President George Bush, Siva Yam, President of Us-China Chamber of Commerce and Prescott Bush, Chairman
Posted on 02/14/2002 10:18:32 PM PST by knak
Yet another high profile figure emerges in the Global Crossing Ltd (GCL) failure.
Virtually inconspicuous, revealed in pages buried in required filings of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is an individual who could have been influential in securing Global Crossing a lucrative contract in exchange for post-Clinton employment.
Global Crossing’s staff, however, pointed out Wednesday a release dated April 16 that effectively camouflages the name of the former Secretary of Defense in the Clinton Administration.
The release dated April 16, 2001 says nothing about William S. Cohen until the second paragraph. The unassuming headline on the company website reads merely, “Global Crossing Names New Directors.” Cohen is named along with two others, Maria Elena Lagomasino and Mark Attanasio.
Cohen’s responsibilities according to a report filed with the SEC encompass personnel and compensation.
Cohen was appointed to the board four months after his stint in the Clinton Administration. However, a Global Crossing spokesperson was neither able to confirm nor deny that Cohen, as SECDEF, was in any way helpful in obtaining the defense communications contract for GCL, which was initially approved under Clinton.
Global’s stock price hit a record low August of 2001 after the government announced cancellation of a half-billion dollar Defense Research Engineering Network (DREN) contract given the final go-ahead just one month before.
The 10-year project builds secure US defense communications around the globe. The deal was $137 million for the first year with seven one-year options exceeding $400 million. The contract was yanked by Bush’s Defense Information Systems Agency a division of the US Defense Department citing other bidders complained about how the contract was awarded.
The four losing bidders protested independently. They are AT&T, Sprint, Qwest and WorldCom.
Global Crossing filed Chapter 11 Reorganization Jan. 28, the fourth largest in history. Global’s value at its peak was $50 billion, slightly higher than Enron’s. Though questions of extreme proportions plague GCL, the company hasn’t the notoriety of Enron, historically the largest bankruptcy as measured in debt. (Several days after GCL’s bankruptcy, NBC News president, Bob Horner, announced the selection of Global Crossing to transport video feed from the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah to seven broadcast stations around the country).
Both bankruptcies have similar elements. Both Global Crossing and Enron donated heavily to political parties and candidates. Both chairmen, Ken Lay of Enron and Gary Winnick of Global engaged in massive stock selling within a year of the filings, roughly a billion dollars a piece.
Both firms locked down employee liquidations from 401 (K) retirement accounts during some of the executive sell off. Both companies have been adversely affected by government, GCL in the cancellation of a lucrative government contract and Enron by governing decisions in California, Europe and most notably India where the governing power board ruled rates of phase I of the project were too high canceling the remaining construction phases. Enron’s return on capital was less than half what it needed for a profit. Then secret obligations the company had with undisclosed partnerships suddenly appeared. Enron filed Chapter 11 on Dec. 3. Ken Lay resigned as chairman several weeks later.
A key difference between the two companies is Enron is associated with Republicans, though it has given generously to Democrats as well, and Global Crossing is associated with Democrats.
Winnick’s fate has been somewhat different. Rather than be disgraced in the past couple weeks by a Congressional committee wanting to count every hair on his head and on other places, Winnick entertained former President Clinton at the Super Bowl.
Although Enron contributed $113,000 of soft money to the President Bush’s compaign, and $1 million to the Republican Party, Global Crossing donated over a million to the DNC. Global arranged for DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe an investment in company stock that increased 18,000 percent, from $100,000 to $18 million in about a year and a half. The company paid a former justice department lawyer, Anne Bingaman $2.5 million for lobbying efforts. Bingaman was assistant Attorney General under Janet Reno, head of the Anti-trust Division and considered an expert in international monopolies. Global Crossing owns 20 percent of all undersea communications cable and was increasing its ownership. She is also the wife of Senator Jeff Bingaman, D-NM, one of those investigating Enron. GCL also made a donation of $1 million to the Clinton library.
