Mainland Savings organization
also: mainland savings and loan, Mainland, failed mainland, Mainland's, Mainland assets
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Related entities (most co-mentioned)
Raymond Hillperson · 25Adnan Khashoggiperson · 12Houstonplace · 8Lamar Savingsorganization · 8Walter Mischerperson · 7Mario Rendaperson · 6Herman Beebeperson · 5Andrews and Kurthorganization · 5Charles Whiteperson · 5Martin Schwimmerperson · 5Sunrise Savingsorganization · 5James Bakerperson · 4Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporationorganization · 4Houston Postorganization · 4Sergio Lussaniperson · 4Allied Bankorganization · 4Laddie Howardperson · 3Continental Savingsorganization · 3Gregory Sayperson · 3Iran-Contra affairevent · 3Jim Bathperson · 3Vernon Savingsorganization · 2John Riddleperson · 2Brooklyn Organized Crime Strike Forceorganization · 2
Claims (37)
Herman Beebe secretly_owned
Mainland Savings documented
“Hill was a scared weakling, according to Anderson. You could smell it. We said we'd give him a million dollars tomorrow, but we wanted a piece of the action. He didn't want to do it. Although that particular deal didn't go through, there we…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner The Mafia, CIA, & George Bush Part Part @ 17:18
Laddie Howard member_of
Mainland Savings book_quoted
“to Laddie Howard, who worked at Drew Mortgage. Drew Mortgage was a subsidiary of Lamar Savings. Howard arranged a 100% loan from Lamar, which meant that White and Bath did not have to put any money down. Howard had originally worked at Main…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner-Mafia, CIA, and George Bush Part 16 @ 1:01:21
Sheikh Khalid bin Mahfouz member_of
Mainland Savings book_quoted
“It was NCB that lent some $35 million to Khashoggi in the summer of 1985. Around the same time, Khashoggi was getting $12 million from mainland savings to buy all of those missiles. Sheikh Khalid was an investor in Maine Bank in Houston, al…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner-Mafia, CIA, and George Bush Part 16 @ 37:58
John Connally member_of
Mainland Savings book_quoted
“It was NCB that lent some $35 million to Khashoggi in the summer of 1985. Around the same time, Khashoggi was getting $12 million from mainland savings to buy all of those missiles. Sheikh Khalid was an investor in Maine Bank in Houston, al…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner-Mafia, CIA, and George Bush Part 16 @ 37:58
Gaith Perrone member_of
Mainland Savings book_quoted
“Bank accounts opened by Oliver North and BCCI's Paris branch. BCCI operated, had an account with Adon Khashoggi and an association with Monte Carlo's branch of BCCI that Adon Khashoggi used in his arms deals. Sheet Khalid bought into main b…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner-Mafia, CIA, and George Bush Part 16 @ 39:56
John Connally removed_from_power
Mainland Savings book_quoted
“and Peron in 1976. Conley sold his investment in 1980 to make a run for the Republican presidential nomination. So hey, let me get out of this CIA maze of bank corruption, because real quick, I'm going to clean up and run for president. Hol…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner-Mafia, CIA, and George Bush Part 16 @ 40:26
Mercantile Texas Corporation secretly_owned
Mainland Savings book_quoted
“and Peron in 1976. Conley sold his investment in 1980 to make a run for the Republican presidential nomination. So hey, let me get out of this CIA maze of bank corruption, because real quick, I'm going to clean up and run for president. Hol…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner-Mafia, CIA, and George Bush Part 16 @ 40:26
Mainland Savings financed_via
Allied Bank book_quoted
“Michener's friend, Jimmy Lyons. Who's Jimmy Lyons? Well, Jimmy Lyons just happens to be one of the big fundraisers for Iran-Contra. In June 1984, Mainland paid out almost $20 million to Allied in a deal that showed Hill's friendship with Me…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner The Mafia, CIA, & George Bush Part Part @ 23:57
Mainland Savings financed_via
PENACO book_quoted
“Pinnacle filed for bankruptcy and by 1984 was in default of all of the Allied loans still owing $21 million. Allied had already posted the security property for foreclosure when Mainland stepped in and bought the loans for $19.2 million. Pe…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner The Mafia, CIA, & George Bush Part Part @ 24:56
