Treasury chief awaits his fortune

Henry Paulson's money has been in a blind trust.

WASHINGTON - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, a $500 million man when he entered office, yesterday said he's about to discover how much of his fortune remains after two years of market turmoil.

"I've got to find out where my money has been invested," Paulson, 62, said yesterday after a speech, drawing laughter from the Washington Economic Club.

The former chairman of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. sold his 3.23 million shares of the investment firm before he was sworn in as Treasury secretary in July 2006. As a government worker, he's required to put his wealth in a blind trust and in assets that don't present conflicts of interest.

"You know the old joke about how you make a small fortune? And that is, give a large fortune to a person in a blind trust," he said.

According to documents he signed in May 2008 that listed his financial assets in ranges, more than $50 million of Paulson's money was in the HMP Qualified Blind Trust. Between $25 million and $50 million was in institutional shares of the Vanguard Prime Money Market Fund. The fund last year returned 2.8 percent, down from 5.1 percent in 2007. Another $1 million to $5 million was in the Vanguard STAR Fund, which lost 25 percent in 2008 after a 6.6 percent gain a year earlier.