Washington Dispatch has also learned DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe may have been an “affiliated person” with Global Crossing. Though he’s denied it, using the securities regulatory term specifically, the possibility lies in the following:
--According to SEC filings, as a member of now bankrupt Telergy’s board of directors, McAuliffe raised equity capital. For that he was paid a $1.2 million fee in 2000 for money raised in 1999.
--Global Crossing invested heavily in Telergy, $40 million, almost half the firm’s present value.
--Telergy says in its prospectus that even though Global Crossing offers Telergy considerable competition, GCL is entitled to a position on its board of directors. (Telergy withdrew its public offering, but its documents remain on file).
--Though the Global Crossing board member with Telergy is not specifically named, the closest known board member to GCL is McAuliffe.
This story does not stop there. Bidding for the remains of Global Crossing are two Asian firms, one from Singapore called Telemedia (SST) and the other based in the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) known as Hutchison Whampoa. The later is owned largely by Chairman Li Ka-Shing who has close ties to the Chinese ruling inner circle. Whampoa owns the Panama Canal operations contract and is a bidder for Enron’s Wessex Water utility in Britain.
Global Crossing, which lost the contract for America’s defense communications network, owns 20 percent of all undersea communications cable, much of Manhattan’s private fiber-optics and Britain’s defense communications. And that’s a very small part of the Global communications empire.
And there’s more. The SEC announced last week an investigation into the accounting practices of Global and its trading partners; and as previously reported here, so is the FBI. At issue are communications capacity swaps. This is where a firm trades excess capacity, say seven minutes every other Tuesday, for excess capacity from another carrier. The transaction, though of no value, is booked as income.
And Global is reported to have inflated its books by $800 million in the final quarter—alone--of 2001. It is anticipated nearly all telecommunications firms will come under heavy scrutiny for this alleged abuse.
"We have begun the early stages of gathering the facts on the Global Crossing bankruptcy," said Ken Johnson, spokesman for House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin, a Louisiana Republican.
"It's inevitable we're going to do something. It's just too early to tell what," Johnson said.
Separately, the investigative arm of Congress, the General Accounting Office (news - web sites), was asked to include Enron and Global Crossing in an upcoming report on accounting and auditing issues.
The GAO request came from Michigan Rep. John Dingell, the ranking Democrat on Tauzin's panel, and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Paul Sarbanes, a Maryland Democrat.
Hamilton Bermuda-based Global Crossing filed last month for bankruptcy protection from creditors, the fourth largest corporate insolvency in U.S. history.
A former employee has alleged that Global used improper accounting methods to artificially inflate revenues. The FBI (news - web sites) and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating.
Enron made the biggest U.S. bankruptcy filing ever on Dec. 2, after investors lost confidence amid a slew of questions about partnerships that an internal company investigation has since said were used to hide debts and inflate profits.
Ten congressional panels plus the SEC and U.S. Justice Department are probing Enron's demise. "
only ten?
Ain't THIS special? The fascist Chinese will end up owning land lines that process secure information if this happens. Not only the secure transmissions,but imagine the results of the Chinese just shutting these lines down all totogether.
Gee,I wonder if FineSwine's husband and Prescott Bush are still doing business with the Chinese? Not that this would have anything to do with them being able to make this buy,of course.
This deserves headlines of its own!!
President George Bush, Siva Yam, President of Us-China Chamber of Commerce and Prescott Bush, Chairman
Which has connections to,and shares information with out own defense networks.
Gonna post this to every thread with "Global Crossing" in it.
With apologies to and much empathy for those who have lost so much in the Enron debacle, this is a MUCH BIGGER story than Enron.
The DEMS are in this up to their freakin' eyeballs and if the Chicoms get their hands on the most extensive fiber network on the planet, the results could be serious beyond our imagination.
A key difference between the two companies is Enron is associated with Republicans, though it has given generously to Democrats as well, and Global Crossing is associated with Democrats.
