Citadel CEO Ken Griffin speaks throughout the Semafor World Financial system Summit 2025 at Conrad Washington on April 23, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Kayla Bartkowski | Getty Pictures
Citadel rebuked New York Metropolis Mayor Zohran Mamdani for singling out Chief Govt Officer Ken Griffin in a push for a brand new pied-à-terre tax, escalating a public dispute over how aggressively New York ought to goal rich non-resident owners.
In a social media video filmed exterior Griffin’s residence at 220 Central Park South and timed to tax day, Mamdani unveiled a proposed levy that may impose an annual surcharge on one- to three-family houses, condominiums and co-ops valued above $5 million when the proprietor’s major residence is exterior New York Metropolis.
Citadel denounced the mayor’s transfer with Chief Working Officer Gerald Beeson saying in an inside memo obtained by CNBC that concentrating on Griffin confirmed “ignorance and disdain” towards contributors to the town’s financial system.
“It’s shameful that he used Ken’s identify as the instance of those that supposedly aren’t carrying their fair proportion of the burdens related to New York Metropolis’s usually expensive and wasteful spending,” Beeson wrote. “In doing so, the mayor has as soon as once more manifested the ignorance and disdain of the elite political class in direction of those that have been persistently dedicated to constructing one of many best cities on the planet.”
Beeson mentioned Citadel’s principals and workers — together with non-residents — have paid practically $2.3 billion in NY city and state taxes over the previous 5 years. He additionally pointed to the agency’s deliberate redevelopment of 350 Park Avenue, a challenge anticipated to generate about 6,000 building jobs and greater than 15,000 everlasting roles, with spending projected to exceed $6 billion.
Griffin moved Citadel headquarters from Chicago to Miami in 2022 and he has made Florida his major residence.
The memo additionally highlighted that just about 200 Citadel workers serve on boards of New York charitable establishments, whereas Griffin himself has directed roughly $650 million in philanthropic donations to the town.
“We perceive that our laborious work and success will, every now and then, make us targets for political rhetoric. But it surely mustn’t diminish the delight we soak up constructing corporations that can proceed to assist New York Metropolis thrive for many years forward,” Beeson wrote.
The Wall Road Journal first reported on the memo earlier Thursday.