Hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin is reportedly considering backing out of a $6 billion project in New York City, as NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani mentioned Griffin’s penthouse in a tax the rich video.
Gerald Beeson, who serves as the chief operating officer for Griffin’s company, Citadel LLC, explained to the Daily Mail that it was “shameful” that Mamdani used Griffin’s name in his video. Beeson’s statement comes as the company is set to start a project called “redevelopment of 350 Park Avenue.”
“It is shameful that he used Ken’s name as the example of those who supposedly aren’t carrying their fair share,” Beeson said in a statement to the outlet. Beeson continued to highlight how the “employees and partners” of the company “have paid nearly $2.3 billion in city and states taxes over the past five years.”
Beeson added that the project would create roughly 6,000 “highly paid construction jobs,” and would also support “the creation of more than 15,000 permanent jobs in mid-town New York.”
Beeson’s comments come after Mamdani released a video in which he announced a pied-à-terre tax, explaining that it was “an annual fee on luxury properties worth more than $5 million whose owners do not live full time in the city.”
“When I ran for mayor, I said I was going to tax the rich. Well, today, we’re taxing the rich,” Mamdani said. “I’m thrilled to announce we’ve secured a pied-à-terre tax, the first in New York’s history. This is an annual fee on luxury properties worth more than $5 million whose owners do not live full time in the city, like for this penthouse, which hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin bought for $238 million.”
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