Financier Warren Buffett has been lauded for his plain-spoken denunciation of the greed and foolishness behind the economic crisis. He has pushed the massive federal bailout of imploding banks as the essential response to an "economic Pearl Harbor."

When Buffett speaks, people in high places listen. The famous investor is so highly regarded that in a debate last fall, both presidential candidates said they were considering him for treasury secretary.

A Bee examination of regulatory records shows that Buffett, the world's second-wealthiest person, also quietly has become a top beneficiary of the banking bailout he so vigorously advocated.

Just 28 companies received more than 90 percent of the funds so far disbursed to financial firms by the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

Buffett's holding company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., did not directly receive any of that aid. But Berkshire is the largest shareholder of San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co., which got $25 billion – 91 percent of TARP funds invested in institutions headquartered in California.

Overall, Berkshire owns more than $13 billion of stock in the top recipients of TARP funds – including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., US Bancorp, American Express Co. and Bank of America Corp., all considered by analysts to be in deep trouble before the federal infusion. The more the bailout props up these financial companies, the more secure Berkshire's investments.

That total, The Bee found, ranks Berkshire fifth among all investors in TARP-assisted companies. Berkshire's TARP holdings constitute 30 percent of its publicly disclosed stock portfolio. That proportion reflects at least twice as much dependence on bailed-out banks as any other large investor.

Buffett increased his bank holdings in September, while openly pressing Congress to pass the bailout.

"If I didn't think the government was going to act, I would not be doing anything this week," Buffett told CNBC, after investing $5 billion in Goldman Sachs. "I am, to some extent, betting on the fact that the government will do the rational thing here and act promptly."

In October, TARP was approved. Still, Buffett's credibility is such that experts tend to withhold judgment about his motives.

"People can draw their own conclusions" about Buffett's huge stake in the bailout, said Richard Coppes, an expert in business ethics at the international law firm Jones Day, and former general counsel of the California Public Employees' Retirement System. "But it shows one reason Buffett is so intensely interested in TARP."

Buffett, whose company also is the largest investor in Goldman Sachs and American Express, declined to be interviewed. In a February letter to Berkshire shareholders, he said that without government intervention, the consequences would have been "cataclysmic."

"Like it or not," he wrote, "the inhabitants of Wall Street, Main Street and the various Side Streets of America were all in the same boat."

Experts agreed with Buffett that preserving a functional banking system, TARP's stated goal, benefits everyone. In dispute is whether the bailout was the fairest and best approach.

Some say large shareholders such as Buffett actually have been the primary, and perhaps only significant, beneficiaries of TARP. Bank stocks have recovered significantly in recent weeks – Goldman's share price has more than doubled since November – and no TARP bank has failed.

Berkshire Hathaway shares are down nearly 40 percent since September, but have risen sharply in recent weeks with the financial sector stock rally.

Critics of TARP, however, worry that it propped up Wall Street against bankruptcy at the expense of Main Street and Side Street taxpayers. The Treasury Department expected TARP to get loans flowing again, but the market has barely thawed and unemployment has surged.

Thomas M. Hoenig, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, recently advocated a government takeover of moribund banks until their balance sheets can be cleaned up.

Call The Bee's Charles Piller, (916) 321-1113. The Bee's Phillip Reese contributed to this report.