Given his role in financing a genocidal regime, it is only fitting that Robert Hormats would salute the oil conglomerate Chevron as an example of “corporate excellence” in one of his first official acts as undersecretary of state (h/t Aleinad!).

Just a few weeks ago, EarthRights International also recognized Chevron…for enriching Burma’s military junta.

Chevron is a notorious human rights abuser and environmental villain. Check out its Crocodyl page page for a full catalogue of wrongdoing, or Kyle’s post on the company’s network to see why they get away with it.

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In his nomination hearing today, State Department nominee Robert Hormats was forced to discuss his role in the IPO of PetroChina. The IPO was the focus of a LittleSis / PAI report in late July and led anti-genocide groups to raise questions about the nomination. The nominee also faced repeated questions from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the issues of human rights, sanctions, and transparency.

I am in DC for the Gov 2.0 summit, so I went to the hearing. Sam Bell of the Genocide Intervention Network also covered the hearing on twitter.

Hormats was introduced by Senator Schumer, who announced his “unthrottled, full-throated support” of the nomination based on their friendship of over thirty years. In an early (but not explicit) nod to the PetroChina issue, Hormats’s opening statement emphasized his time spent in Africa.

After asking about his views of human rights issues, Senator Cardin raised the issue of PetroChina and Sudan, and the fact that there was significant concern in the human rights community about his role in the IPO.

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It should be no surprise that State Dept nominee Robert Hormats and Robert Rubin are well-acquainted, both Bobs having served their country at Goldman Sachs during the eighties. During the nineties, when Rubin was in the Clinton administration, they were a sort of Washington-Wall Street tandem, consistently agreeing on what was best for global financial markets. Hormats would appear on cable TV saying what his old boss should do, Rubin would oblige, and Hormats would lavish praise on him. So Rubin’s fingerprints are all over an Obama pick, once again.

Hormats’s homages to Rubin appear to have been part of the vast Wall Street conspiracy to portray Rubin as public-minded policy god, despite his smug, frat boy bearing. At times, these words of praise have been completely over-the-top. Here are some highlights.

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Our report on Obama’s State Department nominee Bob Hormats is starting to get some press.

As a Goldman Sachs exec, Hormats had some dubious ties to the genocidal regime in Sudan through a Chinese oil deal. In the name of accountability, we published a report exposing his background and listed questions we wanted lawmakers to ask Hormats during the confirmation process.

The Financial Times and Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone both used our report to expose Hormats’ past in articles today. The story has also been picked up by the Huffington Post, Attackerman, and Open Left.

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On Sunday I blogged about the key role of Bob Hormats, Obama’s recent nominee for undersecretary of state, in the stock offering of PetroChina, a company linked to Sudan’s genocidal regime.

Hormats’s Goldman Sachs connection has been criticized elsewhere, but his Sudan ties deserve more scrutiny.

This is no insignificant matter: as a Goldman Sachs executive, Hormats threw his weight behind a stock offering that helped to finance Sudan’s genocidal regime. He did so in a deceptive and, as it turned out, illegal manner. And he did so despite the fervent opposition of a broad coalition concerned about the link between oil revenues and the Sudan genocide. This coalition included government officials (including members of the Reagan administration), labor unions, human rights organizations, and religious groups.

The Public Accountability Initiative (PAI, the 501c3 behind LittleSis) will be releasing the Hormats research in the form of a report and circulating it to various stakeholders and Senate offices. The introduction is below, the full report is here.

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Since Friday’s post about Bob Hormats, Obama’s most recent Goldman nominee, I’ve done a bit of research on his record. It looks very bad.

Hormats was one of Wall Street’s top diplomats over the past two decades, which means that he played a starring role in every foreign financial crisis: Mexico, Russia, Thailand, etc. The formula was fairly consistent: before each crisis, as Goldman’s chief international banker, Hormats advised these countries on how to open their markets (deregulation, privatization, etc) and invite foreign flows of capital. This, in turn, created speculative bubbles. Once they burst, Hormats advised the US on the necessary bailout and issued warnings about what Wall Street would do if no bailout came through.

In Hormats’ career as international financial villain, one incident looks especially bad: his role in Goldman’s stock offering for PetroChina, the Chinese oil company linked to Sudan, in 2000.

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