VULTURES IN THE MEADOWS
Sightings from The Catbird Seat
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October 12, 1991
Simon Group's Big Honolulu Profit
By RICHARD W. STEVENSON, New York Times
Even as it unravels, an investment partnership headed by William E. Simon is continuing to chalk up big profits.
Mr. Simon's group said today that it had sold HonFed Bank, Hawaii's largest savings institution, to the BankAmerica Corporation. Terms were not disclosed, but people involved in the transaction said it would yield the group roughly five times its 1986 equity investment of $17 million.
Members of Mr. Simon's group confirmed earlier this week that the partnership was splitting up because of differences between Mr. Simon, the former Treasury Secretary, and his primary partner, Gerald L. Parsky, a Los Angeles lawyer. The deal to sell HonFed, though, had been in the works for months and was unrelated to the fracturing of the partnership. The Simon group continues to own several small and medium-sized savings institutions in California.
BankAmerica's Entry Into Hawaii
The deal marks the entry into Hawaii of BankAmerica, the parent of the Bank of America. In HonFed, BankAmerica is purchasing an institution with $3 billion in assets and 29 branches. HonFed had been failing when it was acquired by the Simon group, which over the last several years has attracted new capital to the institution and shored up its earnings.
The Simon group's purchase of HonFed was one of the first acquisitions by a major investor of a troubled savings institution, and did not involve any financial assistance from the Government. Members of the Simon group, including Preston Martin, a former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, have long said that troubled savings institutions could be profitably revived if carefully managed, and the sale of HonFed appeared to bear out that strategy.
People involved in the deal said the transaction, which is still subject to regulatory review, had been arranged largely through direct negotiations between BankAmerica and Mr. Parsky, who has managed the Simon group on a day-to-day basis. BankAmerica said that in addition to buying the common stock of HonFed, all of which is held by the Simon group, it would pay off HonFed's $40 million worth of subordinated debt and the interest held in the institution by the Bishop Estate, a Hawaii-based trust that purchased $50 million of preferred stock in HonFed last year. The Bishop Estate will also receive an undisclosed percentage of the Simon group's profit on the sale of HonFed's common stock.
The deal is small compared with BankAmerica's agreement in August to acquire the Security Pacific Corporation for $4.5 billion in stock, a merger that when completed will increase the San Francisco-based company's dominance of banking in the West. But the acquisition of HonFed helps BankAmerica fill in one of the few gaps in its coverage of the West and makes it the third-largest financial institution in Hawaii, behind Bank of Hawaii and First Hawaiian Bank.
The deal is the second sale of a financial institution in Hawaii by Mr. Simon's group. Last year the group sold First Interstate Bank of Hawaii, a small commercial bank, to the parent of First Hawaiian. That deal was also extremely profitable for the group and for Mr. Simon personally, allowing him to double his equity investment of $15 million in just one year.
The success of Mr. Simon's group in buying and selling financial institutions has added to his almost legendary status as a can't-miss investor. Mr. Simon, who before serving as Treasury Secretary in the early 1970's had a successful career on Wall Street, is best known for lucrative leveraged buyouts that he participated in as a partner in the Wesray Capital Corporation.
Mr. Simon and Mr. Parksy teamed up in 1986 to buy financial institutions and other companies in California and Hawaii and to develop ties to investors in Asia and across the Pacific Rim. Their most recent venture, WSGP Partners, raised $100 million from the Tokio Marine and Fire Insurance Company of Japan last year for investments in a wide variety of fields.
Mr. Simon, who did not return a telephone call, has withdrawn from that partnership. It will continue to operate without him, Mr. Parsky said.
For more, GO TO > > > Googling for Vultures in The Meadows; Dirty Money, Dirty Politics & Bishop Estate; Broken Trust: Greed, Mismanagement & Political Manipulation; Marsh & McLennan: The Marsh Birds; Marsh & McLennan’s Mercer Consulting; Lost Generations; The Vultures that Ate HonFed; Vulture Nests Along Wall Street; William Simon Says
October 14, 1996
STATE TO TAKE OVER
INVESTORS EQUITY PROPERTY
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin
The State of Hawaii will become the owner of thousands of acres of Colorado real estate, in its ongoing effort to recover assets for the 13,000 policy-holders of failed Investors Equity Life Insurance Co....
