Bloomberg: I didn't sign the Cayman Islands tax return I signed »

By Adam Lisberg

Mayor Bloomberg got a bit testy this afternoon at his post-Obama Q&A in Times Square, which was the press corps' first chance to ask him about the Observer's detailed takedown of the offshore tax shelters where his investment managers have parked hundreds of millions of dollars. (The DN's intrepid Erin Einhorn tried asking yesterday and was shut down.)

Bloomberg insisted he had no idea where the Bloomberg Family Foundation is investing the money. That's consistent with his agreement with the Conflicts of Interest Board that he can give his money managers general guidance about how aggressively to invest, as long as he doesn't know about particular investments.

But as the AP's Sara Kugler pointed out, Bloomberg personally signed the 105-page tax return in 2008 that showed the foundation's investments in Mauritius, Cyprus, Japan, Brazil, Luxembourg, the Cayman Islands and Bermuda. (That's his signature above; the full report is available on the state attorney general's website, or after the jump.) Their exchange did not go well:

Bloomberg: "I don't have anything to say about my investments, miss."

Kugler: "You signed those tax forms, so you had to have known --"

Bloomberg: "I did not sign those tax forms."

Kugler: "It has your signature on it."

Bloomberg: "If there are tax forms that I signed, I signed. But I don't have any control over where my investments go. And incidentally, as far as I know, the investments that my money managers make are perfectly legal. They're fully disclosed. And they're appropriate to maximize the assets which I'm giving away to charities. Miss?"

Continue reading Bloomberg: I didn't sign the Cayman Islands tax return I signed.