Billionaire: Don't hate me, 'emulate' me

Billionaire hedge fund manager Leon Cooperman is sick of politicians criticizing him for being rich, and would prefer that his success story be held up as "an example" to be followed.

"I think that my life should be used as an example to these youngsters — and the 99% — of what could be achieved," Cooperman said in a recent taping for the television program Wall Street Week to air on Sunday. "These youngsters can see what can be accomplished with some hard work. To tell the 99% they are being screwed by the 1% is just wrong," said Cooperman, the Omega Advisors founder who is valued at $3.7 billion.

It's not the first time Cooperman, 72, has lashed out at criticisms of wealthy Wall Streeters in the wake of the financial crisis. On Monday, he blasted Hillary Clinton for saying hedge fund managers have lower tax rates than nurses and truckers. And in 2011, he penned an open letter to President Obama criticizing what he deemed to be tactics of "class warfare."

Cooperman's comments reflect broader fears sweeping Wall Street that they are in for yet another round of pummeling due to the upcoming election, experts said. Income inequality, or concerns of a rising wealth gap between the rich and everyone else, has become a hot topic on the campaign trail for both Democratic and Republican candidates this year.

"It's going to ratchet up," said Anthony Scaramucci, host of Wall Street Week andfounder of investment firm SkyBridge, of the political rhetoric. "We have a target on our backs."

"The billionaires and the banks are definitely preparing for another round," agreed Turney Duff, author of The Buy Side, a book about his life as a Wall Street trader. "They've got their helmets on and their mouthpieces in, and they are expecting it."

But Duff thinks it's a mistake for Wall Street's top brass to lash out amid still lingering anger over the financial crisis.

"I don't want to hear about the CEO of a bank telling me it's unfair, or some billionaire spouting off," said Duff, who is also a technical adviser for the upcoming Showtime TV series Billions. "No one is going to shed a tear for someone making four, five or six hundred thousands dollars a year."

In the Wall Street Week interview, Cooperman talked about his hardscrabble upbringing in the Bronx as the child of immigrant parents. "I've lived the American Dream," he said, talking about how he was the first generation of his family to go to college. "I think that's something to emulate."

Of course, times have change since Cooperman was coming up. The cost of education has risen dramatically since the 1960, even as wages stagnate. Unemployment is also higher. In 1967, when Cooperman graduated Columbia Business School, the unemployment rate was 3.8%. Last year, unemployment was 6.2%, down from 9.3% in the aftermath of the mortgage meltdown.

In his interview, Cooperman lamented that his past efforts to defend himself have accomplished little — except perhaps an IRS audit.

"I don't think I had any impact," Cooperman told Wall Street Week host Gary Kaminsky. "I got audited by the IRS but I don't know if there was any cause and effect."