S & L Probe Has CIA Links
"Evidence related to the nation's savings and loan crisis suggests a possible link between the Central Intelligence Agency and organized crime in the failure of at least 22 thrifts, including 16 in Texas."
Snow Job: The CIA, Cocaine, and Bill Clinton - Part I
THE MENA ANTHRAX POISONING CASE
BOY CLINTON
The Political Biography
Regnery Publishing, Inc.
Washington, D.C.
By R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.
1996
A Son of Old Arkansas
[Excerpt - Pages 102-107
Another fortune created by the symbiosis of politics and commerce is that of the Stephens family. Like Tyson Foods, Inc., Stephens, Inc., predates the governorship of Clinton, but it has been ever more dependent on political clout, its growth revealing the emergence of the Arkansas elite on the national and even world stage. By 1990 and after accumulating capital comparable to that of Morgan Stanley & Company, Stephens, Inc., became the largest private American investment bank headquartered outside Wall Street. It is housed in downtown Little Rock, and at noon scores of eager young Stephens deal-makers in white shirts and rep ties rush from it to lunch at the tony restaurants nearby--Wall Street, on the River Arkansas.
In the late 1920s Wilton R. Stephens, founder of the Stephens dynasty, departed his father's cotton farm to sell Bibles(and belt buckles) up and down the rutted roads of rural Arkansas. He was a big, hearty, likeable man and, like many Arkansans, a born salesman. His days of mongering Holy Scripture behind him, he borrowed $15,000 in 1933 to establish his Little Rock brokerage house. From there he loaded up his leather satchels with municipal bonds badly depreciated by the Depression and returned to the life of a dusty-foot; only now his targets were rural bankers, not impoverished hicks. Naturally he encountered many pols. His father was a two-term state representative. Stephens bought depreciated highway bonds recommended by his father at ten cents on the dollar. Later his father prevailed on the state legislature to guarantee the bonds, thus returning them practically to face value and setting the cornerstone of the family fortune.
The Depression waned and the rest of the bond market recovered. The bonds that Witt(as he was coming to be known) had acquired produced their profits, doubling and tripling in value. At the end of the war, he hired his brother, Jackson Stephens. Though sixteen years Witt's junior, Jackson was given management of the natural gas and oil holdings that Witt had astutely purchased with his bond profits. Now the brothers extended their underwriting activities to local governments outside the state and eventually to other state governments. To win these contracts the Stephenses spread their campaign contributions ever wider. Always they and their lieutenants mixed politics with business, frequently state business. In time they became the preeminent force in the Arkansas symbiosis. By the 1990s Stephens, Inc. employees were carrying on where the brothers left off, occasionally with unhappy consequences. The case of Preston C. Bynun popped into the news in 1995. A Stephens banker, he was convicted of bribing a Florida politician $28,200 to give Stephens, Inc., two bond issues totaling $36 million.[6]
The Stephenses also entered into corporate underwriting after World War II, eventually assisting such Arkansas companies as Wal-Mart, TCBY, and Tyson Foods, Inc. Then in the late 1970s they entered international banking and brushed up against the perpetrators of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International(BCCI) scandal. It is speculated that the encounter was more sustained and less innocent that the Stephenses care to acknowledge.
A BCCI-engendered brush with one global wheeler-dealer, Mochtar Riady, raised their ambitions to become global wheeler-dealers themselves. The story starts with Jackson Stephens's days at the U.S. Naval Academy, where Jimmy Carter was a classmate. During the 1976 campaign Bert Lance, soon to be President Carter's head of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), rekindled the friendship between Carter and Stephens. Lance knew Stephens from political fund-raising in the South. Stephens in turn brokered the sale of Lance's National Bank of Georgia. Selling it had become a requirement if Lance were to head the OMB. The requirement grew in urgency as Lance fell into political difficulties and then financial problems. The main buyers who approached Stephens were foreigners. One was Agha Hasan Abedi, the shadowy Pakistani who founded BCCI. The other was Riady, a very rich Indonesian banker. Eventually Stephens sold off Lance's bank to Abedi, thus allowing BCCI entry into American banking. In 1984 Stephens became Riady's partner in banking closer to home. They put large sums of capital into a statewide chain of Arkansas banks named First Arkansas Bankcorp and merged it with a group of banks owned by C. Joseph Giroir, Jr., chairman of Arkansas's Rose Law Firm, thereby creating the Worthen Banking Corporation, Arkansas's largest bank holding company.
