December 2, 2002
Mikey Eisner and the Genovese 2-Step with the Saudi Dependent Commission
This walk through history is inspired by today’s Wall Street Journal article
by Joann S. Lublin and Bruce Orwall (re-typed below) "To Buttress Governance,
Disney Mulls Post of Presiding Director." Here’s the revealing paragraph:
"It’s unclear which Disney director would assume the role, but a possible
choice is George Mitchell, a former U.S. senator and senate majority leader.
Insiders say Mr. Mitchell is well respected by other board members, and he
recently was named co-chairman of the board’s corporate governance and
nominating committee. Under the new Disney guidelines, Mr. Mitchell and his law
firm recently severed their business ties with Disney."
Nowhere does the article mention that George Mitchell was just named Vice
Chairman of the September 11 Independent Commission with Heinrich Kissinger
named Chairman by George W. Bush. Nor does the article mention the investments
that Saudi Prince Alwaleed has in Walt Disney Corp., and significantly, in
Euro-Disney. Meanwhile, we continue to ponder that George Mitchell’s law firm,
while he was a Director of Disney, served as Disney’s legal counsel and no one
seemed to think there was a problem with this arrangement!
So now, with Henry Kissinger to protect the Saudis (his intimates in
Khashoggi and Iran-Contra schemes) and George Mitchell with homage to Saudi
Prince Alwaleed (who with the entire Saudi royal family is being sued for their
role in September 11) serving as Vice Chairman, we have little recourse but to
term the new commission "The Saudi Dependent Commission."
We can also view this maneuver by Eisner as the old Genovese "two step." If
you recall history, in 1946, Lucky Luciano placed the jewish mob and it’s key
financial genius, Meyer Lansky, under the Genovese crime family for reporting,
profit sharing, and protection purposes. If one reads Michael Eisner’s own
biography released in early 1998 ("Work in Progress"), his father had been named
specifically by Nelson Rockefeller to become the first director of HUD in 1954,
a position he held for 20 years and which earned HUD and HUD Puerto Rico the
dubious distinction of being thoroughly corrupt, never able to explain how it
had spent its money. Meanwhile, Nelson’s covert affiliates kept very busy with
Meyer Lansky seeing that arms were delivered to Ben Gurian in Israel. And
Rockefeller nurtured the young Henry Kissinger, one of his proteges.
As to Mikey, well he gained his position at Disney after a tumultuous "out
the door" routine with Paramount. He, his side-kick Rich Frank, and a bevvy of
others from Paramount days were made kings at Walt Disney Corp. in 1984 when the
infamous Bass brothers took control of Walt Disney Corp. via their Arvida deal,
and began dictating terms, including bringing along Eisner.
Mikey hasn’t proven to be the best at selecting management. Here are a few of
his foibles: Rich Frank stunned Hollywood and suddenly resigned in March 1995.
What wasn’t revealed but is clear from court documents is that Frank was
involved in an illegal winery conversion scheme in Napa Valley in 1991 - 1993;
and in the same county his side-kick was used to bring false litigation against
a noted Hollywood personality whose ratings caused those of Disney Channel to
plummet every eve during prime time. Frank was even able to rig a jury trial
using an unqualified and unknown judge to conduct a jury trial that was a
complete farce. Out went Frank when he fuel quietly hit the fan.
And how about Steven Bollenbach, Chief Financial Officer? Mikey sure can pick
them. Bollenbach’s history was in gambling, and perverse dealings in Napa
County, CA, and there was a big push suddenly to legalize gambling in CA (which
failed). Bollenbach had been fresh from working for Donald Trump, and prior to
that had taken Marriott into gambling. The Dept. of Justice rather amazingly,
after months of delays, permitted the merger of Walt Disney Corp. and ABC/Cap
Cities the day after Bollenbach resigned in early February 1996. Just prior to
that, the Bass family was to have little to no and certainly no controlling
interest in Walt Disney Corp. Robert Bass even stepped forward to sell his
substantial stake. Yet as it turns out, somehow even that managed to change, as
we’ll report later.
Bollenbach went on to become CEO of Hilton, and within months, out went all
of Hilton’s casinos. Bollenbach stayed despite this, and to satisfy his urges to
stay close to gambling, he joined the board of international casino operator
Ladbroke PLC .
And another stellar appointment: Eisner chose the shunned Michael Ovitz to
serve as Disney’s President in the mid-1990s. That too was short-lived, as 16
months later Ovitz was out under a cloud and with a substantial golden
parachute. This couldn’t have been better timing for Ovitz, however, as his own
investment in Livent had collapsed, following his slick departure from his own
agency in Hollywood.
