ustxtxb_obs_1971_09_10_50_00004-00000_000.pdf

An extra 2000 been friends for many, many years. I did not really know who Mr. Heatly was at that time. He told me that he was chairman of the Appropriations Committee, that he was very influential with some people in the Legislature. It was more or less a personal wish of his that Mr. Heatly buy the stock. * * * Q: Did Mr. Osorio say that there would be any connection between his desire to have Mr. Neatly purchase the stock and the passage of the banking bill, HB 72-73? Sharp: He did not have to spell this out in that language. * * * Q: Was it in this same conversation that Mr. Osorio indicated that Governor Smith and/or Dr. Baum might be interested in purchasing this stock? Sharp: No. Q: Was there a subsequent conversation to that effect? Sharp: Well, as I remember, . . . I got a .. . had a telephone call from John early in the morning about 9:00. He told me that Dr. Baum had been up here last night and he and the governor wanted to buy some stock in NBL, and my answer to that was that he handled the insurance company that was the one who operated in Texas, and when the governor and his best friend want to buy some stock, it has got to be a very great compliment, and I was very excited. He kind of laughed and said, well, the governor, in addition to that, says he wants to borrow enough money from the Sharpstown State Bank to pay for it. Then my remark to that was, John, even though this is the governor and his best friend, his application will be treated with the same scrutiny that anyone else has. And if his financial statement will warrant his borrowing that much money, he can get it, but if it doesn’t, he cannot. Q: Did Mr. Osorio state that there was any cause or connection between their purchase of NBL stock and the legislative fate of HB 72-73? Sharp: Well, at the close of the conversation, I kind of laughingly said that if they didn’t buy that stock, it shouldn’t hurt the possibility of this program. I understand I understand Betty Lee Jordan was Joe Novotny’s secretary during the time he was president of Sharpstown State Bank. She said she processed the paper work on loans for Gus Mutscher and father, Tommy Shannon, Rush McGinty, Sonny Schulte, W. S. Heatly, Elmer Baum and Preston Smith. John Osorio gave her the list of people for whom she was to prepare loans. She also transferred the Jesuit Fathers’ NBL stock to the politicians. Q. And do you have any independent recollection of preparing that letter dated Oct. 16, 1969, to Honorable W. S. Heatly? Jordan: I think I remember typing that letter, yes. Q: Well, you do or you don’t. Jordan: Well, I think there was some discussion about his letter, really. Honorable or not, and we were discussing is the reason I I think I was surprised that John called him Honorable, and I don’t mean that. Q: I understand. I understand. The Texas Observer Austin The confusion concerning Ben Barnes’ National Data Communications stock \(Obs., has been cleared up. Barnes and Robert Spellings, the aide who handles the lieutenant governor’s personal finances, have maintained for the past eight months that Barnes ownes 4,000 shares of NDC, all of it registered. Reporters who have read the SEC documents concerning Barnes’ banking transactions found this hard to accept, since some of the stock pledged by Barnes was unregistered and since the blocs of stock pledged at various banks at various times seemed to add up to more than 4,000 shares. Barnes agreed recently in Dallas to make his NDC records available to the press; Spellings has shown the records to the Observer and they reflect that Barnes has 6,000 rather than 4,000 shares of NDC. Spellings told the Observer the reason he and Barnes repeatedly used the 4,000-share figure is because 2,000 shares of the stock are unregistered and, thus, non-negotiable. He said they assumed that reporters were not concerned about non-negotiable stock. Barnes’ financial statement released May 21, 1971, stipulates that he holds $39,000-worth of NDC. It does not say how many shares he owns. The details of the $60,000 loan, obtained four months after the Sharp bills had been vetoed, appear in the Aug. 27 issue of the Observer. The records furnished the Observer by Spellings reflect that Barnes bought his first 2,000 shares of NDC in January, 1969, through Lee Smith, an NDC board member and Dallas attorney. Those 2,000 shares were unregistered and restricted, i.e., bought for the purpose of investment and not to be sold. Such shares were originally distributed before the company went public. Those with reason to think that NDC would be a successful venture bought in before the company went public. Such purchases are s.o.p. Barnes paid $20,000 for his first 2,000 shares of NDC. On May 5, 1969, Barnes purchased another 3,000 shares of NDC on the open market. The second purchase was as follows: 1,500 shares at 18 1 each for $27,750; 1,000 shares at 16% each for $16,500; and 500 shares at 20 3/4 each for $10,375. Barnes borrowed money from the Continental Bank of Fort Worth, using the stock as collateral, in order to make the purchase. The records indicate that at least 1,000 shares of the 3,000 in the bloc bought in May were in the name of The Continental Co., which is the holding company of Harold Hinn, a friend and sometime business associate of Barnes. \(The lieutenant governor is on the board of directors of Global Enterprises, Inc., a Hinn company whose assets consist of a tin mine in Bolivia. Barnes put up, along with other assets, 160,000 shares of Global Enterprises stock as collateral on loans totaling $105,000 at the National Bank of Commerce in 1970. His recent financial statement places a value of Although the NDC stock of the second purchase is in the name of The Continental Co., the records show there is no question but that Barnes owns the stock and that he paid for it. Barnes’ third purchase of NDC was made on March 19, 1970. He bought 1,000 shares at $35 a share on the open market. One thousand shares of the 3,000-share bloc was pledged as collateral for the $60,000 loan at Dallas Bank & Trust on Jan. 22, 1969. That same 1,000 shares was later moved to the National Bank of Commerce when the loan at DB&T was closed out and a new one obtained to cover it. At this point, another of Hinn’s companies, Harvest Queen Mill & Elevator Co., agreed to repurchase the 1,000 shares of NDC and 100,000 shares of Global Enterprises “for a price not to exceed $60,000” should Barnes default in payment. The 2,000 shares of restricted stook also were pledged as collateral on Barnes $105,000 worth of loans at the National Bank of Commerce. Barnes has never sold ,any of his NDC stock. The stock is now selling at less than $10 a share. At one gme the stock reached $67 a share. Spellings, also an NDC stockholder, attributes the current relatively low worth of the stock to the adverse publicity the company has received because of the SEC investigation. SEC records show that Waggoner Can, John Osorio and other persons and entities named as defendants in the stock fraud suit owned NDC stock and used it as collateral for large loans from DB&T and National Bankers Life \(Obs., Aug. named in the SEC suit was or is in the control group of NDC; that a public company cannot be held responsible for what stockholders do with their stock after they buy it; and that what one stockholder does with his stock \(e.g. John legitimacy of other stockholders \(e.g. Ben Ow l s Song owl voices fill the air behind the barn Recurring in the moonlight, and the revolving song Disperses among the roofs and rings out along the woods. R. X. Massa Great Neck, N. Y.