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Ken Griffin has hit back at Zohran Mamdani after the New York mayor last week used the hedge fund billionaire’s $238mn penthouse to push for a tax on luxurious second homes.
Citadel, the firm founded by Griffin, sent a memo to staff to accuse Mamdani of “ignorance and disdain . . . towards those who have been consistently committed to building one of the greatest cities in the world”.
The move follows Mamdani’s push to impose a new tax on pied-à-terre properties valued above $5mn, a campaign that included calling out Griffin in a video filmed outside the billionaire’s penthouse on Central Park.
“It is shameful that [Mamdani] used Ken’s name as the example of those who supposedly aren’t carrying their fair share of the burdens associated with New York City’s often costly and wasteful spending,” wrote Gerald Beeson, Citadel’s chief operating officer, in the memo seen by the FT.
The clash marks the latest escalation in tensions between the democratic-socialist mayor and a small group of billionaires who have vehemently opposed his rise to power in the US financial capital.
Mamdani ran a grassroots campaign centred on affordability that propelled him from a relatively unknown state assembly member to become leader of America’s largest city.
The proposed new tax on second homes would impact about 13,000 properties in New York City, which has a population of about 8mn people.
Mamdani’s objective is to tax the wealthiest people who spend very little time in the city to support plans to expand free childcare and lower the city’s multibillion-dollar deficit.
Citadel said that the measure is short-sighted given the broader support the firm offers the city.
Beeson said over the past five years, Citadel’s principals and employees, including non-residents, had paid nearly $2.3bn in city and state taxes, helping to fund infrastructure, schools, parks and emergency services.
Citadel is about to commence the redevelopment of its 350 Park Avenue office, which Beeson said would create 6,000 highly paid construction jobs. He added that the project would be worth about $6bn “if we move forward”.
Griffin’s firm also claimed that the founder has personally contributed $650mn in philanthropic endeavours, including fighting poverty and providing free education to the underprivileged.
Mamdani had sought to reassure Wall Street that he is not anti-business in meetings with chief executives. The mayor previously told the FT: “I do not have a reflexive opposition to any one industry or to any one individual or to any one category of net worth.”
Citadel declined to comment. The mayor’s office did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
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