ryan katz

This post looks at Ryan Katz, and is a companion piece to my post on Cary Katz.

This from Ryan's company website:

"Ryan Katz - CEO and Founder
Ryan founded Goal Financial in January of 2001. Under his leadership, the organization has grown dramatically in a short period of time, with almost $5 billion in student loans under management. He was a founder of and served as Vice President to the FFELP Marketing Group from 1995 to 1999, providing families with over $1 Billion in student loans to meet their education finance needs. Both companies have been focused on the delivery of student loans through direct to consumer channels. This approach was innovative and helped trigger the shift in how both federal and private loan products are now presented to consumers nationally. Ryan's experience and vision have helped Goal Financial become a top ten holder of federally guaranteed student loans, while positioning the company for growth as a leader in the education finance market. "

And a bit more about his firm:

Student Loan Consolidation Center (now Goal Financial) is the 5th largest holder of Federal Consolidation Loans with over 100,000 customers nationwide, and provides Federal PLUS and Stafford Loans for parents, graduate and undergraduate students to achieve their educational goals.

What do they actually do?

"help students and parents consolidate education debt through the Federal Consolidation Loan Program." (link)

Ryan Katz has donated $123,000 since 02

$12,000 American Prosperity PAC (Duke Cunningham)
$11,000 21st Century PAC - Buck Mckeon (R-CA)
$10,000 Freedom Project - John Boehner (R-Ohio)
$8,000 Mike Ferguson (R-NJ)
$7,500 National Republican Congressional Cmte
$5,000 Rely on Your Beliefs - Roy Blount
$5,000 Milead Fund - Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich) ,
$5 ,000 Chris Chocola, 5k sixth largest recipient of Tom DeLay's ARMPAC
$5,000 Carolina Majority PAC - Joe Wilson (R-S.C.)
$5,000 CARE PAC 5k Ralph Regula (R-Ohio)
$5,000 Majority Initiative-Keep Electing Repubs - Mike Rogers (R-Mich)
$2500 Together for Our Majority - Tom Reynolds (R-NY), (Chair, NRCC. )
$2500 Americans for a Republican Majority - Tom DeLay
and more

it looks like he donated 3 * $1000 in one day to Chocola, Chris under the company name of BEST EFFORT. isn't that illegal?

In the campaign contribution forms, he lists a number of different employers, (all overlapping) - despite the fact that he's been working at the one company all this time.

• STUDENT LOAN CONSOLIDATION CENTER
• BOND & COMPANY
• GOAL FINANCIAL
• VALENTE LOPATIN & SCHULZE
• BEST EFFORT

apart from that, he's virtually invisible on the web. i can't even find a profile of him in a business magazine or anything...

Can anyone see any patterns in the donations?

How do cary and ryan katz grow multi-billion dollar businesses in a few short years? is it a coincidence they donate lots of money to the repuglican power brokers?

for my other katz posts, see here, here, here and here