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exhibits be sealed until Sanders ruled and then returned to Dowd with “all copies” and that the attorneys “be prohibited from discussing or revealing any of the contents of those depositions or allowing copies thereof to be made.” Gail Cooper, who, from the $590,000 account, received the $125,000 concerning which Landis and St. John launched their charges, made his move for secrecy last October. His financial accounts, Cooper told the court, were “irrelevant and immaterial,” and he would be harmed if they were “arbitrarily and improperly revealed to the public.” The information Cooper wanted kept secret, he told the court, “should only be discoverable in camera, if at all.” Sanders’s seal orders predate Cooper’s motion. THECASE IN QUESTION THE CASE INTO WHICH the name of Jim Mattox has been so brutally injected concerns insurance fraud. Lloyd’s, U.S., a Texas firm, was authorized in 1985 to sell and provide insurance It is an unincorporated association of individuals operating as a Texas-Lloyd’s plan insurer. Landis. whom we tried without success to locate, represents himself as an obtainer of reinsurance. He is the sole owner of Intercon Reinsurers entities in Texas and Bermuda “I am Intercon,” he said during one deposition. It is agreed that Landis approached Lloyd’s, U.S., proposing to broker reinsurance for substandard auto insurance which would be sold in the name of the company. Lloyd’s contends Landis and Intercon forged a document representing that 100 percent reinsurance had been arranged with reputable Bermuda reinsurers and that the agency agreements Lloyd’s signed with Landis were also conditioned on the presentation of a letter of credit which Landis did not present. Lloyd’s charges that Landis in fact arranged reinsurance with 4flimsy offshore firms that had no assets with which to reinsure the policies sold. The former president of Lloyd’s, James Howard, attested that he first learned during a Caribbean cruise he took with Landis that Landis was actually selling policies in Lloyd’s name. Howard said he realized, when he returned to Texas, that his company was the victim of a fraud. Lloyd’s cancelled Landis agency agreements and notified those who had bought policies from Landis that they had no insurance. In September 1987 Dale St. John, in effect representing Landis, sued Lloyd’s for breach of contract and Lloyd’s counterclaimed fraud. Judge Canales of the state court in Dallas, on September 16, 1987, restrained Landis from issuing any further policies on which Lloyd’s was purported to be the security. Lloyd’s alleges Landis kept selling the policies anyway. Lloyd’s civil RICO accusations against Landis pass lightly over the fact that James Howard signed general agency agreements with Landis and other agents, while stressing the alleged forgery of sound reinsurance agreements by Landis and the failure of Landis to provide a letter of credit. Lloyd’s was not to be liable for paying policyholder claims, but was to be paid a “fronting fee” of three percent of the premiums from policies sold. At one point, according to Frank Stenger, the State Liquidator-Receiver took the position that Lloyd’s might have been defrauded, but still was liable for claims. Lloyd’s alleges that Landis was “the ring leader of the fraudulent scheme,” “a confidence man who styles himself as a reinsurance broker.” In a motion in McGuire’s bankruptcy court, Lloyd’s declared: “Landis drives around in a late model Jaguar, a late model Cadillac, and a pickup truck; he regularly travels by plane out of state and out of the country, often accompanied by his girlfriend; [in Dallas] he frequents Lace, a well-known, and expensive, topless bar.” Dale St. John, Landis’s associate, said in a deposition that Landis spent “over $500” on his visits to Lace, where St. John understands Landis goes “every other day if he is in town, or it could be every day.” Lloyd’s believes Landis still owns a $750,000 home in California, computer software Landis values at $2.5 million, a $150,000 Bentley, two Jaguars together worth $95,000, two Thunderbirds together worth $105,000, and stocks and other assets. Even so, knowledgeable attorneys in the case marvel at the estimated $1.5 million in legal costs Lloyd’s has already run up. “There’s something there,” says one private-sector lawyer. The big-time firms of Milgram, Thomajan, and Lee of New York City and Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer, and Feld of Washington and Dallas do not come cheap. “None of this makes any sense in terms of the amount of money they’re pouring into it,” says Frank Stenger. On December 8, 1987, Lloyd’s moved, before Federal Judge James Nowlin in Austin, that Landis be barred “from transferring or secreting assets.” According to Lloyd’s, Robert K. Dowd, then the lawyer for Landis, was notified of this motion the day it was made. The next day, on December 9, Landis transferred $590,145.10 into an account which Lloyd’s says was styled “Robert K. Dowd Attorney Trust Account.” Lloyd’s alleged that, for the next few weeks, “Dowd secretly doled out portions of that money to Landis and Intercon” and that in one of the apparently sealed depositions, Dale St. John, the associate of Landis, said Landis told him “that any time Joe [Landis] needed money, he would go to Bob [Dowd].” Dowd, a Dallas attorney, admits that Landis transferred the $590,000 “to a bank account over which Dowd, among others, had some control” but denies other allegations concerning the account. Dowd allegedly represented to Judge Canales that the money \(or owed by Landis; Landis denies that. Landis has attested to a two-part explanation. First, he said. Dowd told him that “funds . . . being held were for claims, and if I wanted the claims to be paid I should transfer them to an account where they could be paid.” The money in the account was there to pay claims, Landis contends. Second, at pages 1113-1116 of his apparently sealed deposition, Landis said Dowd recommended that he put the money into the trust account to avoid the issuance of a temporary restraining order that could attach the account. Landis has admitted under oath that for his part the purpose of the transfer was to put the funds beyond the reach of a possible court order. He testified in March 1988 that some of the funds went to claims and some to legal fees. The $125,000 at issue was provided to Gail Cooper from the $590,000 account. In a recent motion, Lloyd’s charged that the U.S. trustee, Don Navarro, “has inexplicably failed to pursue the fraudulent conveyance of $125,000 to Gail Cooper.” Landis caused Dowd to pay the $125,000 to Dowd’s client, Gail Cooper, according to the Lloyd’s allegations, and Cooper, “according to Landis, was in turn to transfer that sum, plus an additional $125,000, to the attorney general of Texas in exchange for his interceding on behalf of Landis and his co-conspirators in their litigations with Lloyd’s, U.S. . . . “Landis and his compatriot Dale St. John,” continued the recent Lloyd’s motion filed by Milgram, Thomajan, and Lee, “have testified that the $125,000 was influence money to be paid to Attorney General Mattox to secure General Mattox’s cooperation and assistance in Landis’s litigation with Lloyd’s, U.S.. .. Dowd and Cooper have denied that the payment was intended as a bribe, and have testified that the payment was partial compensation for Cooper’s work in finding a new insurer, First National Indemnity, through which Landis caused new insurance policies to be issued. . .. Dowd claims that part of the money was also to pay Cooper for investigative services. . .. Cooper testified that he never performed or agreed to perform such services. . . . “Regardless of whether one ultimately believes Landis and St. John, Dowd or Gail Cooper, the money is recoverable for the estate. If the payment was in fact intended to be used as a bribe, the transfer was void as against public policy . . . . If, instead, the money was in fact a finder’s fee, the debtors received less than a reasonably equivalent value in exchange for such transfer or obligation. . . . Gail Cooper has testified that all he did in exchange for the $125,000 was to make one phone call to one of his clients, Del Morton of North Park 10 JUNE 16, 1989