Gary Vose, who was chairman of Investors Equity when the state took it over in June 1994, has agreed to hand over The Meadows, a 4,000-acre subdivison at Castle Rock, Colo, to Hawaii Insurance Commissioner Wayne Metcalf...
Metcalf and the previous insurance commissioner, Lawrence Reifurth, have been working to recover assets since the state seized the insurance company after its management had run up a $60 million deficit....
The deficit, which has since grown to more than $90 million, was incurred largely because Vose lost policy-holders’ money in highly speculative leveraged investments known as derivatives, the state charges....
Vose’s agreement to transfer The Meadows and a smaller subdivision settles the state’s lawsuit against him, Eugene Sprague, an attorney in Denver representing the Hawaii Insurance Division, said today....
Neither Vose’s attorney nor Metcalf could be reached for comment, so it was not immediately clear what the value of the Colorado properties might be. Sprague said he could not go into details because of a confidentiality agreement....
The Meadows was the brainchild of former savings and loan executive Charles Keating and was put up for auction after Keating’s Lincoln Savings & Loan Association became insolvent....
The state alleged that Vose then used $23.3 million of Investors Equity’s money, through one of his affiliated companies, to acquire the property in 1992.
In a civil suit, the state accused Vose of racketeering, fraud and other misconduct in buying The Meadows. The suit alleges that the holding company that controlled Investors Equity conducted sham real estate deals and used the insurance firm’s assets to pay huge fees to Vose and companies connected with him....
ITT Hartford Life Insurance Co. early this year acquired the Investors Equity policies, keeping them alive. A state insurance fund [a.k.a. US Taxpayers] contributed $10 million to boost the value.
For more...
Googling for the Vultures in The Meadows
October 6, 2008
Democrats dig into McCain's role
in a financial scandal of the 1980s
By Brian Knowlton
WASHINGTON: Pushing back hard against pointed new attacks from the Republican campaign of John McCain, Democrats on Monday unveiled an ad about McCain's role in a savings and loan scandal of the 1980s that they say has resonance in today's financial debacle.
As both sides turned increasingly negative, Governor Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate, acknowledged the new tone.
"From now till election day it may get kind of rough," she said with a smile at an event in Clearwater, Florida. With the Republican ticket lagging in the polls, Palin's own attacks on Obama have grown much more personal.
The new 13-minute Obama ad describes the 1987 scandal in which McCain and four other senators were accused of intervening improperly to help shield Charles Keating Jr. and the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, which he headed, from a federal regulatory investigation.
"Many of our fellow citizens apparently believe that your services were bought by Charles Keating," the ad shows Howell Heflin, then the Senate Ethics Committee chairman, telling a younger McCain....
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/06/america/campaign.php
January 16, 2007
Nightingale at Large
“There are rats in the War Office — also a cat”
Florence Nightingale, 1860
~ ~ ~
McCain & Robert S. Bennett
Again I’m going to deviate from my guideline (obviously no longer a “rule”) and reproduce an article, Paul Krugman’s column “The Texas Strategy” from Monday’s Times. He explains Bush’s “surge” by analogy to the Savings & Loan scandle. Very apt.
Krugman is leading up to future columns on John McCain, who was involved in that scandle as one of the “Keating Five” and also likely to be the Republican candidate for President in 2008. We will hear a lot about McCain’s ethics and McCain on Ethics. I hope we also hear a bit about Robert S. Bennett, likely to be prominent on McCain’s team and in his administration. I am assuming the Democrats are not going to make much of an effort to run their candidate for president against McCain. McCain is very tough. And Bennett serves his clients better than Karl Rove served Bush.
Bennett arranged McCain’s escape from the “Keating Five” part of the S&L scandle in which Keating purchased five Senators, including McCain, to block investigation of his failing bank. Bennett is near the top of all the defense lawyers in Washington. He has defended Enron, KPMG in “the largest ever tax shelter fraud” case, Clark Clifford in the BCCI case, Caspar Weinberger in the Iran-Contra case, Bill Clinton in his multi-million dollar indiscretion cases, Rostenkowski, and recently Judith Miller in the fallout from her selling Iraq War lies case.