No kidding!
Beverly Hills home of Henry (INRON all the tme) Waxman.
How can all this be going on right under Waxmans nose?
And if we sit on our hands and let them continue their advances in space launch technology and their stated intent of going to the Moon, we are cooked.
(December 09, 2001) China's great leap forward: Space--[Excerpt] "The space industry is not only a reflection of the comprehensive national strength but also an important tool for leaping over the traditional developing stage," said Liu Jibin, minister of China's Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.
If China makes that leap, the country's civil and military space efforts could close the gap between East and West in years instead of decades. Technology is critical to China's development of bigger, better missiles and space-based defenses as well as the country's commercial ambitions. Market reforms and cheap labor already are turning a once-stagnant, planned economy into a powerhouse.[End Excerpt]
(December 10, 2001) CHINA'S NEW FRONTIER China finds launches lucrative--[Excerpt] There also were accusations -- adamantly denied -- that Loral's chairman influenced a Clinton administration licensing decision with a hefty donation to the Democratic National Committee. License approval eventually was shifted from the Commerce Department to the more restrictive State Department.
The Clinton White House announced in November 2000 that it would resume processing export licenses and extend China's launch privileges through 2001 after Beijing agreed to a missile nonproliferation pact. But the Bush administration says outstanding issues remain in implementing the nonproliferation agreement. New satellite export licenses remain on hold. Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., and three other lawmakers urged President Bush in July not to resume licensing under any condition. [End Excerpt]
(October 9, 2001)- China Plans to Send Probe to MoonBEIJING (AP) _[Excerpt] China plans to send a probe to the moon, the official Xinhua News Agency said Tuesday. The probe will be launched on a Chinese-made Long March rocket, Xinhua said, quoting a report by Chinese National Space Administration chief Luan Enjie at a recent conference. It did not say whether firm plans had been drawn up or give other details.
China's space program regularly launches satellites, and has set a goal of a manned launch by the end of this decade. However, few details are available of new developments in the military-linked program. Lunar exploration allows China to ``struggle for a more important place in the world space science field and raise our deep space exploration technology to a higher standard,'' Xinhua quoted Luan saying. [End Excerpt]
(October 8, 2001)-Pentagon Report Calls for the United States Control of Space---Arguably, one of the more straightforward parts of the QDR concerns the capability and survivability of space systems. "Because many activities conducted in space are critical to America's national security and economic well being, the ability of the United States to access and utilize space is a vital national security interest," the QDR says. "During crisis or conflict, potential adversaries may target U.S., allied, and commercial space assets as an asymmetric means of countering or reducing U.S. military operational effectiveness, intelligence capabilities, economic and societal stability, and national will."
This deserves headlines of its own!!
Big BUMP!
Is this your work or Mia T's? It is terrific and deserves to become as widely known as "SoreLoserman" was
With apologies to and much empathy for those who have lost so much in the Enron debacle, this is a MUCH BIGGER story than Enron.
The DEMS are in this up to their freakin' eyeballs and if the Chicoms get their hands on the most extensive fiber network on the planet, the results could be serious beyond our imagination.
We need to keep talking about this until every American recognizes the names Hutchison- Whampoa and Li Ka-Ching, (LOL) since our all-powerful 'mainstream' media are totally unconcerned about the future of the Republic.
Thanks for the kind words.
I'll do my part to keep the fire spreading -- right up to Clinton's backside.
from the article:
What's not stated is that for years Winnick worked for defunct investment banker Drexel Burnham Lambert and was a close associate of convicted junk-bond king Michael Milken before striking out on his own in 1985.
The book Den of Thieves says Milken continued to be involved in Winnick's deals after the split. But a person in Winnick's office said Milken was "absolutely not" involved in Global. Sources close to Winnick said the two dissolved their last partnership in 1991.
maybe I missed it before but I didn't know Winnick was associated with Milkin. I guess he had a good teacher.
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