Paron, Arkansas - Population 46 - Home to Wesley Clark and Dan Lasater

More detail on the Lasater/Clinton connection.

THE ENFORCER AND THE BROKEN MAN
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
THE CLINTON CONTROVERSY
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard meets a man who has escaped three murder attempts. Now he lives in hiding with his family. He suspects that his links to an Arkansas company - a big contributor to Clinton's campaign funds - and a woman now senior in the White House made him a marked man

DENNIS Patrick was once a rising star in the Appalachian coal town of Williamsburg, Kentucky. He had made his mark as the youngest Circuit Court Clerk in the nation. The Republican Party was asking him to run for statewide office.

Now 42, he digs ditches for a living. For the past seven and a half years he has been in hiding with his wife and two children, afraid for his life. His friends do not know whether he is alive or dead.

He still does not know for sure what turned his life upside down. But he now suspects that it is related in some way to an investment banking firm in Arkansas called Lasater & Co.

The firm's owner, Dan Lasater, was the biggest contributor to the Arkansas campaign funds of Bill Clinton. The relationship between Lasater and Clinton, once intimate, has cooled over time but the connection between Lasater's world and that of the Clintons lives on in the person of Patsy Thomasson, staff director of the White House.

Thomasson was Lasater's deputy and confidante throughout the 1980s. As executive vice-president of the firm, she was in charge of operations, and was viewed by the rest of the staff as the main liaison between Lasater & Co and the Little Rock political establishment. In the late 1980s she served as head of the Arkansas Democratic Party.

When Lasater was sent to prison in 1986 for drug distribution - according to police files he served lines of cocaine on silver trays at parties - it was Thomasson who managed his business empire.

As head of personnel at the White House, she has access to confidential files on every staff member. Known as the Enforcer, she is said to be fiercely loyal to President Clinton.

Patrick was flabbergasted when he learned that she is now at the apex of power. He first heard about it in February on the radio, and it brought back of a flood of confused memories.

He rummaged through a pile of documents at home and unearthed a wad of trading receipts from a brokerage account opened in his name at Lasater & Co. According to the tickets, which he claimed he had never fully understood before, his account bought tens of millions of dollars worth of bonds in late 1985. On a single day, August 21, it purchased a mixed bag of Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation bonds worth $23.5 million.

"Not bad for a country hick from Appalachia," joked Patrick bitterly. He calculates that his total net assets then were about $60,000, including his house.

He claims that the transactions took place without his knowledge, but admits that he did become entangled with Lasater & Co for a brief period in 1985. It began when an old friend from college, Steve Love, took him fishing in the Gulf of Mexico and tried to persuade him to open an account. Patrick refused. The account was opened anyway, and credited with $21,000. Unwisely, he accepted the "profits". Over the next weeks he was wined and dined in Little Rock, and was even taken dove hunting in a party that included Clinton. Then Lasater & Co suddenly dropped him.

Love now lives in a small town in Pennsylvania. He was stunned when contacted by The Sunday Telegraph, saying that he too had been living underground for several years. "I was used by Lasater, and flushed away, my whole life destroyed. I finished up sleeping on park benches."

He said he was deeply sorry for what happened to Patrick, and denies having made the monster bond trades in the account. Those were done by a more senior broker, he said, for reasons that he dared not talk about.

It appears that the account was used to move large sums of money, but the purpose of the transactions is unclear. What is clear is that while this irregular bond trading was going on, Thomasson was the "financial and operations principal" of the broking house - one of the most senior figures in the firm. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, she held the key 24 and 27 series licences, making her one of the most highly qualified broking principals in the country.

It was in late 1985 that Patrick's life began to fall apart. Somebody started sending paedophile literature to the Court House as if he had ordered it. Rumours circulated that he was involved in drugs. His house was fire-bombed. There were three separate attempts to have him assassinated.

"I never knew what was happening to me," he said in a melancholy voice, glancing nervously around the restaurant where we met. "All of a sudden I was tainted and nobody wanted to get near me. People would walk out of the barber shop when I came in."

He went to the police for protection but they told him his troubles were his own fault: he had got mixed up with drug dealers, they said, and he would have to look after himself.

So he bought a bullet-proof vest, booby-trapped his car and turned his house into a fortress. While his pregnant wife slept at night, he kept watch with a shotgun and an arsenal of loaded revolvers. Finally, he packed up the family and vanished.

After each assassination attempt the gunmen were arrested, prosecuted and served time in prison. In the police interrogation report of one, which was given to The Sunday Telegraph, the man confessed that he had been hired to murder Patrick and his wife for $20,000.

Local newspapers attributed the murder attempts to a dispute between Patrick and his business partners over some marginal oil-and-gas leases in Kentucky. But last month an investigator from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms said he always had his doubts. "Somebody, somewhere, was really determined to kill this guy," he said.

