Richmond, VA — Today, new reporting from the Associated Press highlights Glenn Youngkin’s abhorrent track record at the Carlyle Group. Under Youngkin’s leadership, Carlyle led the charge on sending American jobs overseas in order to turn a profit. Youngkin’s experience also includes unleashing rent surges and price increases on mobile home owners — many of whom were then left to choose between food and medicine.
While Youngkin and his team decline to address his abysmal record, Virginians should be reminded of Youngkin’s past words:
“I will own everything that happened at Carlyle, because I was there.” —Glenn Youngkin
See key excerpts below and read the AP’s full report here.
AP: GOP candidate’s private equity resume draws scrutiny in Va.
By Steve Peoples and Sarah Rankin
Newly retired, Judy Pavlick was among hundreds of seniors who enjoyed the low cost-of-living and friendly atmosphere at Plaza Del Rey, a sprawling mobile home park in Sunnyvale, California. Then the Carlyle Group acquired the property and things began to change.
Pavlick’s rent surged by more than 7%. Additional increases followed. She said the unexpected jump forced her and her neighbors, many on fixed incomes and unable to relocate, to sometimes choose between food and medicine.
The 2015 acquisition and subsequent sale of Pavlick’s mobile home park is a core business practice for private equity firms such as Carlyle, which buy and restructure private companies to build value for their investors, sometimes cutting jobs and services in the process.
But the deal, one of hundreds Carlyle executed in recent years, could become a political liability for the company’s former co-CEO, Glenn Younkin, who is now running as the Republican candidate for governor in Virginia and highlighting his experience “building businesses and creating jobs.”
“They don’t realize that these are peoples’ homes. We’re not just numbers on a spreadsheet,” said Pavlick, now 74 years old. “They have no conscience.”
There are no allegations of illegality or wrongdoing, but Youngkin’s political aspirations have drawn new scrutiny to his dealings at the Washington-based investment firm, where he generated a net worth estimated at over $300 million before retiring as co-CEO last summer.
Youngkin now faces another wealthy former businessman, former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe, in November’s general election, which has emerged as the nation’s top political contest of 2021.
While McAuliffe’s ties to big donors and lobbyists are well-established, Youngkin has only begun to confront difficult questions about his business background. His team declined to address any of Carlyle’s specific deals. [...]
Youngkin has made his business experience and status as a political outsider central to his pitch to voters. But more often than not, he discusses his career in broad strokes, without mentioning his lofty position or even the name of his former firm.
Asked in a February interview with a former state lawmaker that was streamed on social media how he viewed the role of private equity in the economy, Youngkin responded: “We invest in companies, and we try to take good companies and make them great companies. And we do that by helping them expand.”
While creating big profits for the firm’s investors, Carlyle’s deals sometimes triggered layoffs, outsourced jobs and complaints from the people served by the companies acquired. [...]
“Glenn Youngkin’s record is clear: shipping American jobs overseas and harming seniors and homeowners, all for his own profit,” Freundlich said. “Virginians deserve better than an extreme, Trump-endorsed job killer with a track record of always putting his own wealth first.”
Carlyle made investments in several companies under Youngkin’s leadership that moved at least 1,300 American jobs offshore, according to Department of Labor data.
They include Metaldyne LLC, a North Carolina car parts company that sent 176 jobs to Korea in 2008; the Texas company Commemorative Brands that produced class rings and sent more than 260 jobs to Mexico between 2005 and 2013, and Ohio-based car part manufacturer Veyance Technologies that sent nearly 300 jobs to Mexico between 2009 and 2011.
After they were restructured, all three were sold for hundreds of millions of dollars more than they were acquired for. [...]
A representative for Carlyle declined to comment. The company’s leadership has struggled to defend some of their decisions at times.
The firm in 2005 acquired a minority stake in Combined Systems Inc., a “less-lethal” munitions manufacturer that produced tear gas and “super-sock bean bags” subsequently used by governments in Tunisia, Egypt and China to crack down on pro-democracy protesters.
Combined Systems’ officials said at the time that they could not control how their products were used, but the U.S. State Department condemned the excessive use of force against protesters in Egypt in particular and launched an investigation into the misuse of tear gas after pictures of CSI-branded tear gas canisters were published on social media.
Youngkin joined the firm in 1995 and rose through the ranks steadily in the subsequent years, becoming head of the industrial sector investment team by 2005. By March 2011, he had become the chief operating officer and within seven years, he was named co-CEO.
Carlyle announced Youngkin’s retirement last summer amid speculation that he was interested in running for office. In the announcement, Youngkin said it was the “professional journey of a lifetime and my honor to be part of building Carlyle into the global institution it is today.”
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