Obama squashes Citigroup's $50 million luxury jet
Posted
Jan 27 2009, 12:20 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
We wrote Monday about Citigroup's (C) bone-headed plan to buy a $50 million corporate jet -- after getting $45 billion in taxpayer funds. The company already has five luxury planes.
Well, that idea didn't go over well with the Obama administration. A Treasury official called Citigroup Monday after the news came out and told the company to "fix it," according to ABC News.
One day and one change of heart later, Citigroup now says it has canceled the order. In the company's defense, it ordered the plane in 2005, when those kinds of purchases were pretty normal for banks with fat wallets. And it's trying to sell two other planes to help pay for the new one.
But times have obviously changed, and while canceling the deal means paying millions of dollars in penalties, it's the right thing to do. Flying coach comes with the territory when you get a government bailout.
The plane was a French-made Dassault Falcon 7X (pictured), Reuters reports. It seats up to 12 and has plush leather seats, sofas and a customizable entertainment center, according to the New York Post. Buying a foreign-made plane made the deal stink even more for some politicians.
A spokesman for President Obama said the president "doesn't believe that is the best use of money at this point."
Image credit: Dmitry Mottl, public domain release
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