Here is the column from the Times:
January 15, 2007
Paul Krugman, “The Texas Strategy”
Hundreds of news articles and opinion pieces have described President Bush’s decision to escalate the Iraq war as a “Hail Mary pass.”
But that’s the wrong metaphor.
Mr. Bush isn’t Roger Staubach, trying to pull out a win for the Dallas Cowboys. He’s Charles Keating, using other people’s money to keep Lincoln Savings going long after it should have been shut down — and squandering the life savings of thousands of investors, not to mention billions in taxpayer dollars, along the way.
The parallel is actually quite exact. During the savings and loan scandal of the 1980s, people like Mr. Keating kept failed banks going by faking financial success. Mr. Bush has kept a failed war going by faking military success.
The “surge” is just another stalling tactic, designed to buy more time.
Oh, and one of the favorite techniques used by the owners of savings and loan associations to generate phony profits — it involved making high-interest loans to crooked or flaky real estate developers — came to be known as the “Texas strategy.”
What was the point of the Texas strategy? Bank owners were certainly gambling — with other people’s money, of course — in the hope of a miraculous recovery that would bail out their negative balance sheets.
But the real point of the racket was a form of looting: as long as they could keep reporting high paper profits, S.&L. owners could keep rewarding themselves with salaries, dividends and sweetheart business deals.
Mr. Keating paid himself a million dollars just weeks before his holding company collapsed.
Which brings us to Iraq. The administration has spent the last three years pretending that its splendid little war isn’t a big disaster. There have been the bromides (we’re making “good progress”); the promises (we have a “strategy for victory”); and, as always, attacks on the media for not reporting the good news from Iraq.
Who you gonna believe, the president or your lying eyes?
Now Mr. Bush has grudgingly sort- of admitted that things aren’t going well — but he says his “new way forward” will fix everything.
So it’s still the Texas strategy: the war’s architects are trying to keep their failed venture going as long as possible.
The Hail Mary aspect — the off chance that somehow, things really will turn out all right — is the least of their motivations. The real intent is a form of looting. I’m not talking mainly about old-fashioned war profiteering, although there is no question that profiteering is taking place on an epic scale. No, I’m saying that the hawks want to keep this war going because it’s to their personal and political benefit.
True, Mr. Bush can’t win another election with phony claims of success in Iraq, the way he did in 2004. But escalation buys him another year or two to claim that we’re making progress — and it gives him another chance to prove that he’s the Decider, beyond accountability.
And as for pundits who promoted the war and are now trying to sell the surge: for a little while longer they can be Very Important People who have the president’s ear.
Meanwhile, the nation pays the price. The heaviest burden — in death, shattered bodies, broken families and ruined careers — falls on those who serve. To find the personnel for the Bush escalation, the Pentagon must lengthen deployments in Iraq and shorten training time at home.
And the back-door draft has become a life sentence: there is no limit on the cumulative amount of time citizen-soldiers can be required to serve on active duty. Mama, don’t let your children grow up to be reservists.
The rest of us will pay a financial price for the hundreds of billions squandered in Iraq and, more important, a price in reduced security.
Escalation won’t bring victory in Iraq, but it might bring defeat in Afghanistan, which the administration will continue to neglect. And it has pushed the military to the breaking point.
Mr. Bush calls his critics “irresponsible,” saying that they don’t have an alternative to his strategy. But they do: setting a timetable for withdrawal, so that we can cut our losses, and trying to save what can be saved. It isn’t a strategy for victory because that’s no longer an option. It’s a strategy for acknowledging reality.
The lesson of the savings and loan scandal was that when a bank has failed, you shouldn’t let the owner string you along with promises — you should shut the thing down. We should do the same with Mr. Bush’s failed war.
–end of Krugman column–
Regards, Jim
http://nightingaleatlarge.com/?p=6
April 25, 1997
Land rush
Paula Moore, Business Journal Real Estate Editor
Land is such a hot commodity in metropolitan Denver that ground owners couldn't give away a couple of years ago is being briskly pursued.
Stew Mosko, manager of the acreage group at Fuller and Co. in Denver, last year sold a parcel once considered one of the most polluted in the country to the Home Depot chain of home-improvement stores.