And those Bass brothers, always scheming, in fact did control Walt Disney
Corp, without disclosing their control to the SEC. All was revealed in article
in The New York Times and other mainstream press just after the September 11
attack. Seems the Bass brothers had bet the wrong way in derivatives deals and
suffered a $2 billion margin call. In order to meet this obligation, they had to
sell much of their 11.9% undisclosed controlling interest in Disney. Yet Disney,
shame on them, filed absurd reports with the SEC in August 2001, reputing in
their prospectus that the $1.5 billion in corporate notes they floated were to
purchase businesses or for general working capital. Excuse, please, but it was
used instead to purchase shares of stock from the Bass brothers to stave off
share price collapse. Another Mikey no-no, while George Mitchell’s firm was
counsel – though perhaps not securities counsel.
Next comes the amazing skid of Paul Pressler. In 1993, Mikey supported him
head of Disney’s global theme parks and resorts, as well as Disney’s teams that
included the Ducks and Angels. By 1997, then- Gov. Pete Wilson, with Willy
Brown’s blessing, appointed Pressler president of California Tourism Bureau.
Suddenly the most bucolic and charming of CA destinations became targets of
Disney schemes through shells, and shells operated by the Bass family to grab
land in various pockets of California, much for conversion to resorts, hotels,
and golf courses with a sprinkling of historyland destinations and other tourist
venues. Now that’s power! Just how much in taxpayers dollars were used to
advance Disney’s agenda is unknown, however Pressler is now gone; indeed by
October 2002, he was even out of Disney, accepting a position as CEO of the
Don-Doris-Bob Fisher-led Gap, Inc. which is rather like an inner circle all over
again of Bass and Prince Alwaleed interests. Gap, Inc. has the dubious
distinction of completing its 30th straight quarter at a loss, and
only recently agreed to settle a racketeering suit brought against it.
But what of the Saudi involvement? Why Prince Alwaleed is a Walt Disney Corp.
shareholder. And before that, in 1994 he became a substantial shareholder in
Euro-Disney, literally bailing the corporation out of reorganization, much as he
bailed out cash and capital-strapped Citigroup in 1991. Isn’t this somewhat of a
cause for alarm, to question just how independent George Mitchell might be?
The Gap, Inc. and Fishers are an interesting connector, now with Pressler as
their CEO. In the spring of 2000, they asked Mayo Shattuck to serve on the board
of their Rosewood Venture Capital. And by spring 2001, on the board of their
Gap, Inc., a position Mayo lapped up, though one would think his hands were full
from other responsibilities. In 1997, he became Trustee of the Bronfman family
fortune. In 1998, he followed the CIA’s Buzzy Krongaard as CEO of Alex. Brown.
By 1998, he moved to the board also of Bankers Trust when it acquired Alex.
Brown, a 200 year-old investment banking house and brokerage. Mayo at Alex.
Brown was known as a king maker, having enriched Paul G. Allen and Bill Gates,
two other cronies of Prince Alwaleed, by taking Microsoft public. By 1999, Mayo
was on the board of Deutsche Bank, following its acquisition of the financially
crippled Bankers Trust Alex. Brown (which leads one to question Mayo’s
competence in leadership and finance). And he was on the U.S. Olympic Committee
with crony and Enron board member Norman Blake. Also on the board of the U.S.
Olympic Committee, and indeed its ethics committee: George Mitchell.
Mayo was on this and into that. By February, 2001 he and Steve Rockefeller
served as co-CEO’s of one of Deutsche Bank’s two divisions, "Private Banking
& Asset Management." And then came September 11. And there went Mayo
Shattuck, with a sudden resignation. And he hadn’t even been in New York at the
time, rather he was in Baltimore where Alex. Brown is headquartered.
Why? Was it because of all those suspicious "puts" (short position bets that
stock prices will fall), where news began to seep out September 13 in London,
and later in the month in the U.S. indicating someone may have had advance
knowledge of September 11, having shorted American Airlines, United Airlines,
their insurance companies, and brokerages with substantial operations in the
WTC, and an arms dealer’s stock. The origin of the trades was traced back to
Alex. Brown. So, out went Mayo, off the U.S. Olympic Committee as well, and into
the arms of his buddy, Paul G. Allen who helped fix a deal for Mayo to become
CEO of Baltimore-based Constellation Energy. He was already set up for success
in Fisher operations. And the Fishers, through SPO Partners, are investors in
Maritz, Wolf & Company who are partners in ownership of grand hotels with
Prince Alwaleed, Robert Bass, and others, such as the Fairmont hotels. They are
also investors in Dallas-based Rosewood Resorts & Hotels, which operates the
two posh resorts in Riyadh and several in the Cayman Islands, and among them,
one in Jakarta. Talk about oily, another huge investor in Rosewood Resorts &
Hotels is Caroline Rose Hunt, daughter of the late wild-catter Howard L. Hunt.
