Excerpt:
Buffett May Not Testify in General Re Case
Mr. Ferguson, 65, is scheduled to go on trial for fraud Jan. 7 in federal court in Hartford. He wants jurors to see documents that he claims show that Mr. Buffett, chairman of General Re’s parent, Berkshire Hathaway, approved reinsurance contracts that prosecutors say helped the American International Group inflate reserves by $500 million in 2000 and 2001, duping investors.
The government argued Monday that Mr. Ferguson’s lawyers should not be permitted to bring up claims of Mr. Buffett’s involvement in their opening remarks, because they amount to hearsay.
“The reason Mr. Buffett appears on the government’s witness list is to rebut any suggestion by the defendants that he was involved in or approved” the disputed deal, the government said. “Absent this evidence, the government does not intend to call him as witness” and create a distraction, the court filing said.
In addition to Mr. Ferguson, four other former executives — three from General Re and one from A.I.G. — are charged with conspiracy, securities and mail fraud and making false statements. They are Elizabeth A. Monrad, former General Re chief financial officer; Christopher P. Garand, a former senior vice president; Robert D. Graham, former assistant general counsel; and Christian Milton, the former head of reinsurance at A.I.G. All have pleaded not guilty.
Mr. Buffett, 77, has denied knowledge of improper dealings. General Re, based in Stamford, Conn., sells coverage to insurance companies and is a wholly owed unit of Berkshire, which is based in Omaha.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/08/01/appeals-court-overturns-5-gen-re-and-a-i-g-convictions/
Excerpt:
The trial centered on a complex reinsurance transaction initiated more than a decade ago. In October 2000, Gen Re helped A.I.G. structure an accounting maneuver that the government said had artificially manipulated A.I.G.’s financial statements. The deal increased A.I.G.’s loss reserves — a crucial indicator of performance for insurance companies — by $500 million in 2000 and 2001.
The controversial transaction, combined with other accounting issues at A.I.G., led to the resignation of Maurice R. Greenberg, the insurance giant’s longtime chief executive. Mr. Greenberg, who left the company in 2005, was not charged in the case. He still faces a separate civil action brought by the New York attorney general’s office.
http://www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Witness-Greenberg-Hank.htm
Excerpt:
Target: AIG
Fraud probe of Maurice "Hank" Greenberg intensifies
By Larry Chin, From The Wilderness
July 1, 2005 1300 PST (FTW) American International Group's Maurice "Hank" Greenberg is now the target of multiple investigations into the orchestration of sham transactions, the inflation of reserves, illegal stock trades, deception, and book-cooking.
In an April television interview, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer declared that his office had "powerful evidence" that AIG was "a black box run with an iron fist by a CEO who did not tell the public the truth". In May, Spitzer filed civil fraud charges against Greenberg, in a probe that has ensnared another Wall Street god, Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett. Buffett cooperated with the investigation as a witness (not a target). On June 9, 2005, two executives at General Re (a Berkshire Hathaway unit) pleaded guilty to conspiring to file false financial information. Spitzer is also pursuing Hank Greenberg's son, Jeffrey, in a separate investigation of bid-rigging at Marsh & McLennan (a top Bush campaign contributor). Jeffrey Greenberg quit as Marsh & McLennan's CEO in October 2004.
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,269936,00.html
Excerpt:
Michael Ovitz, the former agent and manager who was once the most powerful and feared man in Hollywood but is now all but exiled from the industry, knows who's to blame for his downfall: the ''gay mafia.'' Or so he says, according to Reuters, in an interview in the August issue of Vanity Fair, which hits newsstands on Wednesday,
Ovitz, whose Artists Management Group collapsed last year (costing him a reported $200 million) and was sold for a bargain-basement $12 million to little-known music agent Jeff Kwatinetz, blames his business troubles on an enemies list that he says includes DreamWorks cofounder David Geffen; Disney Chairman (and former Ovitz boss) Michael Eisner;
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/10/business/media/10pellicano.html?ref=michaelovitz
Excerpt:
At Trial, Hollywood Power Broker Says He Wanted Only Information
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Matthew Staver/Bloomberg News
The Hollywood figure Michael S. Ovitz at a conference in July. He testified Wednesday in a wiretapping trial in Los Angeles.
But Mr. Ovitz, once a top talent agent and later president of the Walt Disney Company, denied any role in threatening Ms. Busch. He acknowledged paying Mr. Pellicano $75,000 in cash to dig up information about her and another reporter who he said were hurting him, but he said he did not know Mr. Pellicano was doing anything illegal.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/24/business/media/24pellicano.html?pagewanted=all
Excerpt:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Eisner
Excerpt:
Eisner then recruited his friend Michael Ovitz, one of the founders of the Creative Artists Agency, to be President, with minimal involvement from Disney's board of directors (which at the time included Oscar-winning actor Sidney Poitier, the CEO of Hilton Hotels Corporation Stephen Bollenbach, former U.S. Senator George Mitchell, Yale dean Robert A. M. Stern, and Eisner's predecessors Raymond Watson and Card Walker). Ovitz lasted only 14 months and left Disney in December 1996 via a "no fault termination" with a severance package of $38 million in cash and 3 million stock options worth roughly $100 million at the time of Ovitz's departure. The Ovitz episode engendered a long running derivative suit, which finally concluded in June 2006, almost 10 years later
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Wells
Excerpt:
Wells died in a helicopter crash at age 62 at Easter 1994 while returning from a ski trip in Nevada's Ruby Mountains.[2] Wells was a good friend of Clint Eastwood, and incidentally Eastwood had been skiing with Wells that weekend and had departed in his own helicopter just an hour before Well's departure.[2] He was buried in Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery. Eastwood sang a tribute of the Beatles Hey Jude to him, which Wells liked to sing on the slopes.[2] The Lion King, which came out the summer following Wells' death, is dedicated to him. Additionally, the building housing the Disney Archives at Walt Disney Studios is named in his honor.