The 17 acres off South Santa Fe Drive in Denver had housed the Robinson Brick Co., and before that a smelter whose radium waste and metals contamination cost the Environmental Protection Agency almost $1 million to remediate. The deal was trotted out by U.S. Vice President Al Gore and touted in the national press as a sterling inner-city environmental cleanup.
"We're listing Superfund sites, and they're selling," said Mosko, who deals in both commercial and residential land.
The current demand for dirt, both for current and future development, is driven by job growth. Colorado's rejuvenated economy in the 1990s has filled subdivisions and commercial buildings -- office structures, warehouses, shopping centers -- that became vacant, or never were fully occupied, when the state's economy tanked in the 1980s. Because much prime ground already has been absorbed, a lot of what's left has "hair growing on it," as land brokers say; it battles problems related to utilities, government, environment....
Land for commercial development isn't the only type of ground in demand. Residential land, or acreage that some day will sprout housing, is even more prized.
"Builders are like little PacMen, running around the city trying to gobble up lots," echoed Jay B. Scolnick, president of lot developer Premier Community Developments Ltd. of Denver....
The remaining 3,000 acres of the Meadows, a 4,000-acre master-planned project near Castle Rock, went up for sealed-bid sale in April. The property boasts quite an ownership pedigree. It initially was developed by the poster boy of savings and loan fraud, Lincoln Savings chief Charles Keating of Phoenix, who lost it to the Resolution Trust Corp. The RTC sold it to Colorado developer Gary Vose, who failed to get the proposed 1,000-acre Mount Carbon master-planned project southwest of Lakewood off the ground and who lost the Meadows to current seller the Insurance Commission of Hawaii....
What choice ground remains up for grabs, priced per square foot because of its desirability, also is selling at a relative premium. Southeast suburban dirt, used mostly for office development, that reaped $2 or $3 a square foot a couple years ago now commands $8 a foot....
Copyright 1997 American City Business Journals Inc.
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Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Jun 97, by Rick Daysog:
. . . Investors Equity Clients Learn Settlement Details: . . . Bank of America in March agreed to pay $39 million to about 5,500 annuity investors to settle a state suit against the bank. . . .
In its 1995 suit against Bank of America, the state alleged that the bank’s predecessor, Honfed Bank [owned by Bishop Estate and ex-Secretary of Treasury, William Simon], misled 4,000 bank customers in their sales of Investors Equity annuities at bank branches . . .
* * *
The Honolulu Advertiser, 08/08/97, by Jean Christensen:
. . . Archer Daniels Midland Investor Services must pay policyholders $8.3 million for its handling of investments on behalf of the failed Investors Equity Life Insurance Co., an arbitration panel ruled ... yesterday. ADM Investor Services is among several brokerages targeted by the state in an attempt to recover part of the $100 million in total losses caused by the collapse of Investors Equity.
The state contends the brokerages exposed Investors Equity investors to more risk than financial guidelines allow. Most of Investors Equity’s losses came from speculative investments known as derivatives....
State Insurance Commissioner Rey Graulty said $12 million had be recovered from other brokerages prior to the arbitration panel’s decision in the ADM Investor Services case. Graulty is also pursuing cases against Goldman Sachs & Co., Tradition (Government Securities) Inc. and Tradition (North America) Inc....
He called the award “a big shot in the arm” for the state as it moves against Goldman Sachs. . . The award ... includes $6.9 million for net trading losses incurred by Investors Equity and $1.4 million in interest. . . . The three-member panel ruled that an ADM Investor Services executive responsible for the Investors Equity account had knowingly ignored the risk of loss to policyholders and was motivated by a desire to generate above-market fees, Graulty said.
See also: David C. Farmer vs. Harmon - Witness: Dwayne Andreas
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Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 11/06/98, by Russ Lynch:
. . . The investment firm of Goldman Sachs & Co. will pay $15.9 million to settle claims brought by the state on behalf of policy holders in the defunct Investors Equity Life Insurance Co....
As liquidator, Rey Graulty has been working to recover money for holders of annuity policies. Major targets have been national brokerages that invested the policyholders’ funds in risky derivatives and futures. Graulty said yesterday that during the first five months of 1994 alone, Investors Equity assets were used to trade more than $86 BILLION worth of treasury bond futures, resulting in losses well above the company’s 1993 net worth of $16 million. . . .
