Who is Paul Singer? Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito faces impeachment calls over accepting luxury vacation with GOP billionaire

A recent report on ProPublica revealed Supreme Court justice, Samuel Alito, took a luxury fishing trip comped by billionaire GOP donor Paul Singer in 2008 and failed to recuse himself from cases involving the hedge fund manager.

Paul Singer, who is the founder, president, co-chief executive officer, and co-chief investment officer of Elliott Investment Management L.P., reportedly flew Samuel Alito in a private jet to Alaska vacation at a luxury fishing lodge that charged more than $1,000 a day.

ProPublica estimated that a trip would have cost the chief justice $100,000 if he had chartered the plane himself. Paul Singer, 78, who was once dubbed the ‘the world’s most feared investor’ by Bloomberg over his aggressive tactics amassed a $5 billion fortune through his hedge fund, Elliott Investment Management LP, which has a reputation for targeting and exploiting weaknesses in various fields.

In the 1990s, Singer's hedge fund company bought up troubled debt from countries including Peru and Argentina. However, the investment was tied up in years of litigation until 2014, when the case came before the supreme court. The court agreed to resolve a decade-long battle between Singer’s hedge fund and the nation of Argentina after Alito voted with a 7-1 majority in Singer’s favor resulting in the billionaire's company gaining multi-million-dollar repayments.

ProPublica alleged that in the years that followed Singer’s hedge fund came before the court at least ten times where Justice Alito presided over the cases without recusing himself. Alito also failed to disclose the luxury vacation taken on Singer’s plane in his annual financial disclosures.

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Paul Singer denies underhanded dealings with Chief Justice Samuel Alito

In a statement to ProPublica, a spokesperson for Paul Singer said that the billionaire didn’t organize the fishing trip and that he wasn’t aware Chief Justice Samuel Alito would be attending when he accepted the invitation in 2008. Singer, went on to add, that he never discussed his business interest with Alito, nor could he have foreseen that his cases would be brought before the supreme court in the ensuing years.

Paul Singer, who was raised in New Jersey, studied psychology at the University of Rochester before getting a law degree from Harvard. Following law school, Singer reportedly worked in the real estate division of an investment bank Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, before starting his firm in his 30s.

According to a financial post, Singer was credited with predicting the 2008 financial crisis, where his company made a hefty profit from credit default swaps by betting leveraged companies would be razed to the ground.

The allegations against Chief Justice Samuel Alito come in the wake of ProPublica exposing Chief Justice Clarence Thomas's ties with GOP’s mega-donor Harlan Crow. Clarence Thomas was accused of accepting luxury gifts for twenty years and failing to disclose them in public filings.

The alarming revelations against two supreme court justices have raised ethical questions stemming from their transactions. Social media erupted with calls to impeach both Alito and Thomas in the wake of the allegations.

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While the calls to impeach the justices intensified, Samuel Alito in a lengthy op-ed with Wall Street Journal, slammed the report by ProPublica, arguing that he was not obligated to disclose the fishing trip. He also stated that he never discussed Singer’s business during his time at the fishing lodge.