Howard Pulver laundered_money_for
Mainland Savings book_quoted
“and then immediately flipped the properties by selling them to limited partnerships that they themselves owned. Then, in late 1984 and 85, they sold all of the promissory notes, securing the enormous mortgage debts to mainland savings. This…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner The Mafia, CIA, & George Bush Part Part @ 30:30
Raymond Hill member_of
Mainland Savings host_asserted
“Why gave Raymond Hill the idea that he was never going to get subpoenaed about these deals? Who was he really working for? Searching for the answers to those questions led to a discovery of Hill and Mainland's relationship to Mafia CIA, Ira…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner The Mafia, CIA, & George Bush Part Part @ 35:03
Mainland Savings financed_via
CIA host_asserted
“Why gave Raymond Hill the idea that he was never going to get subpoenaed about these deals? Who was he really working for? Searching for the answers to those questions led to a discovery of Hill and Mainland's relationship to Mafia CIA, Ira…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner The Mafia, CIA, & George Bush Part Part @ 35:03
Mainland Savings financed_via
Mafia host_asserted
“Why gave Raymond Hill the idea that he was never going to get subpoenaed about these deals? Who was he really working for? Searching for the answers to those questions led to a discovery of Hill and Mainland's relationship to Mafia CIA, Ira…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner The Mafia, CIA, & George Bush Part Part @ 35:03
Adnan Khashoggi paid
Mainland Savings host_asserted
“These people are just fronts for this whole thing. So you sell a piece of property, you use the money, and you buy arms, you ship them overseas. Khashoggi also sold a track to Mainland Savings for a profit of a sweet $12 million. Also in 19…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner The Mafia, CIA, & George Bush Part 8 @ 52:52
Mainland Savings financed_via
Pulver Group documented
“Written on Mainland. Which is the name of a bank. By the Houston Post. In June of 1987. It was under. Say. And Bruton. The guy that authored this book. It dealt with Mainland's purchase. Of a promissory note. From Pulver's group. We talked …”
▶ The Colonels Corner Mafia, CIA&Bush Part 5 @ 2:35
Mario Renda laundered_money_for
Mainland Savings documented
“brokered union funds, and then skimmed the interest off into secret accounts. Renda had a motley crew around him. One of his sidekicks was Salvador Piga, P-I-G-A. He was a mob enforcer and associate to a crime family. His rap sheet included…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Mafia, CIA&Bush Part 5 @ 12:49
Martin Schwimmer laundered_money_for
Mainland Savings documented
“brokered union funds, and then skimmed the interest off into secret accounts. Renda had a motley crew around him. One of his sidekicks was Salvador Piga, P-I-G-A. He was a mob enforcer and associate to a crime family. His rap sheet included…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Mafia, CIA&Bush Part 5 @ 12:49
Sunbelt Properties financed_via
Mainland Savings documented
“In July of 1983, one of Capaldi's Houston real estate development companies, Sunbelt Properties, purchased 491 acres south of Houston from a pandemonium corporation. The name of that corporation was Corporation Financiere Europa America. Th…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Mafia, CIA&Bush Part 5 @ 34:15
Mainland Savings financed_via
Adnan Khashoggi book_quoted
“In August of 1985, when Mainland handed at least $12 million in cash to Aiden Khashoggi, the infamous arms dealer and founder of the Safari Club, just a week before Khashoggi paid over the initial $1 million of $5 million to, I don't know h…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Mafia, CIA&Bush Part 5 @ 39:42
Mainland Savings financed_via
Sarah Limited book_quoted
“that also tracked back to drug smugglers, money launderers, CIA proprietary airlines, and Castle Bank. Beginning in 83, more than a year before the Khashoggi deal, Mainland had lent a million dollars, and in some estimates, it could have be…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Mafia, CIA&Bush Part 5 @ 58:30
Adnan Khashoggi financed_via
Mainland Savings book_quoted