One case remains unresolved, the state’s action against Archer-Daniels-Midland Investors Services, Inc. which is in the hands of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The Investors Equity claims against others — Merrill Lynch & Co., Dean Witter Reynolds, Nomura Securities International, and Tradition North America Inc. — have been settled....
* * *
From the web Derivatives Links Page: . . . Derivatives, in part, have created a new world order. Not only do regulators not have easy access to all the participants, but there are participants that clearly are outside of the regulator’s reach, either because they are in a different industry, or are in a different country.
Michael Metz, chief investment strategist of Oppenheimer and Co. ... in trying to explain the dramatic fall in Wall Street on 27 October 1989, Metz highlighted the role of speculation caused by funds dealing with derivatives:
“These derivatives have too much leverage,” he said. “They are uncontrolled. With $4,000 under them, they can control $80,000 worth of stocks. This is crazy. This causes enormous risks and it is highly speculative. This situation is due to deregulation.”...
“Total global derivative trading comes to $55 trillion, more than the GDP of the world. It’s absolutely terrifying because we just don’t know what’s out there. And yet, how often do you hear about that on the evening news?”...
Investors Equity Life Insurance Co., in Hawaii lost $80 million in 3 days.
Other banks such as Drexel-Burham and the Bank of England have also incurred losses....
By the end of 1994, derivatives losses were estimated to be more than $10 billion....
* * *
[A little bird told me . . . Controlling interest in Honolulu Federal Savings & Loan (HonFed) was purchased in the early 90's, by Bishop Estate and former U.S. Sec. of Treas. William Simon. HonFed was marketing variable annuities through Investors Equity, largely to elderly people as part of their retirement plans. Such high risk derivatives were generally considered inappropriate investments for life insurance companies by the Hawaii Insurance Commissioner’s office. According to a reliable source, however, Investors Equity had obtained a letter from then-Insurance Commissioner, Robin Campaniano, giving the o’k to Investors Equity/HonFed to invest in these instruments. Shortly after leaving his government position, Campiano would be hired as president of AIG Hawaii, a subsidiary of American International Group. Investors Equity purchased these derivatives through Goldman Sachs, among others. Bishop Estate was a major investor in Goldman Sachs. HonFed was sold to Bank of America in the mid-90's, and Bishop Estate and Simon made millions. Bank of America got caught holding the hot potato, however, since they had purchased HonFed’s liabilities along with the assets.]
* * *
[Catbird Ponderings: . . . Isn’t it a little strange that the State of Hawaii settled its case against Gary Vose so quickly by agreeing to accept The Meadows property — which had been purchased with investors’ money to begin with? And since the state was accusing Vose of racketeering, fraud and other misconduct, why was this only a civil suit, with no criminal charges ever being made? And isn’t it odd that there was a confidentiality agreement in this case, when it involved policy-holders’ and taxpayers’ money? Obviously, the value of The Meadow’s property was insufficient to cover Investors Equity’s losses, but why keep the value secret? And why settle with Gary Vose when the recovery process from Goldman Sachs and others had barely begun? Hmmmm.]
* * *
MEADOWS MAY GET NEW OWNER
By Susan Casey
The Hawaii Insurance Commissioner may soon own The Meadows.
Castle Rock Town Attorney Bob Slentz has been informed by the Hawaii Insurance Commissioner, Lawrence Reifurth, that a settlement contract has been executed between the Insurance Commissioner and one of Gary Vose's companies, Yale Investments, owner of The Meadows.
A closing date of Oct. 22 has been set. Prior to that the commissioner will be completing the due diligence on the project.
The insurance commissioner will take over The Meadows and other Yale holdings in Summit County in his capacity as rehabilitator and liquidator of Investors Equity Life Insurance Company of Hawaii, Ltd. IEL was purchased by Gary Vose in 1991. In 1993 IEL's business volume jumped from $7.4 million to $19.8 million.
Vose, doing business as Yale Investments, purchased The Meadows in 1993, using IEL assets, from the Resolution Trust Corp. after Charles Keating and the now infamous Lincoln Savings and Loan Association went into bankruptcy. Reifurth alleges that the transaction was a "part of a scheme to convert IEL's cash assets into speculative and over-valued bonds and real estate and to divert IEL's assets to (the defendants') own use and benefit...