With its new partner, Riady, a central member of the ethnic Chinese clique that controls much of Indonesia's economy, Stephens, Inc. broadened its horizons to the entire Pacific Rim. It opened an office in Hong Kong and plunged into the island's banking whirlpool. Jack Stephens's banking allies back home began to regale civic groups with visions of a financial axis linking Hong Kong, Jakarta, and Little Rock. Some of these dreams withered in 1985 when the Stephens financial vehicle, Worthen Banking Corporation, nearly collapsed in a bond market fiasco, but Arkansas companies are now well positioned for the coming Indonesian boom. A presidential visit to Jakarta in November 1994 produced $40 billion in business deals. Razorbacl stalwarts like Entergy, which owns Arkansas Power and Light Co., and Wal-Mart, whose board was once graced by Hillary Rodham Clinton, are bursting into the Asian market in deals brokered by Little Rock attorney Giroir, the former chairman of the Rose Law Firm and still Jack Stephens's personal lawyer.[7]
"I worked the state of Arkansas, and I worked it pretty close and good." Witt declared to a Fortune magazine reporter at the outset of the 1990s. "My brother Jack comes along, and he works the United States and does an excellent job. Now my nephew Warren comes along, and he's working the world,"[8] helped by the Arkansas symbiosis which along the way acquired a president.
Like Don Tyson, the Stephenses had spotted Clinton for the political prodigy that he undoubtedly was--pliant, winsome on the campaign trail, always in need of money owing to his reckless ways. The Stephenes helped the Clintons, and except for an early-1980s break in their friendship, the Clintons responded with millions of dollars in state bond-underwriting contracts. The Coat and Tie Radicals, never fans of exile or martyrdom, had announced repeatedly in terms of rich self-congratulation their condescending willingness to "work within the system." For the Clintons and their supporters, the system worked! As the Stephens's income from state bond issues increased they brought in the Rose Law Firm to handle attendant legal matters, causing Rose to expand its activities into banking and the bond business. Sometime in 1980 the Clintons and Stephens, Inc. had a falling out similar to the falling out that Clinton had with Tyson--though it lasted longer, well into 1985. By the late 1980s the Stephenses and the Clintons were back together, allowing the Arkansas symbiosis of politics and commerce to achieve a greatness never envisaged before: an opportunity to do politics and business from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The prelude to the 1992 election is interesting.
The reconciliation between the Stephenses and Clinton was secure enough by 1990 that the Stephenses were again playing a prominent role among his financial backers. Clinton went into a panic during the last stages of that final gubernatorial campaign. Always insecure, he suddenly feared a Republican surge capable of knocking him off or at least so diminishing his margin of victory that it would dim his luster en route to the 1992 Democratic presidential nomination. Abruptly Clinton turned to the Arkansas oligarchy for hastily conceived loans, enabling a last-minute media blitz. In a move that was to bedevil Clinton's presidency, the Stephenses and their associates personally stood behind a $50,000 loan to Clinton from the Bank of Perry County.[9] Loans like that have a malodorous fragrance outside the "underdeveloped country" of Arkansas, and little more than a year into the Clinton presidency the air was full of it.
The Arkansan oligarchy emerged on the national scene at a grim moment for presidential candidate Clinton, and only years later did the country recognize how important the intervention was. Clinton was thought to be the poor-boy candidate of a poor state. He was actually the Democratic field's best-heeled contender. The moment of reckoning came in January 1992. Repeated public revelations during the New Hampshire primary regarding Clinton's philandering, draft dodging, and lying had left the campaign tottering. The Stephens-influenced Worthen Bank and Trust(The family denies that they controlled Worthen) had to be called upon for a $2 million line of credit to allow Clinton to survive. The assistance not only saved Clinton's candidacy but put him well ahead of the Democratic field financially.
[End of partial transcript]
Boy Clinton - (excerpt) - The Glorification Rites And The Uncommon Troubles Preceding Them
The Clinton Chronicles Video Transcript
The Clinton Chronicles
"There was a hundred million a month in cocaine coming in and out of Mena, Arkansas. They had a problem. They were doing so much money in cocaine, a hundred million, that you create a problem in a little state like Arkansas. How do you clean one hundred million dollars a month.
ADFA until 1989 never banked in Arkansas. What they would do is they would ship the money down to Florida, a bank in Florida which later would be connected to BCCI. They would ship money to a bank in Atlanta, Georgia, which by the way was later connected to BCCI. They'd ship to Citicorp in NewYork, which would send the money overseas. And there was an interesting one, a bank in Chicago. And that bank, by the way, is partially owned by Dan Rostenkowski.
Dan Lasater would get the bonds. He would become the broker for the bonds. He would transfer money back to ADFA. He never sold a bond. The money then would leave ADFA, go into one of the various banks for the specific bond loan, and they would zero it out. When they zeroed it out they were giving it back to Lasater less their handling fees."