This same Fisher-Bass-SPO group also led the way to bring Prince Alwaleed into
his 26% share in Four Seasons Hotels, a Toronto-based public corporation. Or was
it the other way around?
And is Alex. Brown ever in deep doo-doo, even though the name in the case
appears as Deutsche Bank Securities. About two weeks ago, a previously sealed
complaint for racketeering was unsealed in Federal Bankruptcy Court in
Minnesota, styled MJK Clearing vs. Deutsche Bank Securities, Adnan Khashoggi,
Ramy El-Batrawi, GenesisIntermedia (GENI), et.al. A read of the complaint leaves
little doubt that Alex. Brown, during Mayo’s stint as CEO, was running a
significant "loaned shares" scam using the Toronto office to handle much of the
work. (Toronto has been a Khashoggi and Prince Alwaleed outpost for years).
Auditors caught the problem, and Alex. Brown chose to do nothing about it. More
Saudis in the equation, Saudis who had business dealings in Tampa, FL and
Hamburg, Germany. And Saudis who worked with the same attorney who represented
the notorious CIA operative (arms/C-4 explosives out, drugs in) Barry Seal
throughout the 1970s until Seal’s murder in February 1986 (see Daniel
Hopsicker’s "Barry & the boys’" for this, and lots more about the "marriage"
of Prince Turki into the Malnik family, and Miami attorney Malnik’s role in
helping Saudi royals with their investments). Prince Turki is a specifically
named defendant in litigation brought by victim families, and today in London it
was announced that a summons has been unsealed and will be served on Prince
Turkey in the $1 trillion plus class action lawsuit that also alleges
significant racketeering.
The attorney in question is Michael Roy Fugler, until last May, a member of
the Board of GenesisIntermedia (and a shareholder and the person who arranged
the July 1999 IPO of GenesisIntermedia). The two stockholders who benefitted
from the Alex. Brown scheme controlling 75% of its shares: Adnan Khashoggi and
Ramy El-Batrawi as noted above. Tampa was such a special place to these persona,
that Adnan’s beloved daughter, Nabilia, had even created two corporations there
in January, 2001. Meanwhile, Mohamed Atta’s American girlfriend said Mohamed
rented his cars in Tampa through spring of 2001. He also told her that he and
his friends (who were not, by the way, Middle Easterners, rather German, Dutch
and French nationals) received all the money they wanted to start businesses
from a wealthy Saudi businessman in Florida. One day they would take over this
country, he proffered.
We have a bunch of coincidences here.
July, 1999, Michael Roy Fuglae, a Barry Seal crony, facilitated the public
issuance of Khashoggi and El-Batrawi’s GenesisIntermedia. Wally Hilliard sallied
forth with a quick purchase of Huffman Aviation, installing Dutchman Rudi
Dekkers as a front. The Hamburg cell began its plans to attack U.S. buildings.
The Hamburg cell had Tampa connections and Khashoggi and El-Batrawi hubbing from
Tampa, had Hamburg operations over the years (their Jetborne, Inc. operated in
Miami, Toronto, The Netherlands, Tel Aviv and Hamburg).
October 1999, El-Batrawi made his first large block of GENI shares available
for lending by Alex. Brown. Wally Hilliard created Air Florida Express LLC with
Pakistani Pervez Khan who held a certificate via wife Saulat to fly to Cuba,
about the Caribbean, and to Central and South America. Wally was in process of
receiving a LearJet from the Whittingtons via Gulfstream Aviation Enterprises to
WorldJet, the same family that provided Barry Seal with his LearJet. The Hamburg
cell’s plan became "operational."
February, 2000, Khashoggi made his first large block of GENI shares available
for lending by Alex. Brown. Wally Hilliard and Rudi Dekkers were busy rolling
out Florida Air (FLAIR) and sister company Discover Air (Scott Williams under
Wally’s Sunrise Airlines then Florida Air) with a plan to fly shuttles
connecting most of Florida’s cities. Atta, Al-Shehhi and Jarrah report their
passports stolen; contact American flight schools; and identify targets for the
September 11 attack, or otherwise received word of what the targets would be
(Capitol, Pentagon, and WTC per Ramzi Binalshibh).
July 2000, Wally Hilliard’s LearJet is halted by machine-gun-toting DEA
agents in Disneyworld’s dominion of Orlando, FL, at the Orlando Executive
Airport. Some 45 pounds of heroin are found. Wally loses his LearJet by December
2000 through government forfeiture proceedings. (Pervez Khan hard-landed a
second LearJet on Valentine’s Day, 2001, leaving Wally with only a few).
So there we have it, reasons to continue to question whether the Independent
Commission will be able to function on behalf of those it is charged with
serving, or will continue to protect the Saudis and organized crime interests
(which we can comfortably assert are organized crime interests given the RICO
filings noted above).
