Edwards made $479,000 part time

Presidential candidate who railed against 'wealthy insiders' reports hedge fund investments worth $1 million to $5 million

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards did well during his brief stint on Wall Street, earning nearly a half million dollars last year while working as a part-time adviser for a New York-based hedge fund, according to a campaign report made public Wednesday.

Edwards, a former North Carolina senator, reported earning $479,512 as a senior adviser to Fortress Investment Group LLC last year.

He also said that he and his wife held investments in the private equity fund valued at between $1 million and $5 million.

The involvement by Edwards in Fortress had drawn notice because of his emphasis in the last campaign on the "two different economies in this country: one for wealthy insiders and one for everybody else."

Edwards had sharply criticized offshore tax shelters when he was running in 2004. Fortress was incorporated in Delaware, but its hedge funds were incorporated in the Cayman Islands, allowing its partners and foreign investors to avoid paying U.S. taxes.

While campaigning in Iowa on Tuesday, Edwards defended his work for the hedge fund.

"If you look at what I've done since the last election, it is true that I did consulting work for a hedge fund part time," Edwards told The Associated Press. "It's also true that I started a poverty center at the University of North Carolina, that I led a minimum wage initiative in six states -- all successful -- that I started a college-for-everyone program for poor communities in Eastern North Carolina, that I helped organize thousands of workers into unions, that I did humanitarian work in Africa."

The Edwards campaign has noted that Fortress had ended its practice of letting its managing partners defer their U.S. income taxes by reinvesting profits in the offshore funds.

In October 2005, Fortress announced it was hiring Edwards, a millionaire former trial lawyer, to provide strategic advice on global economic issues. He resigned from his post with Fortress in December when he announced his second run for the presidency.

Fortress, founded in 1998, had about $35.1 billion in assets at the end of last year.

Not only was Fortress generous in compensating Edwards, but its executives contributed $167,460 to Edwards' presidential campaign during the first three months of this year, according to campaign finance reports.

Edwards, who now lives near Chapel Hill, was busy during 2006 -- laying the groundwork for his presidency, heading an anti-poverty effort, writing a book about childhood homes and giving speeches around the country.

Edwards earned $333,334 in royalties from his book on boyhood homes that was published by HarperCollins. He donated the money to charity. And he earned $40,000 from his position as director of UNC's Center on Poverty Work and Opportunity. The salary was provided by private funds, according to university officials.

He also earned $415,000 in speaking fees, mainly to universities. He typically charged $32,000 to $40,000 per speech.

The report requires presidential candidates to state the value of their assets in broad categories. The report suggests that Edwards' assets are valued at between $19 million and $41 million. The Edwards campaign said the candidate's assets were calculated as worth $29.5 million.