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UBS cracks down on Obama golf partner bundler

The New York Times reports UBS executives have reprimanded banker Robert Wolf--a major Obama campaign fundraiser and frequent golf partner of the president:

With media reports pointing out that one of the bank’s top executives is also one of the Obama campaign’s top bundlers — a word that one UBS executive said "makes people’s hair stand on end" inside the bank — the Swiss banking giant has decided to take an unusual step.

The bank’s powerful group executive board in Zurich recently presented Mr. Wolf with an edict directing him to report all his media inquiries to the firm’s press office. Since then, most of the requests to speak to Mr. Wolf have been rejected, according to people briefed on the situation, resulting in a much dimmer limelight for Mr. Wolf.

The move to muzzle Mr. Wolf is unlikely on its own to hinder his ability to raise money, even if he may have to do it more quietly than before. Mr. Obama is raising far less on Wall Street than he did in 2008, and Mitt Romney is enlisting a number of big donors there.

UBS executives say Wolf has violated the firm's media policy, and must now clear "any and all communications with the press as far in advance as possible," according to an email sent to some UBS staff.

Wolf has raised more than $500,000 for the president's reelection campaign in 2012.

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