Frank Pallotta says DCCC is lying about his record

A potential challenger to Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff) has accused the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee of distorting his work as an investment banker by accusing him of ripping off homeowners with subprime mortgage loans.

“To be clear, in my 25 years on Wall Street, I never spent a single day in subprime mortgages,” said Frank Pallotta, who announced the formation of an exploratory committee on Wednesday.  “It’s also disturbing to see that nearly nineteen months before an election, they are already resorting to lying to the public with a personal attack.”

The DCCC labeled Pallotta the “Subprime King of New Jersey” yesterday, accusing him of encouraging irresponsible lending through high-interest mortgage loans while working at Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse.

Pallotta called the DCCC attack “uninformed” and said the campaign group that backs Gottheimer’s re-election should do their homework.

“It’s an unfortunate and inaccurate generalization by …the DCCC to simply state that anyone on Wall Street who worked in any mortgage area, would automatically be associated with the subprime crisis  let alone be branded a subprime king,” Pallotta told the New Jersey Globe. “This ridiculous oversimplification is not only absurd, but completely wrong.”

The potential self-funding candidate says a program he helped launch after his retirement from Wall Street helped provide millions to assist was for free and said that veterans were the largest beneficiaries.

“This specific program was focused directly at thousands of military families who have served, and continue to serve this great country,” Pallotta explained.  “I was proud to be a part of that incredible initiative and humbled to work on such a positive and important program for a great group of Americans patriots.”