including his accommodations at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel” — when he traveled to New York to meet with them.
General Electric is rejecting the lawsuit as groundless. The managing director of communications and public affairs at GE Capital, Russell Wilkerson, told me, “Our policy is not to comment on legal matters, but I will say in this case that specifically the case is baseless, the charges are false and egregious.”
In a press release announcing the suit, the lawyers bringing the complaint accuse GE of racial and religious discrimination against two Jewish-American businessmen, Albert and Harris Schwartzberg, whose companies owned and operated the nursing homes and assisted living facilities financed with a $44 million term loan and a $22 million operating loan in which GE eventually took a lead role (it was originated by Merrill Lynch.)
Read more at Futureofcapitalism
David versus Goliath – the truth will come out
We had business with GE Capital, one time they came to inspect the property and saw a me a frum jew with Yarmulkah and a beard, and this banker went dark, he never again treated me well, he became evasive etc.. BH.. all ended well though. The point is that GE are a bunch of Jew haters!!
Religious discrimination in borrowing? In all my decades in the financial field, I’ve never seen a major US financial institution such as GE engage in the conduct alleged in the lawsuit. Is it possible that there’s another side to the story? Could it be that the plaintiffs were looking for some debt foregiveness or reduction in rate that was declined? Could it be that Merrill Lynch’s exit from asset-based lending gave them the idea that GE would settle for something less than the face amount of the debt? Could it be that they hope for a settlement which will generate at least a portion of the monies they were hoping to avoid paying under their existing agreements. To charge that a neo-Nazi with the same family name influenced the GE account officer to act capriciously in a firm with a large oversight function is quite difficult to accept. I’ve dealt with GE on behalf of clients for over 20 years, and I find the allegations made by the plaintiffs is hard to reconcile with my first-hand experience.
i think we should all boycott GE products including lightbulbs – there are many other companies with lightbulbs. looking for volunteers to start a online campaign
GE is not only anti Jewish but anti American. They push to do away with the incandescent light bulb which cost people 30 cents or so to buy compact flourscents which cost more and are made in China. It is a win win situation for GE. They are very powerful since they owed MSNBC and was the obama news network