[ END OF PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT ]
The Secret Life of Bill Clinton - By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Excerpt: "Lasater was a player in the cocaine trafficking network of the Dixie Mafia........In February 1984 Lasater, accompanied by Patsy Thomasson, flew to Belize in his private jet to negotiate the purchase of a 24,000 acre ranch. The deal fell through because of a dispute with "the governor of Belize who was hard to deal with." One member of the Lasater party boorishly proposed "that the governor should be wasted."......Ostensibly, Lasater was looking for a horse farm. But the property, known as the Carver Ranch, was in fact a refueling stop for smugglers coming up from Columbia."
The Secret Life of Bill Clinton - By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Sharlene Wilson: " Sharline was surprisingly frank about her job at the Mena airport in the mid-1980s. The cocaine was flown in on twin-engine Cessnas, sometimes as often as every day. "I'd pick up the pallets and make the run down to Texas. The drop-off was at the Cowboys Stadium. I was told that nobody would ever bother me, and I was never bothered. If there was a problem I was to call Dan Harmon."
"A lot of cocaine that came into Mena was taken up to Springdale in northwest Arkansas, she said, where it was stuffed into chickens for reshipment to the rest of the country."
OUT-SOURCING BIG BROTHER - Systematics - Alltel - Acxiom - Jackson Stephens
Acxiom Had Data on 11 of 19 Hijackers
The Jackson Stephens Empire - Death, Money Laundering, Spying and the Octopus
How Jackson Stephens Brought The Global Laundry To America
"Jackson Stephens had political connections in Panama, which was then becoming the banking center for the Colombian cocaine business. One of these connections was Gabriel Lewis, the Panamanian Ambassador to Washington who had negotiated the Panama Canal Treaty. Another was Manuel Noriega, the head of G-2 (Panamanian military intelligence) who made a deal with the Medellin cocaine cartel"
Jackson Stephens: The Father of WTI
"On February 7, 1992, New York Post reporter, Mike McAlary reported that Jackson Stephens "brokered the 1970s deals in which BCCI officials secretly acquired control of two American banks... The banks -First American Bankshares and the National Bank of Georgia were used as a financial clearinghouse by a collection of [the] world's most dastardly crooks, drug dealers, dictators and spies....and yet Stephens' ties to principals in the scandal continue to this day....Lance and Stephens are reported to have made a fortune as a result of their involvement with BCCI."
Note: How close is WTI to B.C.C.I.?
Jack Stephens, Chairman of Augusta National Golf Club
Jackson Stephens active in Venice, FL
Tenacious Tentacles
"Jackson Stephens took over First American Bank in Washington, D.C. This bank was headquartered near the White House, and had many government employees as account holders--the perfect vehicle for gathering political intelligence. To take advantage of this fact, Jackson Stephens proposed that his software firm Systematics handle all the accounting for the bank. But the investor group refused to go along.
So Stephens, with the help of Bert Lance and others, brought in BCCI (Bank of Credit and Commerce International) to wrest control of the bank from that group, and to put it into the hands of friendlier partners. There were lawsuits, and Stephens' software firm Systematics was represented by Joseph Giroir, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Vince Foster of the Rose Law Firm."
THE NAME OF ROSE -- An Arkansas thriller
Conspiracy, Lies, Fraud & Deceit
Pinnacle Bank--All the Usual Suspects
"Who Is David Edwards?"
"While at Stephens, Mr. Edwards also played an important role in securing an offshore drilling contract in Bahrain for Harken Energy Corp., on whose board sat George W. Bush, presidential son and current governor of Texas."
The Life and Times of Judge Henry Woods
Arkansas Bank/Business and Clinton Administration Cross-Reference
THE DAN LASATER DRUG TRAFFICKING ORGANIZATION - (Part I) Part II
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD (House of Representatives) - Dan Burton (R-Ind.), May 29, 1996
"In December of 1988, ADFA deposited $50 million in a Japanese bank in the Cayman Islands. I have a copy of the contract that I will enter into the record. I have also delivered a copy of this document to the Independent Counsel's office.
Why would an economic development agency in Arkansas deposit $50 million in a bank in the Cayman Islands? The Cayman Islands are a well-known center of money laundering for drug dealers. The State Department's international narcotics control report described the Caymans as 'a haven for money laundering.'
In addition, public documents show that ADFA was steering bond underwriting business to a firm owned by Dan Lasater. Mr. Lasater's story by now is well-known. He was a financial supporter of Bill Clinton's campaigns. He flew Bill and Hillary Clinton around on his private plane. He hired Bill Clinton's brother and paid off an $8,000 drug debt he owed. Mr. Lasater also pled guilty to Federal charges of cocaine distribution.
