DUMP DAVI$ & the Den of Socialists 
GO SIMON
Posted on 08/01/2002 3:22:13 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Thurday, August 1, 2002 Simon Company Hit by Jury Fraud Award The already bitter California gubernatorial race got even nastier yesterday when it was revealed that a company owned by GOP candidate Bill Simon was found liable for fraud and socked with a whopping $87 million in damages by a Los Angeles Superior Court jury. A lawsuit filed in December of 2000, and brought against William E. Simon & Sons and a partner, B-R Investors by convicted drug lord Paul Edward Hindelang charged that after buying the plaintiff's company, Pacific Coin, the defendants acted in a reckless manner which resulted in the company's failure. Simon called the verdict fundamentally flawed, saying that the suit was only filed after he fired Hindelang upon learning he had concealed his background as a drug dealer. "The company immediately suspended him in December 1998; a thorough investigation confirmed his background as a drug dealer, which resulted in his termination in May 1999," Simon said in a statement released to the media. Simon said in his statement that his company didn't know about the drug conviction at the time of the acquisition. "When I was a federal prosecutor, I fought to keep drug kingpins off our streets," Simon said, " ... and I certainly am intent on keeping them out of any businesses that I am involved in" adding that Hindelang "is precisely the kind of criminal I used to pursue." "I expect the judge to set aside this judgment or it will be overturned on appeal," Simon said in the statement. According to San Francisco Chronicle political reporter Carla Marinucci, Hindelang pleaded guilty in 1981 to smuggling 500,000 pounds of marijuana into the country, was made to forfeit $50 million in his illegal profits to the government. and served over 2 1/2 years in prison. Marinucci reported that "U.S. customs officials said he had headed one of the nation's largest marijuana smuggling operations." In February 1998, William E. Simon & Sons and B-R Investors bought a 60 percent interest in Hindelang's Pacific Coin. In his statement, Simon said his company didn't know about the drug conviction at the time of the acquisition. Hindelang charged that subsequently Simon and other investors wrecked his company by misleading him by concealing a secret plan to take the company public. He charged they ran up debt with the aim of maximizing profits so they could take the company public in a initial public offering (IPO) The plan failed, Hindelang charged, and Pacific Coin was seized by the bank in December 2000. William E. Simon & Sons had paid $16.5 million for a 38.69 percent interest in Pacific Coin. At the time, Pacific Coin owned, operated and serviced more than 12,000 pay phones in California. "Defendants steered Pacific Coin from one disastrous transaction to another -- solely for defendants' benefit," Hindelang's lawsuit said. "In so doing, defendants actively misrepresented to, and concealed information from, Pacific Coin Management to prevent it from blocking these ruinous transactions." Democrats leaped on the verdict, suggesting that it would kill Simon's chances of beating Governor Gray Davis in November. The Davis campaign has been running attack ads questioning Simon's business career. "At some point, don't reasonable people have to say to themselves, wait a minute, how can you have all of these foul-ups, fiascoes and fraud allegations if there's nothing there?" Garry South, political adviser to Davis told the Sacramento Bee. Noting that the lawsuits predated Simon's candidacy for governor South added. "Are people just picking on Bill Simon because they figured out three years ago he was going to run for governor in 2002?" Republicans hit back. "The fact of the matter is the company was sued by a convicted drug lord, and it hit a runaway jury," state Republican Party spokesman Rob Stutzman told the Bee. "I don't know why the public would be more outraged by the jury verdict than the fact that Gray Davis is shaking down the teachers union for $1 million in his governor's office. As long as Gray Davis is the Democrat on the ballot this fall, this race will always be competitive." "This was a bad ruling, not based on the merits," GOP consultant Sean Walsh, who has advised the Simon campaign told the Chronicle "State voters "care about having $100 million thrown away on a computer system that no one needs," Walsh said, referring to the Oracle contract signed by the Davis administration that led to firings and resignations in the governor's staff. "They certainly don't care about the allegations of a professional liar and convicted drug dealer," he said. Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
DUMP DAVI$ & the Den of Socialists
GO SIMON
Democrats: Please get your shit together!
That means, if you cannot boil your bitch down to one short paragraph, shut up! We ain?t answering all sorts of esoteric bullshit questions just because you feel free to spout it out.
The first thing you have to learn is that Simon is a very good executive. Your guy is not. (Hey, talk to me about money, jobs and stuff!) The second thing you have to learn is that the only thing Davis can say about Simon is in a whine.
That's because there is a difference between the two candidates. And, that?s the difference people will realize soon. One is a doer, the other is a whiner. Think not? Listen to what they say.
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