ustxtxb_obs_1971_02_12_50_00023-00000_000.pdf

mai Happiness Is Printing B Newspapers Magazines Political Specialists Signs and Placards Bu mperstrips Office Supplies 100% Union Shop FUTURA PRESS Phone 512 /442-7836 1714 SOUTH CONGRESS P.O. BOX 3485 A471N.TEXAB MARTIN ELFA NT Sun Life of Canada 1001 Century Building Houston, Texas CA 4-0686 Aunt Sally’s Little Used Book Store 504 West 24 Austin Personal Service Quality Insurance ALICE ANDERSON AGENCY INSURANCE & REAL ESTATE 808A E. 46th, Austin, Texas 465-6577. ATHENA MONTESSORI SCHOOL integrated, non-sectarian creative non-graded program 7500 Woodrow Austin 454-4239 I #rip t z’ Since 1866 The Place in Austin GOOD FOOD GOOD BEER 1607 San Jacinto GR 7-4171 -44….41114411k. …9111.gbles.w.00.1.., On spec Dallas Those of us who have spent the past two weeks studying the SEC investigation of the Sharp empire and related matters have become esoteric. We tend to preface all declarative sentences with, “To the best of my recollection. . .” and to make obscure jokes about borrowing from the Bank of Sark with NBL stock for collateral. This is not a simple case, especially for people with little business or financial background. But we believe it is well worth the effort necessary to understand it, because the case either proves or implies so much about the way this state works. Perhaps the most signal conclusion to which one is forced after studying this case is that the state’s regulatory agencies aren’t worth a pitcher of warm spit. Ralph Nader has been muttering about the same phenomenon on a national level for several months now, and a good many of us have bemoaned the non-performance of the Railroad Commission in relation to the oil industry for years. But the stupidity and/or cupidity of the state insurance and banking commissions on the Sharp-Carr nexus is truly staggering. They have known, mind you, known for at least two years. Oh, they have raised objections, made suggestions and passed on criticisms until, one presumes, they all had the fantods. But they didn’t do anything. And they didn’t begin to get tough until the feds were already on it. \(We reserve our fire here from Commissioner Falkner, who apparently played a crucial role in bringing There are a number of aspects of the case which have to be treated “on spec,” as they say in the stock fraud biz. One is how and why the SEC ever got on to it. One reliable source \(as they say in finally got tired of being tooled around by Sharp and called in the feds. Another reliable source asserts that the SEC had been after Makris for pulling off the same I-can -ge t-s e cu rities-in-S witzerland gig elsewhere in Texas and stumbled onto the Sharp-Carr mess while pursuing Makris. A third theory, propounded by any number of not-very-reliable Democrats in the state, is that it’s all a Republican plot. Some of them are even saying, off the record, that Will Wilson, that Republican Trojan horse, set it all up in ’68 to entrap Democrats. If so, the Democrats took the cheese. Another aspect, on spec, is what will happen if all the SEC’s allegations are proved true. Are any of the politicians involved indictable? Apparently the federal bribery laws do not cover state politicians. And the state bribery laws are wondrously vague. The lawyers who have seen the affidavits in Dallas believe that if some politicians are indictable it is on counts of either perjury or income tax evasion. They believe that somewhere in the state there’s a Republican or maverick grand jury that will interest itself in the potential perjury charges. The tax evasion theory is all on spec, but you will notice that Preston Smith keeps saying he’s never seen any of the $62,500 he made on the deal; if he’s seen it, it should be on his income tax report for 1969. \(According to one of the governor’s aides, when Smith said he had never seen the $62,500 he meant that he had never seen it, not that he had never The reliable source of the first instance believes that the first criminal indictments out of Florida. The SAC-Ric complex is located in Florida. It’s conceivable that a grand jury there is already on it. Another aspect about which there is much puzzlement is where all the money went. If one eliminates such improbabilities as the Bank of Sark and the Gnomes of Zurich, who stashed the cash? The Jesuits are out $6 million. Others are out by at least that much. The flood of damage-recovery suits expected from innocent investors in the allegedly-manipulated stocks is on. According to the affidavit of one of the SEC investigators, Sharp made $2.5 million in 18 months. It is possible that the money is in some creature of the Sharp ephemera, such as Nashwood. But a dogged reporter who had traced a $640,000 loan through umpteen transactions finally clutched his hair and announced, “It’s disappeared. It’s just disappeared.” M.I. February 12, 1971 23 MEETINGS THE THURSDAY CLUB of Dallas meets each Downtown YMCA, 605 No. Ervay St., Dallas. Good discussion. You’re welcome. Informal, no dues. CENTRAL TEXAS ACLU luncheon meeting. Spanish Village. 2nd Friday every month. From noon. All welcome.