More private equity hypocrisy from Newt Gingrich.
Newt Gingrich doubled down on his private equity attacks yesterday, characterizing Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital deals as “exploitative.”
It would seem that Gingrich — who fancies himself one of the world’s leading intellectuals — has adopted Emerson’s credo that a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.
First, we reported that Gingrich had served as an adviser to private equity firm Forstmann Little & Co. upon leaving Congress. Then Paul Levy of JLL Partners told Bloomberg that his firm paid Gingrich $60,000 for a speech “praising” private equity at the firm’s annual meeting two years ago.
Now Fortune has learned that Gingrich also made money in 2009 from giving a keynote address at ACG Intergrowth, a Las Vegas conference featuring more than 2,000 private equity deal-makers and service providers. Gingrich’s contract precluded ACG from recording his speech, although one attendee tell me that he was “singing [private equity’s] praises all the way.”
ACG also is not allowed to disclose the amount it paid Gingrich. Below was the event brochure:
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