" According to charges filed against Vose by Reifurth, this and several other transactions were conducted to pay dividends to Vose and had the effect of reducing IEL's financial position to the point where its liabilities exceeded its assets and it was "likely to be unable to continue doing business and protect the safety of insurance policies and annuity investments."
In 1994 Reifurth filed and was granted a petition to seize and rehabilitate IEL. He later filed a petition to liquidate IEL.
The Hawaii Insurance Commissioner has filed charges of racketeering, piercing the corporate veil, breach of fiduciary duty and obligations, negligent breach of fiduciary duty, fraud and intentional misrepresentation, insurance code violations, unfair and deceptive trade practices, negligence, conspiracy, constructive trust and fraudulent transfers against Vose and his companies.
Slentz said he understands that ownership of The Meadows and bonds will be transferred to the insurance commissioner.
Slentz said he believes that, once the settlement is complete, the insurance commissioner will undertake a market analysis of the properties and probably sell the property as quickly as possible, probably to a master developer.
The town attorney has spoken to the commissioner regarding the town's request for property on which to build a fire station. Slentz says that will require about two acres.
He also discussed the right-of-way needed for the extension of Santa Fe Road. The development plans for Red Hawk include a requirement to build Santa Fe Road from Wolfensberger Road north to Meadows Parkway. To accomplish that, the town must obtain 120 feet of right-of-way from Meadows Parkway south to the Red Hawk property line. Slentz said that amounts to approximately 12.5 acres.
The discussions with the Hawaii Insurance Commissioner went well, Slentz said. "He was very cooperative. The land dedications we need are actually in advance of the development requirements in The Meadows, but he is looking at the requests. We're hopeful that he will give us a read on them prior to the closing."
* * *
October 8, 1997
SUBDIVISION GOES TO BANKER
By Mary Beth Jannakos
Take down that For Sale sign, The Meadows has been sold.
Castle Rock Developments LLC recently announced its acquisition of The Meadows in Castle Rock.
A small portion of the company is owned by real estate developer Lee Alpert, one of the main owners of the proposed Happy Canyon Ranch development that has caused a stir in recent months for Douglas County residents.
Castle Rock Developments was formed recently with the intent to purchase The Meadows, according to Donald Sturm, who owns 90 percent of the company. Alpert owns the remaining 10 percent. Castle Rock Developments closed the deal on The Meadows Sept. 25.
The purchase involved approximately 3,200 acres and also included about $110,000,000 of metropolitan district bonds. However, Sturm would not disclose the selling price.
The Meadows, which is west of the Castle Rock Factory Shops, consists of zoning for 13,000 dwelling units. Almost 1,000 of those units have been constructed. It also consists of 450 acres for commercial use. . . .
The president of the Meadows Metropolitan District No. 1, Carl Alessi, said his reaction to the sale is somewhat mixed because of Alpert's connection with Castle Rock Developments.
"We've been waiting for a new developer for quite some time," Alessi said. "We hope that The Meadows is developed as its own entity leaving Happy Canyon out of it ... we're concerned and truly hope that the intent is to develop it with integrity," he said. "It's been stagnant for a long time."
According to Councilman Gordon Tye, who represents The Meadows, the new owner appears to be a "true developer" and development in the area can now move forward.
While Tye has stated his opposition to the proposed Happy Canyon development, he is not concerned about Alpert's connection. He said Alpert is a minor partner and doesn't believe Happy Canyon will directly affect the planning of The Meadows. Tye also said Alpert has a "pretty decent reputation" as a developer.
Castle Rock Developments acquired The Meadows from the Hawaii Insurance Commissioner.
The commissioner took over The Meadows as liquidator of Investors Equity Life Insurance Company of Hawaii, Ltd., a Gary Vose company.
Vose, doing business as Yale Investments, had purchased The Meadows in 1993 using IEL assets. Vose had purchased The Meadows from the Resolution Trust Co., after the Lincoln Savings and Loan Co. went bankrupt.