Patrick wants the FBI to investigate whether the bond trading through his account at Lasater & Co had anything to do with the attempts on his life. Could it be, he asks, that it involved some impending court case, perhaps involving bankrupt savings and loans - the US equivalent of British building societies.

The Patrick story raises questions about the involvement of Lasater & Co in the S & L fraud that has cost US taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

The Sunday Telegraph has transcripts of a 1986 meeting in Little Rock in which two Lasater brokers discussed a "scam" they were engaged in. Bonds were rotated through several accounts - including Patrick's - in a process of "churning", intended to generate commissions. When the principal on the bonds had been whittled down to a fraction of their face value, they would be dumped on a federally insured S & L. It is not clear how the scheme worked, or how the S & Ls were induced to act against their own interests.

The brokers listed several S & Ls in Illinois that had "taken the hit" from Lasater & Co. Most of them went bankrupt soon afterwards, leaving taxpayers to foot the bill.

Hillary Clinton and the late Vince Foster were the lawyers hired by the government on behalf of one of these, First American, to pursue a $3.3 million suit against Lasater. The Chicago Tribune has commented that their role in the suit was a flagrant case of conflict of interest, given the interlocking relationship between Lasater and the Clintons in Arkansas.

The suit was settled for $200,000, widely viewed as a surprisingly small sum. It was a secret agreement, with a strict ban on any dissemination of the facts of the case. As a result it is extremely difficult to establish exactly how or why the S & L collapsed. Congressional investigators are beginning to ask whether Hillary Clinton and Foster were involved in an attempt to draw a veil over Lasater's role in the whole S & L scandal.

There are further grounds for disquiet. Thomasson was one of the White House aides who entered Foster's White House office in the early hours on the night after his death on July 20 last year. Key documents were removed relating to Whitewater and other matters. Last Thursday Robert Fiske, the special prosecutor on Whitewater, issued a subpoena for all the documents relating to the death of Foster.

Over the next few weeks the activities of Dan Lasater - and, by association, Thomasson - are likely to come under close scrutiny in Washington. Senator Alphonse D'Damato, the ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, intends to investigate the cosy way in which underwriting business for $660 million in state bonds was steered to Lasater & Co.

Among the many questions being examined is whether there were kickbacks to the Clinton campaign. It is reported that Lasater bond salesmen were encouraged to contribute to the Clinton war chest on the understanding that they would be reimbursed by the company. Former employees of Lasater describe a virtual tithing system.

D'Amato also wants to put the spotlight on the Arkansas Development Finance Authority (ADFA), a bank created by Governor Clinton in 1985 which was not subject to federal and state oversight. The ADFA board, which was appointed by Clinton, chose Lasater & Co to be the underwriter for most of its original bond issues.

There may be more to come yet. A book published in March, Compromised: Clinton, Bush, and the CIA, alleges that Dan Lasater was laundering money on a large scale through the bond system.

Evidence for this is scant, and mostly circumstantial. What has been missing up to now are specific, detailed examples of his brokers' bond trading.

Which is why Patrick's trading slips are so important.

The Arkansas Mob
By: Bob Momenteller

Bill Clinton's mob ties can be traced back to his boy hood in the 1950's and early 1960's. His uncle Raymond Clinton played a key role in boy Clinton's life. His Uncle ran a store front dealership in Hot Springs, Arkansas, where Clinton spent hours hanging around with the big boys. Behind the facade was a thriving full fledge gambling operation, complete with slot machines. Hot Springs became a resort Mecca for many mob leaders at the time, including Al Capone. Gambling in Bill Clinton's hometown had flourished openly for decades because of the corruption of the local political establishment and the complicity of the state police. Uncle Raymond's operation was backed by the Marcello Mafia crime syndicate out of New Orleans.

In 1974, Clinton's first bid for public office, Raymond Clinton's $10,000 dollar loan from the Dixie Mafia kept Clinton on the campaign road. Raymond's drinking buddy, druggist and backroom gambling operator, Gabe Crawford, gives Clinton use of his private plane.

In 1982 when Bill Clinton starts serving his second term as Governor, a DEA report uncovered by Evans-Pritchard will cite an informant claiming that a key Arkansas figure and backer of Clinton "smuggles cocaine from Colombia, South America, inside race horses to Hot Springs."

At the same time that the Lippo Group came to Arkansas, the Dixie Mafia realized the potential of the Banana Republic and it's complacent director, Bill Clinton. The year was 1984 and the money really started pouring in from the mob. East and West coast crime bosses looked at Arkansas as a haven for gambling and dog tracks. Drugs and drug smuggling was rampant with dirty politicians at every level taking handouts. Bill Clinton's ties to organized crime were well known, giving the most ardent crook a virtual license for staking his claim.

