Posted on 08/06/2005 9:09:50 PM PDT by bobsunshine
Harvard University is ordered to pay back over $20 million to the US government as part of a settlement deal resulting from a multi-million dollar scam. Two Harvard employees are also ordered make restitution bringing the total settlement to $31 million.
Two senior Harvard University advisors, Andre Shleifer and Jonathan Hay were paid under a US Agency for International Development grant to lead a project to provide advice to the nascent Russian economy on privatization following the fall of communism and the creation of fair and open markets and the rule of law.
The US Attorney's Office alleged that instead, Shleifer and Hay used their positions and substantial influence over Russian officials at this pivotal time in Russian history to advance their own and their spouses' private financial interests.
Under a settlement, the total repayments will exceed $31 million by Harvard University and it's two advisors. Specifically the settlement calls for Harvard to pay $26.5 million; Shleifer to pay $2 million; and Hay to pay between $1 million and $2 million. Also factored into the settlement amount total is $1.5 million already paid to the United States by FFIA, formerly known as Farallon Fixed Income Associates, LP, a company owned by Shleifer's wife, Nancy Zimmerman. In addition, Shleifer and Hay have agreed to be debarred by USAID.
(Excerpt) Read more at mensnewsdaily.com ...
I was reading about this in the Wall Street Journal....the lead crook saying he still didnt do anything wrong, but it was cheaper to settle than fight the charges.
Just like my alma mater UW getting caught overbilling the federal government in their medical center. They never admitted built....what kind of sign does that send your students?
Beware of Fundraising letters Alumni, LOL!
From Open Secrets:
SHLEIFER, ANDREI
NEWTON,MA 02459
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
6/20/2002
$1,000
Biden, Joseph R J
"the lead crook saying he still didnt do anything wrong, but it was cheaper to settle than fight the charges."
I have seen this quite a lot.
I have actually known a few people who've taken this tack--I'm innocent, but let me pay you a huge settlement, because it's easier and cheaper. Of course, they are guilty as hell (it's always white-collar crime).
And I always think, if I were accused of something I DID NOT DO, there would be no way I'd buy my way away from it. My name is worth more than that to me.
Many an attorney will advise you to "just pay and make it go away." But attorneys are people, to invoke Oscar Wilde, who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
No jail time? What a shame. These 'white collar' criminals would crap their pants if they got put in a hard core prison with the rapists, dealers and murderers.
If just settling for that amount is no problem. Then there obviously is a problem. What a shame.
Notice - This story is not worthy of mainsteam news coverage! If it were Halliburton instead of Harvard, than it is NYT page one!
It is not just their personal misdeeds that were bad but they did far worse in teaching the Russians that was the way to get ahead in a free enterprise society. Many of Russia's problems today result from what they learned from these Harvard sociailists that Clinton sent over there.
The US goes pays two guys from Commie Central to give advice to the Russians on capitalism? At least the gov is getting their money back, they'll just blow it on something just as stupid.
Bullshit.
When companies are greenmailed, or settle frivolous lawsuits out of court, you blaim trial lawyers.
The unfortunate truth is that our legal system is horrendously expensive and complicated and one can draw no definite conclusions when someone settles rather than litigates.
This is being settled because the people equally guilty but unmentioned in this article include Robert Rubin, and a good deal of Citigroup's Russian market division in the 1990's.
The US and the world, might have to suffer from decades of neoimperialist Russia because these bastards destroyed the seeds of real reforms whilst still in the incubator.
Every time Clinton speaks on Democracy, as a concept, remember that every subject in Putin's Russia and Lukashenko's Belarus lost their chance at some semblance of a democratic Republic because of the thieves working with US government authority under Clinton appointees.
CNN will NEVER mention this, Amanpour's husband appears more blatantly guilty then those settling today.
Socialists? They were free marketeers and friends of "reform minded oligarchs".
the only difference in old socialists and our socialists is that soviets stole labor with troops while our socialists steal assets with attorneys.
March 19, 2001
Using their Positions
This past fall, the U.S. government filed a $120 million suit against
Harvard University, the Harvard project's two principals -- Mr. Shleifer
and Harvard's on-site director, Jonathan Hay -- and their wives. The suit
alleges that the two principals "were using their positions, inside
information and influence, as well as USAID-funded resources, to advance
their own personal business interests and investments and those of their
wives and friends." All the defendants have denied the allegations in the
U.S. government's case.
