Posted on 03/14/2003 5:07:53 AM PST by Liz
BACKSTORY Clinton's pal Vernon E. Jordan Jr. a longtime Revlon board member, (Ann Jordan, Vernon's wife, is a board member at another Perelman company), telephoned (Revlon CEO Ron) Perelman directly to broker a $40,000-a-year job for Monica Lewinsky, the Clinton White House intern. Coincidentally or not, one of the calls, came 24 hours after Lewinsky swore out an affidavit in which she denied having sex with the president.
Lewinsky's Revlon career didn't last long. The day that word of the job offer became public, Revlon dropped her.
Webster Hubbell lasted a bit longer. Perelman's parent company, MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc., signed a $100,000 consulting contract with Hubbell, April 1994, just weeks after he had been indicted and resigned from Justice. When word of his "PR" contract became known last summer, Perelman's spokesman declined to say who arranged for Hubbell's hiring or what Hubbell did for the money. Perelman terminated Hubbell's contract in December 1994, when Clinton's former associate AG pleaded guilty to making false statements in a federal probe. Web served 18 months in prison.
All of this has brought Perelman unwanted attention from IC Ken Starr. No subpoenas have been served on Perelman, and his associates say the experience won't scare him off politics.
The Wash Post reported Feb 16, 1998, "He's the wealthiest man in the world. To him, Starr is just a pisher," Yiddish for "little nothing," said a man who has worked for Perelman occasionally. "Hiring Hubbell, talking with Jordan, it's just insurance, that's all."
Some might ask: insurance against what Mr Perelman?
Democrat sycophant, Perelman, was previously married to socialite Patricia Duff, a friend of President Clinton's. Duff also dated ex-Sen Torricelli who was said to be obsessed with the blonde beauty. Duff was previously married to a wealthy Hollywood mogul.
Following Hubbell's resignation from Clinton's Dept of Justice, and during the period leading up to his indictment and conviction, Hubbell [with the assistance of Vernon Jordan] received $63,000.
Jordan was dexcribed in the news media as a one man "Kitchen Cabinet," working in non-public positions to assist Clinton since the days of the '92/'93 transition. Jordan was a target of the Whitewater investigation since Webster Hubbell made something like $400,000 in an incredibly short amount of time and apparently did little to no work to earn it all.
Ken Starr tried to prove it was "hush money." Vernon said he was just helping out a pal. After that, everybody wanted to be Vernon's friend.
Then Vernon helped Monica get a job through his very rich friend Ron Perleman at Revlon in New York. Facilitator Vern also got Monica an interview at Burson-Marsteller, a big PR firm. Apparently, at some point, Monica and Vern became friends.
Monica was referred to Vernon by Betty Currie, Clinton's personal secretary (who hid Moanica's gifts under her bed). Betty is Vern's friend, too.
Vern said he helped Monica because he was "impressed with her drive, ambition and personality." The Tripp Tapes allegedly capture Monica saying Vernon told her to deny having an affair with Clinton during depositions for the Paula Jones sexual harassment case.
Supposedly Vernon's legal exposure was high. He was being investigated for suborning perjury and possibly tampering with a federal witness. Jordan has acknowledged referring Lewinsky to a lawyer and to several potential employers but he denied telling her to lie.
Vernon kept insisting Monica told him she had not had sexual relations with the president.
Many people wondered why Vernon would be discussing her sex life with Monica.
Ron Perelman was a "nice guy, and a big help to a president in trouble. Whatever happened to him? Did his self-serving "generosity" pay off? Or was he another casualty of the Clintons and the Clintons' high-flying bubble economy? Fast-forward to the present:
Ron Perelman is digging deeper into his pockets to cover a $100 million campaign to revive Revlon products this spring.
Revlon, which is 83-percent owned by the billionaire, yesterday said its losses in the fourth quarter widened to $179.4 million, or $3.44 a share, from $28.3 million, or 54 cents a share, a year earlier.
The bulk of the losses, or more than $100 million, came from advertising, marketing and distribution expenses for its products in recent months and the coming season, including Ultima II and Almay.
Sales in the three months skidded 34 percent to $212.6 million.
Perelman says he intends to plow up to $265 million into the cosmetics giant to fix its internal problems. Perelman has had three CEOs at Revlon since 1997.
Since Perelman brought in former Coca-Cola honcho Jack Stahl last year, the company has begun solving some its is distribution problems and is dumping poorly selling products.
Perelman has given Stahl the green light to make major changes at the company in hopes of eliminating red ink, which has totaled $1.3 billion in the last decade.
Revlon is also saddled with $2 billion in debt remaining from Perelman's 1985 takeover of the company. Perelman has managed to roll over debt often and recently won a bank loan of $250 million with eased lending rules.
Revlon stock fell 18 cents to $2.70.
Everyday, it becomes evident that algore had to win to continue the Clintons protection racket.
The DNC has to be really hurting for money.
Maybe some enterprising reporter will nail this story, eh?
Was that an error or have I not had enough coffee this morning?
I always wondered if perhaps Starr caught him in a, shall we be kind and call it an "untruth", and he was given an ultimatum of fading into the woodwork or wearing an orange jumpsuit.
Vernon was also good buds with Carter and was always a front man for a lot of shake down money for the DNC when Jimmeh was in the WH.
Vernon was/is on the boards of quite a few companies. American Express was one of those companies. They would send me a credit card application almost once a week and I would write that I would never have an AMEX card as long as Vernon Jordan was on their board and send it back to them in their return envelope. They finally wised up and quit sending them to me.
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