– Douglas County (Colorado) News
~ ~ ~
Meadows project sold
Investors Equity Life Insurance Co. of Hawaii has sold the Meadows master-planned community in Castle Rock to Castle Rock Developments LLC.
The 3,900-acre property includes 800 residential units as well as commercial development.
Castle Rock Developments' principals include businessman Donald Sturm and real estate developer Lee Alpert.
Sturm chairs three bank holding companies, sits on the board of Continental Airlines and is a major shareholder in Peter Kiewit Sons Inc.
Alpert has built houses at Cherry Hills Farm, the Timbers and Green Valley Ranch.
* * *
AND NOW, IF YOU’D LIKE TO TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT SOME OF THE VULTURES IN THE MEADOWS, JUST FOCUS YOUR FIELD GLASSES BELOW!
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Archer-Daniels-Midland - From the FBI Website:
Antitrust —— Archer Daniels Midland (ADM)
The Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) investigation had been characterized by the Department of Justice, Antitrust Division, as the largest criminal antitrust case in United States history. Since August 1996, seven cases have been filed against eight companies and ten individuals charging price fixing and allocating sales volumes of lysine and/or citric acid worldwide.
Lysine, a $600 million a year industry, is used by farmers as a feed additive to ensure proper growth of poultry and swine. Citric acid, a $1.2 billion a year industry, is a flavor additive and preservative produced from various sugars and is found in soft drinks, processed foods, detergents, and pharmaceutical and cosmetic products. To date, eight corporate defendants and six individual defendants have pled guilty and have been fined in excess of $190 million. Most of the defendants have been from or based overseas.
In October 1996, ADM was sentenced to pay a $100 million fine for its participation in the lysine and citric acid conspiracies. At the time, that was the largest criminal fine ever imposed in an antitrust case.
On September 17, 1998, three former ADM executives were convicted of participating in the lysine conspiracy following a nine-week trial.
This trial was one of the Antitrust Division's highest profile and most successful criminal cases in recent history.
* * *
From The Buying of the President (1996):
In 1988, 249 individuals each gave at least $100,000, achieving a total of $25 million, to help elect George Bush president.
By giving that much, they became members of “Team 100" and not only had personal access to Bush and other members of the Bush administration, but many of them — from real estate and construction to finance, from manufacturing to agribusiness to oil and gas interests — received special favors during the Bush presidency. . . .
The many quid pro quo relationships have been well documented by Common Cause magazine and others. The two largest donors were Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM) and its chairman, Dwayne Andreas, who gave $1,072,000 and Atlantic Richfield (Arco) and its chairman, Lodwrick Cook, who contributed $862,360.
Both companies made or saved hundreds of millions of dollars from their well-placed Washington investments....
Archer Daniels Midland touts itself as the “supermarket to the world.” This behemoth, based in Decatur, Illinois, has its fingers in nearly every agribusiness pie. . . . Its net sales in fiscal year 1994 exceeded $11 billion and its profits topped $1 billion. . . .
The company battled with a spate of bad publicity in the summer of 1995, when the Justice Department, using an ADM informant, made public its undercover investigation into allegations of price-fixing for sweeteners and food additives....
Andreas and ADM, playing it safe, are among the largest contributors to both parties in national political campaigns...
In 1994, ADM alone gave approximately $2.5 million to various congressional candidates....
Andreas has befriended virtually every president since Nixon. His generosity to all of them is notorious. His $25,000 check to CREEP wound up in the bank account of one of the Watergate burglars.
As a result he was investigated, but ultimately cleared, by the Senate Watergate Committee....
For more, GO TO > > > The Biotech Birds
Recommended Reading: The Informant; Rats in the Grain
Charles Keating - Owner of American Continental Corporation, and the infamous Lincoln Savings and Loan.
CHARLES KEATING AND THE S&L CRISIS
By Brian Downing Quig
From tripod.com, posted by Ron Bell (9/11/92)
Charles Keating, the godfather of the S&L scandal, now sits behind bars, perhaps for the rest of his life. He has been assessed fines exceeding 3.6 billion dollars in just one civil action. Federal prosecution has not yet begun. Yet after several books and tens of thousands of column inches of newsprint, the major features of the Keating story remain, until now, untold. For example, General John Singlaub and the CIA's Latin American military campaigns, Carl Lindner's purchase of