A liberal blog charges that House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa hired a former Goldman Sachs executive helped thwart regulations that would affect the investment bank's bottom line.
Think Progress said Peter Haller, who joined the Oversight Committee in January, helped write a letter from Issa to top regulators demanding that they provide justification for new margin requirements for financial companies dealing in derivatives.
Haller was previously known as Peter Simonyi, but he legally adopted his mother's maiden name in 2008, just as he was leaving his job at Goldman Sachs to work for the lobbying firm Brickfield, Burchette, Ritts & Stone, according to the latter firm's website.
ThinkProgress, run by the Center for American Progress, said Haller's involvement in the letter raises questions about Issa's ability to lead the committee. "Haller's direct involvement in the July letter brings Issa's ability to lead the Oversight Committee — charged with conducting investigations on behalf of the public interest — into serious doubt," the group said.
Haller said in a statement Thursday that he and his sister changed their names in 2008 to respect the last wish of his grandfather to carry on his mother's family name. He noted that the name change was public on the website of Brickfield Burchette — his first employer after the name change — for his entire tenure with the firm.
"Information peddled by faux reporters, like those at the left-wing Center for American Progress, is almost always sensationalized and often factually inaccurate," committee spokesman Becca Watkins said in a statement. "The truth is often far from how they try to portray it."
