The whole government bailout thing just... bothers him.

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) holds up House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's statement while speaking to the media after the vote failed on the bailout on Capitol Hill on Sept. 29, 2008. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)House Republican Whip Eric Cantor, a rising star in the Republican party, has been a prominent voice demanding accountability in how the government doles out hundreds of billions for bank bailouts.

"I think most American taxpayers now are sort of scratching their head," Cantor told CNN in December, "wondering when all this bailout stuff is going to end. And probably thinking, 'You know, when is my bailout coming?'"

Rep. Cantor is not one of those confused taxpayers

This Thursday, Cantor cast a high-profile vote opposing release of another $350 billion in bailout funds. Unpublicized until now was a recent development: The Treasury Department used $267 million of taxpayer funds to buy preferred stock in a private banking company that employs Cantor's wife.

The bailout for New York Private Bank and Trust (NYPBT) came earlier this month as part of a Treasury Department program to boost "healthy banks" with extra capital. NYPBT is the holding company for Emigrant Bank, a savings bank with 35 branches in and around New York City. Diana Cantor runs the Virginia branch of Emigrant's wealth-management division, called Virginia Private Bank & Trust, which targets an ultra-rich clientele.

You know what's interesting about Virginia Private Bank and Trust? It's a brand new initiative for NYPBT, which appears to consist largely of Ms. Cantor

Diana Cantor runs the Virginia branch of Emigrant's wealth-management division, called Virginia Private Bank & Trust, which targets an ultra-rich clientele.

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The Virginia Private Bank & Trust, a satellite opened this spring, is still getting off the ground. On Thursday, when ProPublica visited its small Richmond office in an office park not far from the Cantors' home, a sheet of white paper taped to the door served as its sign. One of the two employees there said the office had yet to serve a client since it opened last spring. She referred further queries to the bank's main office.

In an April interview with Private Wealth magazine, NYPBT executives said that Virginia was the first of several regional locations planned for the bank's division concentrating on wealthy investors. The New York branch opened in 2005, concentrating on New York City area clients wanting to invest more than $50 million.

Diana Cantor comes to the job with many years of financial experience. She was hired in early 2008 after a long tenure running the Virginia College Savings Plan. Rep. Cantor's personal financial disclosure shows that she received a "consultant fee" from NYPBT in 2007 as well