Former Citigroup CEO and family vacationed in Los Cabos on bailout money

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Just weeks after Citigroup averted total collapse with a $45 billion shot in the arm of taxpayer cash, the bank jetted its former CEO and his family on one of its corporate jets to a posh Mexican resort for New Year's, The Post has learned.

Sandy Weill, 75, hopped aboard the tanking bank's Bombardier BD 700 Global Express on Dec. 26 with his wife, Joan, daughter Jessica, her husband and their children. They flew from Westchester County Airport to the Los Cabos shore region in sunny Baja, according to aviation records and sources familiar with the trip.

The holiday jaunt came the same week that Citigroup - which lost $28.2 billion over the last five quarters and cut 75,000 jobs globally in 2008 - agreed to curtail runaway corporate expenses as part of a deal to get the massive influx of federal money.

The new belt-tightening policy went into effect on Dec. 31, while the jet was parked at the Los Cabos airport.

The family stayed through Jan. 3 at the ultra-expensive One & Only Palmilla in San José del Cabo - where a four-bedroom suite costs $12,000 a night. It's the same beachfront resort favored by high-wattage stars like Jennifer Aniston and John Travolta and is where Eli Manning got married in April.

Weill, among the richest men in the country, was Citigroup's CEO until 2003 and its chairman until 2006. He played a key role in forging the company into the behemoth that toppled under its own weight in the recent credit crisis.

Although he stepped down in 2006, he remains an adviser to the company and was to keep access to corporate jets until 2016 as part of a blockbuster retirement package he worked out with the bank.

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Citigroup declined to comment on the trip.

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Industry experts estimate that chartering a plane for such a nine-day trip would cost anywhere from $60,000 to $80,000, including fuel, maintenance, insurance and the salaries of a three-person flight crew.

Additionally, Los Cabos' plane parking fees for a week would add another $2,000. Putting up two pilots and a flight attendant in a mid-range Los Cabos-area hotel would cost around $300 apiece a night, or $7,200 for the week. Giving each a minimum of $50 a day for meals would cost another $1,350.

That would bring the total cost to between $70,550 and $90,550.

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The Global Express in which Weill and his family flew is made by Bombardier Aerospace in Canada and retails for about $45 million. It is designed to fly at high speeds and for long distances without refueling.

Seating up to 18 passengers, the interior features a full bar and fine-wine selection, along with "$13,000 carpets, pillows that were made from Hermes scarves, Baccarat Crystal glassware and Cristofle sterling silver flatware," said a former crew member.

Weill's party departed from an exclusive terminal for private planes at the Westchester County Airport that resembles a five-star hotel lobby, complete with a doorman, grand piano and work stations outfitted with Macintosh computers.

The terminal also has a "quiet room" for pilots and a Starbucks. Richard Gere was spotted there last week, ordering a cappuccino after his private jet landed.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/02012009/news/...ance_152995.htm

[Jasman0717 9]

Crooks

[Ban Hammer 13,678]

i wonder how they sleep at night?