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Gary Winnick (with Karen B.)
March 5, 2001

Richard Reeves, the nationally syndicated newspaper columnist, remembers his introduction to Gary Winnick at "one of the most disgusting events I've endured in many years of watching the way the world works." The scene was a luncheon last August for the National Democratic Institute attended by President Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and a host of foreign dignitaries and big-time political donors.

As one of those donors, Winnick had paid for the lunch, and thus had been allotted time to address the gathering. "This egomaniac who could afford the tab got up and rambled on about how rich and daring he was and how great his kids were," writes Reeves. When Albright got up to speak, Winnick adorned her with a baseball cap bearing the corporate logo of his telecommunications company, Global Crossing. "It made you cringe to be a citizen of the world's greatest democracy," Reeves reports. "But that's the way it is these days."

Albright and Clinton had at least 133,000 reasons to grin their way through Winnick's performance: that's how many of his own dollars the corporate heavyweight gave to Democrats during the last election cycle. The donations were part of at least $1,265,268 that Global Crossing and its affiliates and executives gave the party. Republicans received almost as much from the company, including $185,000 from Winnick. Global Crossing has made no secret of its desire for returns on that investment beyond self-congratulatory luncheons.

Winnick founded Global Crossing in 1997, and has since raised over $20 billion in capital. The company plans to lay 100,000 miles of fiber-optic cable to 27 countries and 200 cities by the middle of this year. Last August, Forbes estimated Winnick's value at $3.2 billion. But that was when the company's stock was hovering around $32 a share. By February, it had plunged to barely $15.

A former employee of junk-bond king Michael Milken, Winnick also controls Pacific Capital Group, an investment firm that helped launch Global Crossing. In February, Pacific Capital agreed to acquire part of Loews Cinema as part of a bankruptcy restructuring. The group also has investments in a number of telecommunications and finance companies, including Nextwave Telecom, WorldPort Communications, Value America, and Aegis Consumer Funding Group.

Winnick harbors political interests beyond Washington. He has pledged $40 million of his wealth to build the Winnick Institution Jerusalem, which will focus on global issues of peace and tolerance. He also funds other pro-Israel programs, including one that sponsors Jewish-American students who wish to visit the country for the first time.

In 1997, Winnick hired Terry McAuliffe, Clinton's chief fundraiser, as a consultant. According to the New York Times, the $100,000 he paid McAuliffe turned into an $18 million windfall as McAuliffe's contacts helped Global Crossing's stock climb. In 1999, McAullife set up a golf gave between Clinton and Winnick, which ended with Winnick pledging $1 million for Clinton's presidential library.

-- Michael Scherer

Richard Reeves, the nationally syndicated newspaper columnist, remembers his introduction to Gary Winnick at "one of the most disgusting events I've endured in many years of watching the way the world works." The scene was a luncheon last August for the National Democratic Institute attended by President Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and a host of foreign dignitaries and big-time political donors.

As one of those donors, Winnick had paid for the lunch, and thus had been allotted time to address the gathering. "This egomaniac who could afford the tab got up and rambled on about how rich and daring he was and how great his kids were," writes Reeves. When Albright got up to speak, Winnick adorned her with a baseball cap bearing the corporate logo of his telecommunications company, Global Crossing. "It made you cringe to be a citizen of the world's greatest democracy," Reeves reports. "But that's the way it is these days."

Another disgusting chapter from the late unlamented days of the Clintons' Reign of Terror. These fast-buck artists debased and degraded a great nation and its historic principles in order that the conniving Clintons and their minions could profit. We have yet to recover from the Clinton debacle while small shareholders pay the price for this rampant greed as the Clintons Legacy lives on.

Thanx for resurrecting this great expose of Winnick and the conniving Clintons. (As I recall, think I may have even posted the piece when it appeared back then.)

And this is the way the free enterprise system in America works.It is nothing more than stealing from every day old Joe Schmoe!
As I have said before,rob a bank with a pistol you get 15 years.Rob you neighbor with a pencil and you get rich.
And the answer too this is to educate and hire more lawyers to use and screw the average man!

Let us not forget that Anne Bingaman (wife of NM Senator Jeff Bingaman) got over $2M lobbying for Global X before she joined the Justice Department anti-trust division and their raid on Microsoft.

...Winnick... has pledged $40 million of his wealth to build the Winnick Institution Jerusalem, which will focus on global issues of peace and tolerance. He also funds other pro-Israel programs, including one that sponsors Jewish-American students who wish to visit the country for the first time.

heartening to know he hasn't forgotten his roots