Clinton's half brother, Roger Clinton had developed a four-gram a day cocaine habit, getting his stuff from New York and Medellin suppliers. Long time friend of Bill Clinton's and mob money launderer, Dan Lasater, was arrested along with Roger for cocaine distribution. A recording of Roger Clinton during a Hot Springs police department cocaine sting, hears Roger saying, "Got to get some for my brother. He's got a nose like a vacuum cleaner."

According to some witnesses, Lasater also had a back door pass to the governor's mansion. One state trooper reported taking Clinton to Lasater's office regularly and waiting forty-five minutes or an hour for him to come out.

Finally, Mob figure Dan Lasater decides to buy a ski resort in New Mexico. The $20 million investment is used with Clinton's name in order to promote it. Bill gave Lasater permission. A US Customs investigative report that surfaced later, would show that the resort was being used for drug operations and money laundering. Lasater also attempted to buy a 24,000 acre ranch in Belize. Negotiations were helped along by Lasater's aide Patsy Thomasson. Thomasson would later become a key White House operative.

In 1989, Dan Lasater was pardoned by Governor Clinton after serving just six months in jail and four in a halfway house on minor charges. One law enforcement official described the investigation into Lasater's operations as "either a high dive or extremely unprofessional. Take your pick." The alleged reason for the pardon: so Lasater can get a hunting license. Lasater returns to his 7,400 ranch in Saline County.

Bill Clinton found a winning formula to obtain the necessary funds for his political agenda. Not only did he have the resources from the Communist Chinese, he had all the resources of organized crime.

MOB INFILTRATES WHITE HOUSE

Bill Clinton's mob connections would prove valuable in obtaining the highest office in the land. It also gave organized crime key positions in the White House. In 1992, the New York mob contributed over $56 million dollars to the Clinton coffer. This purchased their long time lawyer Harold Ickes a White House seat. Ickes would become Clinton's Deputy Chief of Staff. The Arkansas Mafia got Patsy Thomasson and Buddy Young positions in the administration. The Chicago Organized crime syndicate, got Rahm Emanuel and David Wilhelm.

Harold Ickes would prove to be a real asset to the mob. He got Arthur Coia and Ron Carey to keep silent when the RICO investigations by the Justice Department were underway. White House Director of Administration, Patsy Thomasson was in charge of White House drug testing policy. She looked the other way on past and current drug use by criminal figures on the White House staff.

Mob figures Nathan Landow, Richard Ben-Veniste, and their associates Terry Lenzner and Paul Begala became the infamous secret police that would keep Clinton in office despite multiple revelations of criminal offenses.

In 1995 the White House host a major drug dealer at it's Christmas party, Mobster Jorge Cabrera. Gabrera gave $20,000 to the DNC.

Besides being photographed in front of the White House Christmas tree with Hillary, Cabrera was photographed with Al Gore at a Miami fund-raiser. The Clinton administration initially attempted to conceal the photo by arguing that a publicity shot with the Vice President is covered by the Privacy Act.

Cabrera was indicted in 1983 by a federal grand jury, on racketing and drug charges. In 1988, he was accused of managing a continuing narcotics operation. He pleaded guilty to lesser charges and served 54 months on prison.

After his visit to the White House, Cabrera would be sentenced to 19 years in prison for transporting 6,000 pounds of cocaine into the US. The Secret Service says letting him come to the White House was okay because he posed no threat to the President, we can't imagine why?

Finally, without notice, Clinton continued his mob paybacks by pardoning Jack Pakis. Pakis was an old gambling pal of Uncle Raymond and of his mother. Pakis was convicted under the Organized Crime Control Act, sentenced to two years in prison, but the sentence was suspended. Pakis was fined and put on probation. He had been arrested as part of an FBI sting operation against illegal gambling in Hot Springs. Pakis was a professional gambler and was part owner of an illegal casino and a bookmaker for football and horse racing bets. Pakis also once a hand on the Southern Club, Al Capone's favorite hang out when in town. In Clinton's mother autobiography, she wrote "gangsters were cool and the rules were meant to be bent."

In 1996, convicted cocaine distributor Dan Lasater testified before Congress. The main stream press doesn't say a peep about this, even though Lasater is close to Clinton and paid off Roger Clinton's debt to the drug cartel. Lasater also raised race horses and was a track buddy of Virginia Kelly, through whom he met her son Bill. When Lasater started a bonding company, Bill Clinton recommended to him highway commissioner Patsy Thomasson, who would become vice president of the Lasater firm and have power of attorney while he was in jail. Thomasson would eventually become director of White House Management and Administration, responsible for drug testing among other things. While with Lasater, Thomasson hired Clinton's half-brother as a limo driver. Roger was also employed as a stable hand at Lasater's Florida farm.

Published in the November 1, 1998 issue of Ether Zone Online . Copyright © 1998 Ether Zone Online (http://etherzone.com). Reposting permitted with this message intact.

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