http://www.lukeford.net/profiles/profiles/alexander_proctor.htm
Excerpt:
11/14/02
I've learned that Proctor is an electronics expert. "Unlicensed private investigator." Proctor knows a lot. He's a maven at eavesdropping. Proctor is an operative. He works for people like private investigator Anthony Pellicano, who journalist Jeffrey Wells says in 1993 used an electronics device to listen in to his cell phone calls while Wells was investigating the Michael Nathanson - Heidi Fleiss scandal at Columbia Pictures.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/17/nyregion/prosecutors-cite-mob-efforts-to-terrorize-union-and-actor.html?ref=juliusrnasso
Excerpt:
Among those ''petrified'' by threats of violence, prosecutors said, was a film industry figure not named in court but elsewhere identified as the actor Steven Seagal. Wiretap conversations portrayed Mr. Seagal's longtime Hollywood producer, Julius R. Nasso, as an eager participant in demands that Mr. Seagal pay the Mafia $150,000 a movie, and even suggesting that Mr. Ciccone needed to get tougher with the actor: ''You got to get, you really gotta get down on him.''
Investigators have said Mr. Seagal told them that he was shaken enough to pay $700,000, although that was not part of yesterday's court proceedings or the government arguments by an assistant United States attorney, Andrew M. Genser.
At the end, Judge Fredric Block ruled that the government had shown in its proffer, or preview of evidence, that Mr. Ciccone was too dangerous to be released and ordered that he remain held without bail.
Two others are also being held, Peter Gotti, brother of John J. Gotti and, according to prosecutors, his successor as boss of the Gambino family, and Mr. Cassarino, who was allowed out just for this week under 24-hour guard and other stringent restrictions while a daughter underwent reconstructive surgery. Fourteen others indicted on June 4 on 68 counts of extortion, labor racketeering, money-laundering, witness-tampering and gambling have been released under house arrest and other conditions.
http://dealbreaker.com/michael-eisner/
Excerpt:
ABC/Disney: Eisner’s Grand Strategy Revealed!
By DealbreakerOn most days, we get a little thrill out of shooting spitballs at erstwhile Chief Mouseketeer, Michael Eisner. And today is no exception. This time we didn’t even have to work for it. He just gave it up to the New York Post, without so much as a flicker of demure hesitancy. In a piece about Herb Allen’s annual Sun Valley retreat, Eisner insists that Disney’s 1995 acquisition wouldn’t have possibly happened without the conference because it gave him the opportunity to run into Warren Buffett on the golf course.
Excerpt:
Warren Buffett invested almost $24 billion through his company Berkshire Hathaway in the third quarter, the most in 15 years, according to a regulatory filing.
The billionaire’s firm made investments beyond the usual financial and consumer sectors, including a 62 percent increase in “commercial, industrial and other” companies, totaling $17.4 billion.
Buffett’s investment included a $5 billion investment in embattled giant, Bank of America, announced in August. Berkshire Hathaway, based in Omaha, Neb., also completed its $9 billion acquisition of chemical company, Lubrizol, in September. The filing doesn’t state what Buffett is pouring his cash into though he has large stakes in firms like Coca-Cola and Wells Fargo. He’s made some investing blunders in the past as well.
Berkshire Hathaway released the investment information on Friday, as part of its third-quarter earnings announcement. For the three months that ended Sept. 30, net income fell to $2.28 billion from $3 billion in the same quarter last year.
The successful businessman’s decisions are closely followed by investors around the globe. Buffett, worth about $39 billion, is the second-richest person in the U.S. after Gates ($59 billion), according to Forbes’ list of richest people in the country released in September.
Buffett reportedly increased his company’s investments in stocks as they suffered lows from the downgrade of U.S. debt last August and the European debt crisis. His widely-known investment philosophy is to hold stakes in quality companies for the long-haul, as opposed to participating in speculative trading. While Berkshire Hathaway owns 80 companies like Dairy Queen, Geico Auto Insurance and See’s Candies, it has stakes in Coca-Cola and Wells Fargo, among other companies.
This year, Buffett has become more vocal in his pursuit to increase the tax rate for the wealthiest Americans, including revealing his tax returns to the public last month.
http://www.smokershistory.com/abc.htm
Excerpt:
From: Buffett's Circle Includes the Moneyed and Powerful. By Ron Suskind. The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 8, 1991. "What do Citicorp's John Reed, CBS's Laurence Tisch, and American Express's James D. Robinson III have in common with heiress Ann Getty, philanthropist Walter Annenberg and Ron Reagan Jr.?
