Documentation scarce on Barrett investments

It appears that Fulton County Sheriff Jackie Barrett kept few records concerning her dealings with two companies in which she invested millions of dollars.

Barrett had no prospectus, proposal or contract from Provident Capital Investments Inc. before signing a $2 million check to the Florida company in March 2003, an open records search shows.

The search also shows that Barrett couldn't produce any paperwork, with the exception of a three-page questionnaire, concerning her $5.2 million investment with MetLife in April 2003.

That document — a "MetLife annuity underwriting large-case questionnaire" — indicates that Byron Rainner, a MetLife broker at the time who guided the investments, expected Barrett to invest as much as $20 million.

Despite risking $7.2 million in the two investments — which the county auditor says were illegal — Barrett's office produced just 16 pages of paper in responding to a newspaper request for all documents regarding the questionable investments.

At least $2 million of the $7.2 million that was invested belonged to county residents whose property was sold to settle tax claims.

Even though Barrett asked Provident to return the $2 million, the company says it can't because the money has already been spent. MetLife returned the $5.2 million it received.

State, local and federal authorities are investigating the investment deals. Michael Zein, Provident's president, has been subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury in Atlanta on Tuesday.

Stephen Finta, Zein's lawyer, said the records request didn't turn up many documents because Zein's firm never created any before receiving the $2 million.

"Certainly, my guy hardly ever had access to [Barrett]," Finta said. "Byron [Rainner] is the one who spent more time with everyone up there."

Rainner, 33, was working as a broker for MetLife when the sheriff says they met in February 2002 at an event in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Rainner, who worked for MetLife from Feb. 14, 2000, to Jan. 9, 2004, has been sued repeatedly by mortgage companies and other creditors, and he was arrested in December after police say they found a stolen Mercedes-Benz in the garage of his $930,000 home in Plantation, Fla.

Barrett's attorney, Mark Trigg, says the sheriff won't comment until Trigg completes an investigation.

In the meantime, the records released by the sheriff's office show Barrett sent one letter to Rainner, one to MetLife, and two letters to Zein asking that the $2 million be returned.

In a June 13, 2003, letter to Barrett, Zein mentions a fax he had received two days earlier in which Barrett asked for the money back.

She wrote another letter to Zein on June 18, 2003, and received a response from Zein eight days later.

In a June 26, 2003, letter, Zein told Barrett her request "was not envisioned and was unanticipated by our firm. As a result, we are now moving funds around, and doing those things necessary to accommodate your request."

A month later the sheriff's office received a $200,000 check from Rainner, but that check bounced because the Florida account on which it was drawn had been closed.

In another letter, written to Zein on Jan. 9, Barrett again asked that the $2 million be returned.

"The only attempt to transfer any funds led to a financial fraud investigation by Wachovia Bank as the checks that you attempted to deposit were not honored by the bank," Barrett wrote.

And in a Jan. 14 letter to Zein, Barrett mentions telephone conversations "regarding your intentions of returning funds from our investment account."

The sheriff notes that previous deadlines have expired and demands quarterly reports on her investment account.

Then, on Jan. 23, Rainner wrote Barrett an eight-line letter assuring her that her request that the $2 million be returned "will be completed expeditiously."

"Sheriff, I am taking full responsibility for making sure that your request is honored by [Feb. 29]," Rainner wrote. "I would like to thank you for giving me your trust and confidence. It is my primary goal to give you the very best in personal service."

The classic story of corruption and incompetence in Atlanta and Fulton County keeps on keepin' on!

If I were a MetLife customer who had paid a surrender charge for liquidating and investment recently I'd be lining up to sue them for the inequitable and preferential treatment they afforded Fulton County. The initial refund was around $4.8M because of the application of a surrender fee penalty of ~$400k. Later, MetLife did the politically correct thing and returned the penalty to Fulton County. Politically correct but legally incorrect. It is part of a contract, just like the contract that lots of other investors signed and have adhered too. MetLife will rue the day they did business with these scumbags.

Almost absent in the AJC article is the fact that Sheriff Barrett "invested" TAXPAYER money. Having proven her inability to manage the Fulton County jail (a half-dozen prisoners escaped last year from her state of the art jail where most of the locks in the maximum security area do not work), she evidently thought herself capable of "investing" public funds without the slightest clue of what she was getting into or with whom she was "investing." Two million dollars are now apparently gone forever.

Sadly, the chronic corruption that infests Atlanta-Fulton County government continues unabated lest someone cry "racism."

Well - to find about $930k of the $2M I'd look at Byron Rainner's house in Florida. He file bankruptcy on March 22nd as the roof was blowing off this little scandal. Florida has an unlimited homestead exemption in Bankruptcy - so you see a lot of criminal types, or others who are contemplating bankruptcy buying lavish homes and acreages there (up to 160 acres and the home are protected). It will not help him if the house was bought with the proceeds of this crime - but he's an idiot and cannot be expected to know such things. As for Sheriff Barrett - ugh!
Atlanta is as corrupt as it gets. Recently Chief Pennington had the stones to admit that there had been systematic under-reporting of crimes in the City of Atlanta, going back to efforts to suppress the apparent crime rate in anticipation of the 1996 Olympics. I was new to Atlanta at that time - but I seem to recall a senior white officer who was disciplined and then dismissed for making that charge. I wonder if he gets an apology?

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