And now for today’s Wall Street Journal article, page A3:
To Buttress Governance, Disney Mulls Post of Presiding Director
By: Joann S. Lublin and Bruce Orwall
Continuing an effort to shore up its corporate governance policies, Walt
Disney Co. is likely to create a "presiding director" position on its board,
according to people familiar with the matter.
Disney’s board could act as soon as tomorrow, when it is next scheduled to
meet. Disney would join a growing list of U.S. companies, including General
Electric Col and Interpublic Group of Cos. that recently have created such a
position. The idea of such a post has gained curency this year as corporate
boards have been under pressure to be more independent and accountable at te
companies they oversee.
(INSERT IN TEXT: Disney’s Holiday Turkey – The expensive animated film
"Treasure Planet" may become the worst performer from the company’s animation
studio in modern times, page B1)
The primary responsibility of a presiding director is to lead board sessions
that are held without management present. New governance rules proposed by the
New York Stock Exchange require that non-management directors hold regular
executive sessions without management. The pending rules encourage, but don’t
require, the appointment of a presiding director.
A presiding director also can serve as a liaison between management and the
board. The precise duties of Disney’s presiding director haven’t been worked
out, but people familiar with te board say that formal responsibilities will
likely be fairly limited.
In the past, Disney’s board has been criticized for being too close to
Chairman and Chief Executive Michael Eisner, who had close personal or
professional ties to several members. Looking to shake that image, the board has
dramatically revamped its corporate governance standards in the past year by
establishing new definitions of board independence and severing business
relationships between directors and the company. The company hired Ira M.
Millstein, a governance guru and New York attorney, to advise it on such
matters, and Mr. Eisner has in recent months visited with institutional investor
groups and corporate governance experts to solicit their views.
Sarah Teslik, executive director of te Council of Institutional Investors,
said Mr. Eisner visited her in September and revealed that the board was
considering he appointment of a presiding director. She said such a move would
be "a pretty big step" and added that Mr. Eisner is "doing what he should be
doing, in an environment that’s pretty threatening."
It’s unclear which Disney director would assume the role, but a possible
choice is George Mitchell, a former U.S. senator and senate majority leader.
Insiders say Mr. Mitchell is well respected by other board members, and he
recently was named co-chairman of the board’s corporate governance and
nominating committee. Under the new Disney guidelines, Mr. Mitchell and his law
firm recently severed their business ties with Disney.
At its meeting tomorrow, the Disney board also is scheduled to determine how
many of its 16 directors will resign this year as part of a drive to reduce the
board’s size. It is expected that three or four Disney directors will leave the
board by the time of the company’s annual meeing next spring, though it isn’t
clear which members will depart. The company at the same time is angling to
bring in an additional independent member, perhaps someone with a strong finance
background.
In the next few days we may learn what the decision of the board was vis a
vis a presiding director, and whether or not an invitation is extended to George
Mitchell. It is clear at this time that Mitchell has not yet tendered a
resignation to the Disney board, and therein lies a huge conflict vis a vis
September 11, where 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens.
Not to throw salt on wounds, but in Napa County, CA it was reported that a
number of LLCs were created in February through the first week of March, 1998,
and each one has a scheme in mind to develop a resort in Napa County (despite
land use laws that are protective of agriculture). At the same time, a huge land
conversion was effected when the Court of Appeals changed its mind (reversing 3
successive denials of the appeal), decided to hear a case brought by attorneys
that represent most of the above LLCs’ principals, and locked the case up with a
favored judge noted for threatening attorneys and accomplishing the changing of
hands of assets regardless of the law. Naturally, principals behind this
conversion are cross-wired to those associated with the resorters. A number of
judges, including several in the Court of Appeals, are receiving economic gain
as a result of these literally "illegal" decisions, and indeed never once
recused while in full realization of their conflicted positions. It so very
Genovese indeed.
From Proxy (DEF14A) filed 1/4/02 by Walt Disney Corp:
[PHOTO] George J. Mitchell Director since
1995 Senator Mitchell, 68, is
Chairman of the law firm of Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson & Hand in
Washington, D.C. and senior counsel to Preti, Flaherty, Beliveau & Pachios
in Portland, Maine. He served as a United States Senator from 1980 to 1995, and
was Senate Majority Leader from 1989 to 1995. He is a director of UNUM
Provident, a disability insurance company; FedEx Corporation, a provider of
transportation and delivery services; Xerox Corporation, a manufacturer of
photocopier equipment; Casella Waste Systems, a waste management and recycling
company; Staples, Inc., an office supply company; and Starwood Hotels &
Resorts.
Shares owned:
George J. Mitchell........................................... 12,502 with
rights to acquire 20,400 shares in 60 days.
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