Obama's pick as treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, failed to pay taxes

The man chosen by President-elect Obama to run the US Treasury failed to pay $34,000 in taxes over several years in the first half of the decade.

The disclosure of the unpaid tax bill of Timothy Geithner, who is president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, will complicate a Senate Finance Committee hearing into his nomination as US Treasury Secretary.

It may also add some bumps into what has so far been a relatively seamless transition between the Bush and Obama presidencies.

The unpaid taxes, which relate to a period when Mr Geithner worked as a senior official at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and a separate issue regarding the employment of a housekeeper without a work permit, emerged in papers released yesterday by the Senate Finance Committee.

Source: The Telegraph