“Khashoggi also had another connection to Mainland through money broker Mario Renda. He used to be a partner with Khashoggi, the guy from New York. Mainland proposed to buy the Galleria track for $68 million. The bulk of the money would come…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Mafia, CIA&Bush Part 5 @ 44:51
Mainland Savings financed_via
H. Stephen Grace book_quoted
“called SG Debco. The president and all of the things, treasurer, registered agent, sole director was Houston businessman H. Stephen Grace. SG Debco presumably stands for Stephen Grace Development Company. Mainland also lent Grace and a part…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Mafia, CIA&Bush Part 5 @ 59:30
Jack Modesik financed_via
Mainland Savings book_quoted
“This landing strip will be discussed later on when we talk about Michener's CIA ties. Medesit also did business with Howard Pulver's group, including promissory notes that were later sold to Mainland. Michener's allied bank lent money to Ba…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Mafia, CIA&Bush Part 5 @ 38:41
Mainland Savings financed_via
Ed Baker book_quoted
“This landing strip will be discussed later on when we talk about Michener's CIA ties. Medesit also did business with Howard Pulver's group, including promissory notes that were later sold to Mainland. Michener's allied bank lent money to Ba…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Mafia, CIA&Bush Part 5 @ 38:41
Mainland Savings financed_via
Adnan Khashoggi book_quoted
“On August 1st, closing of all the loans, Mainland issued Khashoggi two $10 million lines of credit to use to develop the tracks. And finally, on the same day, Mainland signed a $5 million letter of credit to Khashoggi himself. The last lett…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Mafia, CIA&Bush Part 5 @ 48:20
Adnan Khashoggi financed_via
Mainland Savings book_quoted
“You can guarantee part of it was our money. Mainland, which had taken a $16 million participation in Lamar loan and guaranteed the rest, eventually took the whole loan over. So Mainland ended up with an investment in the entire deal of wort…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Mafia, CIA&Bush Part 5 @ 54:55
Ian Paget Brown financed_via
Mainland Savings book_quoted
“a certain amount of them in a special security area. Helliwell then told the director to buy a secure fireproof filing cabinet, put the special files in that cabinet, lock it, and take it to Ian Paget Brown, the key. This was the same Ian P…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner-The Mafia, CIA & George Bush Part 6 @ 4:26
Mainland Savings overbilled_or_diverted
Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation book_quoted
“Insurance Corporation acknowledged that there had been wrongdoing at Mainland, but it wouldn't have been worth filing a lawsuit over. Half a billion dollars was stolen from us. They said that the former officers and directors at Mainland di…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner-The Mafia, CIA & George Bush Part 6 @ 7:52
Philip Nunes member_of
Mainland Savings book_quoted
“of mainland officials, twin brothers from England, Philip and Thomas Nunes, N-O-O-S-E, who worked at mainland in middle management. They were indicted for using offshore companies to buy mainland assets at below fair market value. Not only …”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner-The Mafia, CIA & George Bush Part 6 @ 5:27
Thomas Nunes member_of
Mainland Savings book_quoted
“of mainland officials, twin brothers from England, Philip and Thomas Nunes, N-O-O-S-E, who worked at mainland in middle management. They were indicted for using offshore companies to buy mainland assets at below fair market value. Not only …”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner-The Mafia, CIA & George Bush Part 6 @ 5:27
Raymond Hill member_of
Mainland Savings book_quoted
“Hill not only was the largest stockholder at Mainland and the chairman, his law firm handled property foreclosures for Mainland. Hill, according to the unfiled lawsuit, drained in excess of $4 million from Mainland or its subsidiaries durin…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner-The Mafia, CIA & George Bush Part 6 @ 10:19
Raymond Hill overbilled_or_diverted
Mainland Savings book_quoted
