by Lee Fang at Lee Fang Substack
Barack Obama campaigned extensively during his presidency to eliminate the “carried interest loophole,” a tax strategy that allows billionaire investors to evade ordinary income taxes.
Hedge funds and other private fund managers use this tax treatment to pay long-term capital gains of 20%, a rate that is almost half of what many working Americans pay.
Obama, while in office, said this “loophole” leads to “folks who are doing very well paying lower rates than their secretaries.”
However, since leaving the presidency, Obama has employed a similar tax strategy to potentially only pay capital gains taxes for the services he has provided to private business interests.
One example of this is Obama’s strategic partnership with NBA Africa, which was announced in July 2021, as part of an expansion of Africa’s largest men’s basketball league. According to private information I obtained, the deal is structured as a “profit interest” share.
This agreement enables Obama to possess a “minority ownership stake” in the NBA Africa venture without making any upfront cash investments.
A profit interest share essentially guarantees a portion…
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