http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/german-publishings-man-in-the-white-house/2/
>>> Largely thanks to the Bertelsmann deal, Obama went from earning just over >>> $85,000 in 2004 (see statement 3 in Barack and Michelle Obamas’ joint 2004 >>> tax return here) to well over $1 million in 2005. His senate salary of >>> $154,000 was dwarfed in that year by a reported $874,000 in income from >>> Random House plus another $336,000 from literary agent Dystel & Goderich. >>> (See statements 5 and 10 in the Obamas’ 2005 return here.) The Obamas’ most >>> recent 2007 return lists a staggering $3,279,000 in income from Random >>> House plus another nearly $816,000 from literary agent Dystel & Goderich, >>> adding up to over $4 million in book-related revenues in all. (As so >>> happens, Jane Dystel is Obama’s former literary agent, whom he is reported >>> to have unceremoniously dumped before signing the Random House deal. That >>> Obama should be receiving such large sums from Dystel & Goderich suggests >>> some sort of complicated settlement between the three parties and this >>> suggests in turn that the sums could well represent additional indirect >>> payments to Obama from Random House. In any case, it is unusual for an >>> agent to be paying a client rather than vice versa.) All told, from 2005 to >>> 2007, Obama received some $4,556,636 in income from the Random House >>> division of Bertelsmann and another $1,299,167 from Dystel & Goderich, >>> adding up to nearly $6 million — presumably all of it related in one way or >>> another to the Bertelsmann/Random House deal. In the interest of transparency, Obama should surely now release the full details of his contractual relationship with the Bertelsmann Corporation. After all, if one is to judge by his recent tax returns, even as president, he will be paid far more by Bertelsmann than by the American taxpayers. For him to be taking advice from the Bertelsmann Foundation suggests conflict of interest on a magnitude that has perhaps never before been seen in the history of the American presidency. Although legally distinct, the foundation and the corporation are, in effect, just functionally distinct parts of a single entity. The Bertelsmann Foundation is in fact the majority shareholder in the corporation, presently holding roughly three- quarters of the company shares, to which, however, there correspond no voting rights. All the remaining shares are held by the Mohn family: family patriarch Reinhard, his wife Liz, and their children. The Mohns in turn control the foundation (to which Reinhard Mohn assigned a large part of the company capital in 1993), such that foundation and corporation are perfectly intertwined and both are, in effect, emanations of the Mohn family’s power. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