Why was ADFA steering business to someone like Dan Lasater, who was well-known in Arkansas for drug use and wild parties at which drugs were freely distributed?
Why was ADFA putting millions of dollars in foreign banks in a money-laundering haven like the Cayman Islands?
Was then-Governor Clinton aware of what was going on at the agency that he created?"
[end of partial transcript]
THE TENTACLES OF SYSTEMATICS
Interview With Jim Norman - By Marvin Lee of Washington Weekly
Jim Quinn Interview with Jim Norman
The Modern Triangular Trade, and Why Jim Norman Is In Trouble
Jackson Stephens - The Curious Tentacles Of Systematics
How Jackson Stephens Brought The Global Laundry To America
The Jackson Stephens Empire - Death, Money Laundering, Spying and the Octopus
Vince Foster Oversaw Covert Money Laundering by Systematics
NSA's PROMIS virus, Mellon money laundering, and Vince Foster's blue NSA notebook
The NSA Worm. Federal Reserve Money Laundering
Money Laundering and the Intelligence Community
BCCI, Money Laundering, and the Nuclear Weapons Programs of Pakistan and Israel
Caspar Weinberger's Swiss Account
Cover-Up by House Banking Committee Investigators
Sheila Foster Anthony effects a $286,000 wire transfer four days before Foster's death
James Hamilton doesn't get a chance to deny the $286,000 wire transfer by Sheila Anthony
Gaping Holes in the Investigation of the Death of Vince Foster
The Global Money Laundering Operation
Hillary Clinton and Webb Hubbell Represented Systematics During The BCCI Takeover of First American
BCCI and Jackson Stephens Takeover
Who Is Mochtar Riady? - Part 1
Who Is Mochtar Riady? - Part 2
Arkansas Deal-maker Draws Heat - Lawyer C. Joseph Giroir Jr.
The Secret Life Of Webb Hubbell
Dead Men Tell No Tales - Or Do They?
Vince Foster and the NSA - Spy Agency Hiding Evidence?
Terry Jeffrey (Of Human Events) Interview
Encryption, China, RSA, and Banking
Money Laundering Through CHIPS and SWIFT
Why Red China Targeted The White House
Plot To Spy On Banks Outlined In White House Email
Jim Quinn Interviews Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
The American Dreyfus Affair - The Death of Vince Foster
"Isikoff, it should be noted, also escapes mention by Ruddy as does the important Little Rock brokerage firm owner, Jackson Stephens. Ruddy does tell us that Robert Fiske was the lawyer for Clark Clifford in a case related to Clifford's work for the Bank of Commerce and Credit International (BCCI), the Pakistan-based biggest customer- swindling, drug-money- laundering criminal enterprise in history, an enterprise with numerous alleged connections to the CIA. What he does not tell us, as we learn from this article back on pp 24-25, is that Stephens was instrumental in getting BCCI involved in banking in the United States, he was the biggest single client of the Rose Law Firm, and that Foster was in charge of his account."
The Macau Connection
"Meanwhile, Mr. Ng was working his new White House connections. According to White House entry logs, Mr. Ng visited Mark Middleton, an Arkansas aide to then Chief of Staff Mack McLarty, six times between June 1994 and February 1995. In one instance, Oct. 20, 1994, Mr. Middleton met in the Roosevelt Room of the White House with his brother, Stephens Inc. investment bank executive Larry Middleton, as well as Mr. Trie and Mr. Ng, according to Mark Middleton's White House calendar. That same day, $100,000 was wired from Mr. Ng's Macau account to Mr. Trie.
Mark Middleton left the White House in February 1995 to pursue a career as an Asian deal maker and by July was receiving a $12,500 retainer from Mr. Giroir--the Arkansas operative who had risen to the defense of Mr. Ng in the Camelot Hotel bid. Mr. Giroir, closely associated with Mochtar Riady's Lippo Group, gave a deposition to Senate investigators, but Mr. Middleton invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to testify. As with most things touched by the hapless Mr. Trie, the deal never materialized. When the media began exposing the Clinton campaign-finance connections, Mr. Ng dematerialized back into the vaporous intrigues of Macau, shunning requests for interviews and making no public appearances."
THE BARBADOS CONNECTION: CORAL REINSURANCE
SIGNS POINT TO MOB INVOLVEMENT IN SAVINGS-AND-LOAN MESS
THE SUSPICIOUS TRAIL OF DENVER S&L FAILURE
An Inconvenient History - The Russian Money Laundering Pyramid
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CONSPIRACY - Remarks by U.S. Representative Bob Barr