“Hill not only was the largest stockholder at Mainland and the chairman, his law firm handled property foreclosures for Mainland. Hill, according to the unfiled lawsuit, drained in excess of $4 million from Mainland or its subsidiaries durin…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner-The Mafia, CIA & George Bush Part 6 @ 10:19
Ted Walker financed_via
Mainland Savings book_quoted
“not addressing the actual relationship, was who he talked to when he called the office. In an April 2nd, 1990 letter to FBI Director William Sessions, Houston attorney Ted Walker, who had also borrowed money from Mainland, and later filed a…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner-The Mafia, CIA & George Bush Part 6 @ 13:24
Michael Hoare member_of
Mainland Savings book_quoted
“the Contra and everything else. Okay, Bazarian had numerous connections to Beebe's financial circle. He was a borrower from Dixon's Vernon Savings and was involved in a small Oklahoma savings and loan with Beebe's business associate, Michae…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner-The Mafia, CIA & George Bush Part 6 @ 22:45
Sergio Lussani member_of
Mainland Savings book_quoted
“close to Houston. To get the money to buy the land, Bath put White in touch with Sergio Lussani. Lussani was a loan broker who had his office at Mainland Savings. He's a PhD economist from Italy. Another PhD economist. Lussani was brought i…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner-Mafia, CIA, and George Bush Part 16 @ 59:18
James Baker financed_via
Mainland Savings host_asserted
“Yeah, he's an interesting connection. You start getting more and more mafia connections in here. You talk about James Baker, not mafia, but he had money involved in Mainland Savings, who lent money to Khashoggi. And Baker is a huge partner …”
▶ The Shadow State 19 Secret Societies 3; The Bush Dynasty @ 1:28:54
Mainland Savings financed_via
Adnan Khashoggi host_asserted
“Yeah, he's an interesting connection. You start getting more and more mafia connections in here. You talk about James Baker, not mafia, but he had money involved in Mainland Savings, who lent money to Khashoggi. And Baker is a huge partner …”
▶ The Shadow State 19 Secret Societies 3; The Bush Dynasty @ 1:28:54
Mentions (87)
▶ 21:37
live on once they were convicted and served their time. And of course, just as a reminder, James Baker, White House Chief of Staff, former Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of State. He was the former partner at Andrews and Kurth, whi…
▶ 22:46
the Shah's son, the guy who thinks he's going to take over Iran today, and business partner with Lan Benson, the senator's son. Jim Bath was also very good friends with George W. Bush and borrowed from Lamar Savings and Mainland Savings. An…
▶ 1:28:37
Yeah, he's an interesting connection. You start getting more and more mafia connections in here. You talk about James Baker, not mafia, but he who had money involved in mainland savings, who lent money to Khashoggi. And Baker is a huge part…
▶ 25:43
from none other than the Department of Defense. He would borrow money from Lamar Savings and Mainland Savings, which we covered earlier. Bath is originally from Louisiana. In a deposition in a lawsuit in Houston, he stated that he attended …
▶ 30:16
You know where we're going to be sending all those missiles. Gabonofor was also there. And Miriam Nir, N-I-R, who was advisor to Perez on counterterrorism. And Khashoggi. They began devising ways to gain the release of hostages held in Leba…
▶ 35:23
Khashoggi sent a $25,000 commission to bin Laden, who returned it to Khashoggi. According to federal law enforcement sources, bin Laden also did business with Salam Saab, a Lebanese who was partner in the Cayman attorney's Ian Paget Brown i…
▶ 37:58
It was NCB that lent some $35 million to Khashoggi in the summer of 1985. Around the same time, Khashoggi was getting $12 million from mainland savings to buy all of those missiles. Sheikh Khalid was an investor in Maine Bank in Houston, al…
▶ 59:18
close to Houston. To get the money to buy the land, Bath put White in touch with Sergio Lussani. Lussani was a loan broker who had his office at Mainland Savings. He's a PhD economist from Italy. Another PhD economist. Lussani was brought i…
▶ 1:00:17
The second event was the arrest and conviction of Martha Marie Preston. She was dubbed the crack queen. She was in control of the crack cocaine industry in Houston. Luciani sold a convenience store in Houston to the crack queen, which she t…
▶ 1:00:49