"They are all part of Warren Buffet's growing network, a formidable collection of corporate heads, financiers, money managers and celebrities. The relationships in many cases have been built over decades, deftly combining friendships with business. Members of the far-flung group, who often look to the Omaha investor as something of a mentor, exchange investment ideas, insights into corporate affairs and profitable connections that have been one key to Mr. Buffet's success.
http://www.ronsuskind.com/newsite/articles/archives/000039.html
Excerpt:
The innermost circle, which began as a group of 13 in 1968 and now numbers almost 60, gets together once every two years for a retreat led by Mr. Buffett. Guests at the most recent retreat, a four-day gathering in late September at the Laurel Point Inn in Victoria, British Columbia, included Washington Post Co. Chairwoman Katharine Graham and her son, Donald E. Graham, the company's president; Capital Cities/ABC Inc. Chairman Thomas S. Murphy; former Johnson & Johnson Chairman James Burke; Coca-Cola Co. President Donald R. Keough; Microsoft Corp. Chairman William Gates; and Mr. Tisch of CBS.
As Michael Eisner recalls it, he “arranged” to bump into Warren Buffett – at the time ABC’s majority shareholder – and ABC head Tom Murphy. “I was walking behind my condo; they were going to the golf course,” recalled Eisner yesterday in an exclusive interview with The Post over lunch at the Sun Valley Lodge.http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2011/11/warren-buffett-invests-the-most-in-15-years/
Excerpt:
Warren Buffett invested almost $24 billion through his company Berkshire Hathaway in the third quarter, the most in 15 years, according to a regulatory filing.
The billionaire’s firm made investments beyond the usual financial and consumer sectors, including a 62 percent increase in “commercial, industrial and other” companies, totaling $17.4 billion.
Buffett’s investment included a $5 billion investment in embattled giant, Bank of America, announced in August. Berkshire Hathaway, based in Omaha, Neb., also completed its $9 billion acquisition of chemical company, Lubrizol, in September. The filing doesn’t state what Buffett is pouring his cash into though he has large stakes in firms like Coca-Cola and Wells Fargo. He’s made some investing blunders in the past as well.
Berkshire Hathaway released the investment information on Friday, as part of its third-quarter earnings announcement. For the three months that ended Sept. 30, net income fell to $2.28 billion from $3 billion in the same quarter last year.
The successful businessman’s decisions are closely followed by investors around the globe. Buffett, worth about $39 billion, is the second-richest person in the U.S. after Gates ($59 billion), according to Forbes’ list of richest people in the country released in September.
Buffett reportedly increased his company’s investments in stocks as they suffered lows from the downgrade of U.S. debt last August and the European debt crisis. His widely-known investment philosophy is to hold stakes in quality companies for the long-haul, as opposed to participating in speculative trading. While Berkshire Hathaway owns 80 companies like Dairy Queen, Geico Auto Insurance and See’s Candies, it has stakes in Coca-Cola and Wells Fargo, among other companies.
This year, Buffett has become more vocal in his pursuit to increase the tax rate for the wealthiest Americans, including revealing his tax returns to the public last month.
http://www.smokershistory.com/abc.htm
Excerpt:
Warren Buffett
Capital Cities / ABC director since 1986. Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Company. Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (insurance underwriting, newspaper publishing and various manufacturing and marketing activities). Director of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., The Coca-Cola Company, The Gillette Company, Salomon Inc and USAir Group, Inc. (Capital Cities / ABC director bio, 1994.) In 1994, Warren E. Buffett held 13.04% of the company's common stock.From: Buffett's Circle Includes the Moneyed and Powerful. By Ron Suskind. The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 8, 1991. "What do Citicorp's John Reed, CBS's Laurence Tisch, and American Express's James D. Robinson III have in common with heiress Ann Getty, philanthropist Walter Annenberg and Ron Reagan Jr.?
"They are all part of Warren Buffet's growing network, a formidable collection of corporate heads, financiers, money managers and celebrities. The relationships in many cases have been built over decades, deftly combining friendships with business. Members of the far-flung group, who often look to the Omaha investor as something of a mentor, exchange investment ideas, insights into corporate affairs and profitable connections that have been one key to Mr. Buffet's success.
http://www.ronsuskind.com/newsite/articles/archives/000039.html
Excerpt:
The innermost circle, which began as a group of 13 in 1968 and now numbers almost 60, gets together once every two years for a retreat led by Mr. Buffett. Guests at the most recent retreat, a four-day gathering in late September at the Laurel Point Inn in Victoria, British Columbia, included Washington Post Co. Chairwoman Katharine Graham and her son, Donald E. Graham, the company's president; Capital Cities/ABC Inc. Chairman Thomas S. Murphy; former Johnson & Johnson Chairman James Burke; Coca-Cola Co. President Donald R. Keough; Microsoft Corp. Chairman William Gates; and Mr. Tisch of CBS.
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