ED Knew of Fontana Holdings in Loan Company

Where is Matteo Fontana? No one at ED seems to know since he was given a paid leave of absence until Spellings can bury the issue in the bowels of ED's Inspector General's office. I'm not so sure this one is going to go away so quickly.

If the Dems were not so busy figuring out a way to shove the testing-industrial complex's NCLB--The Sequel down the throats of Americans one more time, perhaps there could be some investigation of the corrupt feeding frenzy at ED that has been ignored for the past 6 years. From the Times:

. . . .The documents show that Mr. Fontana advised the department that he sold a total of $2,000 to $30,000 worth of shares in the company, Education Lending Group, and its predecessor, in December 2002, the year he joined the agency’s Federal Student Aid office. At that time, Mr. Fontana was advised that if the value of his stock exceeded $15,000, he should “contact the Ethics Division,” according to a handwritten notation on the form.

Two years later, Mr. Fontana informed the department that he had sold $100,000 to $250,000 worth of stock in the same company. At the same time he apparently bought a vacation home, according to the documents.

Mr. Fontana could not be reached for comment last night. Ms. McLane said: “He’s on paid administrative leave. I have no way of getting in touch with him.”

It is not clear why, if Mr. Fontana put the shares up for sale in 2003, the documents show a sale taking place in 2004. Documents provided to the Senate by the CIT Group, which acquired Education Lending Group in 2005, show that he received 7,000 shares in December 2001 as a gift from a senior executive.

Could Matteo be down in Nevis arranging seminars between Sallie Mae and university student loan personnel?