DRUDGE REPORT 2002®
XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX MON JAN 28 2002 20:21:38 ET XXXXX
GLOBAL CROSSING BANKRUPTCY: GOP INSIDERS QUESTION DNC CHAIRMAN MCAULIFFE PROFIT, TURNED $100,000 INTO $18,000,000
**Exclusive**
ENRON-stung GOPers are discreetly eyeing the collapse of GLOBAL CROSSING [which on Monday became the 4th largest bankruptcy in history] and its Chairman Gary Winnick, a top Democrat donor who helped DNC head Terry McAuliffe turn a $100,000 stock investment -- into $18,000,000!
MORE
McAuliffe arranged for Winnick to play golf with President Clinton in 1999 after his cash windfall. Winnick then gave a million dollars to help build Clinton's presidential library.
A top White House source noted, with irony, the direct McAuliffe connection with Winnick and GLOBAL CROSSING.
"McAuliffe is a guy who made millions and millions and millions off this GLOBAL CROSSING stock? And the company goes bankrupt. And he has the gonads to criticizes anyone on ENRON!" blasted the Bush insider who asked not to be identified.
"What did Winnick get for his money? Let's have congressional hearings! Stockholders should demand it! Will Mr. Clinton give back the money?"
McAuliffe, in his role as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, has been a vocal opponent of the ENRON collapse, telling CNN this weekend: "The people out there who are hurt the most are the small people, and once again the wealthy special interests got to take their money off the table, and that's what we need to investigate."
"The Bush administration is running fiscal policy the way folks at ENRON ran their company," McAuliffe
has said.
But with shares of GLOBAL CROSSING closing at just 30 cents on Monday, and trading suspended after the Chapter 11 deal was announced, McAuliffe faded from view.
For McAuliffe, GLOBAL CROSSING turned out to be a bonanza. The stock had soared in the late 90s, when Winnick once bragged that he was the "richest man in Los Angeles." McAuliffe operated out of an office in downtown Washington that belonged to Winnick -- to help the mogul "work on deals."
McAuliffe told the NYT TIMES's Jeff Gerth in late '99 that his initial $100,000 investment grew to be worth about $18 million, and he made
millions more trading GLOBAL's stock and options after it went public in '98.
Top GOP insiders where also gloating over GLOBAL CROSSING ties to other ENRON obsessives.
A major fundraising dinner for Senator Tom Daschle was bought and paid for by GLOBAL CROSSING.
Winnick gave thousands of dollars to top ENRON cop Rep. Henry Waxman during the last election, according to public records.
And as everything blurs, and blurs again in the bankruptcy cycles of the fresh century, and in a twist that will ensure GOP operatives do not ride GLOBAL CROSSING all the way into shore: Former President George Bush once made a smart move by accepting stock in a start-up company instead of his usual speaking fee when he addressed an audience in Tokyo.
Bush agreed to take shares in -- GLOBAL CROSSING LTD. in lieu of an $ 80,000 fee!
McAuliffe's Winnick reportedly suggested that Bush take his fee in stock instead of cash, and Bush agreed. The Bush stock, at its high, was worth over $ 14 million.
It is not known if he is still holding the scraps.
Developing...
-----------------------------------------------------------
Filed By Matt Drudge
Reports are moved when circumstances warrant
http://www.drudgereportArchives.com for updates
(c)DRUDGE REPORT 2002
Not for reproduction without permission of the author
|
|