Lawrence Summers, President Obama's top economic adviser, received hefty speaking fees last year from Wall Street giants that later got bailout cash, Bloomberg reports. Summers received a total of $2.7 million from firms like Goldman Sachs and Citigroup on top of the $5.2 million salary he got from hedge fund DE Shaw, according to a disclosure form released by the White House. Lehman Bros., which went bankrupt in September, paid Summers $67,500 to speak July 30.
A White House spokesman said the speeches took place before the National Economic Council chairman joined the transition team and noted that as one of the nation's top economists, and the former president of Harvard, Summer was in high demand as a speaker. Other high earners in the administration include security adviser Michael Froman, who received a total of $7.4 million from Citigroup last year, including a $2.25 million year-end bonus.
(More Larry Summers stories.)