Government recoups $900 million of bailout money

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department says it has recovered roughly $900 million during the first six months of the year from sales of warrants it received from bailed-out financial companies to offset losses from the Wall Street rescue program.

Treasury says in a semiannual report that it has recovered $314 billion of the $413 billion spent to help banks, financial companies and U.S. automakers.

The report shows nearly a third of the money recouped in the first six months came from sales in January of warrants the government held in Citigroup Inc.

The warrants give buyers the right to buy common stock at a fixed price. The government received them after giving banks money from the bailout fund at the height of the financial crisis that struck in 2008.