U.S. to Reap $12.3B Profit on Citi Bailout

The U.S. Treasury Department said Wednesday that it will post a $12.3 billion profit on its much-maligned bailout of Citigroup. The Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, is expected to close Monday on the sale of the Citigroup warrants, the promised return investment. Tim Massad, a Treasury Department acting assistant secretary, said the profit from the Citigroup sale proves that the cost of the bank bailout will be a “fraction of what many had once feared during the depths of the crisis.” TARP, the $700 billion government bailout of private businesses, is currently estimated to cost taxpayers around $28 billion. The Treasury Department still owns a stake in a number of private companies, and they have said they plan to unload big stakes of AIG and the auto-finance company Ally Financial Inc. sometime this year.