******
In 1997, USAID was forced to cancel most of its funding for
HIID, after investigations showed that top HIID officials Andre
Shleifer and Jonathan Hay had used their positions and insider
information to profit from investments in the Russian securities
markets. Among other things, the ILBE was used to assist
Shleifer's wife, who operated a hedge fund which speculated in
Russian bonds.
The DOJ complaint cites a number of specific instances in
which Hay, Shleifer, and their wives, engaged in business deals
involving the very Russia state agencies that they had helped
create, and regulations they had drafted:
-- Shleifer and his wife Nancy Zimmerman invested in Russian
companies which they had helped to privatize, and for which they
had provided USAID-funded legal services, and then also invested
in short-term Russian government securities (``GKOs'').
-- Hay, Shleifer, and Shleifer's wife invested in privatized
Russian oil companies, and had the stocks registered in the name
of Shleifer's father-in-law.
-- Hay, Shleifer, and their wives participated in the
launching of Russia's first mutual fund, the first such fund to
be licensed by the Russian Securities Commission, an agency
created and advised by Hay, Shleifer, and HIID.
-- Hay and his girlfriend (now wife) Elizabeth Hebert
created a private real estate firm to manage properties in
Russia; he also assigned World Bank-funded staff to work on
creating a real-estate mutual fund.
-- Hay and Shleifer's wife Nancy Zimmerman concocted a
scheme by which they traded in short-term government GKOs, and
then repatriated the profits to the United States in violation of
Russian rules designed to limit capital flight. The general
director of the Russian company which was utilized in this
scheme, was an employee of Harvard's Russian affiliate, the ILBE,
according to the DOJ complaint. Moreover, as a government
adviser, Shleifer was privy to insider information concerning the
Russian bond market, which he used for his own profit.
The DOJ complaint not only seeks recovery of at least $40
million paid to Harvard, but also other relief, including triple
damages, and all profits earned by the defendants.
ping
September 27, 2000
Andrei Shleifer, a prize-winning economics star and
tenured Harvard professor, and Jonathan Hay, a former Harvard legal expert,
deny any wrongdoing. Harvard University, too, rejects the accusation that it
failed in its obligation to supervise the advisers.
Today the univerity's general counsel called the request for damages — up to
$120 million from Harvard and the defendants — far out of proportion to any
harm possibly done.
ZIMMERMAN, NANCY
NEWTON, MA 02459
BRACEBRIDGE CAPITAL BOXER, BARBARA (D)
Senate - CA
FRIENDS OF BARBARA BOXER $1,000
general 04/29/04
ZIMMERMAN, NANCY
NEWTON, MA 02459
BRACEBRIDGE CAPITAL SPECTER, ARLEN (R)
Senate - PA
CITIZENS FOR ARLEN SPECTER $1,000
primary 03/23/04
ZIMMERMAN, NANCY MRS.
NEWTON, MA 02459
BRACEBRIDGE CAPITAL/MANAGER BUSH, GEORGE W (R)
President
BUSH-CHENEY '04 (PRIMARY) INC $2,000
primary 06/25/03
ZIMMERMAN, NANCY
NEWTON, MA 02459
BRACE BRIDGE CAPITAL SCHUMER, CHARLES E (D)
Senate - NY
SCHUMER '98 $1,000
general 09/09/02
Zimmerman, Nancy
Newton, MA 02459
Brace Bridge Capital/Venture Capita MAJETTE, DENISE L (D)
Senate - GA
DENISE MAJETTE FOR SENATE $1,000
primary 08/02/02
ZIMMERMAN, NANCY
NEWTON, MA 02459
BRACEBRIDGE CAPITAL BIDEN, JOSEPH R JR (D)
Senate - DE
CITIZENS FOR BIDEN $1,000
primary 06/20/02
ZIMMERMAN, NANCY
NEWTON, MA 02459
BRACEBRIDGE CAPITAL SCHUMER, CHARLES E (D)
Senate - NY
FRIENDS OF SCHUMER $1,000
primary 04/19/0
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