Luciani introduced him to Leopard Capaldi, who's Detroit mafia. After mainland savings hit the skids, Luciani returned to Italy. But in early 1982, when White went to see him at the urging of Bath, Luciani was going strong. White said he ha…
▶ 1:01:21
to Laddie Howard, who worked at Drew Mortgage. Drew Mortgage was a subsidiary of Lamar Savings. Howard arranged a 100% loan from Lamar, which meant that White and Bath did not have to put any money down. Howard had originally worked at Main…
▶ 1:01:57
in Texas. After the loan application was submitted to Lamar, Luciani informed White that it had been rejected by Austin Savings and Loan. White told Bath, the next thing I know, it is back on. So all Bath did was pick up the phone and said,…
▶ 1:02:59
So Lamar arranged for them to borrow the $200,000. You can't make your payments, so we're going to give you the money to make the payments. This is a repeating pattern through this entire thing because they're doing business for the CIA as …
▶ 1:03:29
in Mainland and they got a second mortgage. By spring of 86, Bath and White were in default on both loans, which again has happened repeatedly through this book. Lamar wanted us to sell to Manzor Harani, White said, but that would have left…
▶ 28:02
was reportedly introduced to Sunrise by Laddie Howard, who had worked at Mainland Savings and Lamar Savings in Austin before heading over to Sunrise's Houston office. Howard had borrowed $150,000 from Sunbelt Savings in Dallas to buy the st…
▶ 30:22
It seems curious that it would be for a Florida savings and loan rather than for one in Texas or Colorado. However, considering Sunrise's big Houston office ran by former mainland savings official, its loans to Corona and White and the big …
▶ 2:35
Written on Mainland. Which is the name of a bank. By the Houston Post. In June of 1987. It was under. Say. And Bruton. The guy that authored this book. It dealt with Mainland's purchase. Of a promissory note. From Pulver's group. We talked …
▶ 3:07
how much Mainland paid for the notes and thus how much it lost on them. No one would say. Not the people who worked at Mainland, not Pulver and his associates, not the FBI or the U.S. attorney. But it was obvious that Mainland and ultimatel…
▶ 3:38
kind of like a controlled demolition. And then before Mainland could foreclose on them, the owners put their companies into bankruptcy, stopping any foreclosure action. In some instances, Mainland's federal receiver had to pay millions of d…
▶ 4:08
Found in a Houston bankruptcy court proceeding, the federal receiver for the failed mainland, in other words, us, sold $21 million of the notes for less than $400,000. Less than half a million for $21 million? Hill had tried to convince us …
▶ 4:39
which he claimed had resulted from Mainland's home mortgage loans, which are the most secure loans that a bank can issue. In fact, it was the opposite. Since 1983, Mainland had issued very few home mortgages because that wasn't its purpose.…
▶ 9:21
Again, purposeful money laundering. While trying to determine why Mainland made such a large, obviously bad purchase from the Pulver Group, the investigative reporters got a break. An investigator with Congress General Accounting Office, wh…
▶ 9:51
The Justice Department Organized Crime Strike Force in Brooklyn had gotten a federal grand jury there to indict money brokers Mario Renda and Martin Swimmer for racketeering and fraud in connection with a deposit of union pension funds in f…
▶ 12:20
Renda brokered deposits into some 130 savings and loan, according to author Stephen Pizzo. Every one of them later failed. Mainland was the name in Renda's indictment as one of the 18 savings and loan nationwide and only one of two in Texas…
▶ 18:26
and had been so for at least 11 years. When asked about Pulver and mainland savings, Swimmer responded, who? Then when asked about Renda's firm, First United, he said, you'll have to talk to them. I'm not interested in talking and slammed t…
▶ 18:57
In a scheme where it is known that loans are linked to deposits, and then shortly thereafter, Swimmer's King Point neighbor, Pulver, sells practically worthless property to Mainland for tens of millions of dollars. Meaning he potentially wa…
▶ 24:58
were with Mainland, but the few that weren't were also significant. After Raymond Hill quit as chairman of Mainland in October 1985, Pulver's group immediately turned to Sandia Federal Savings Loan in Albuquerque to finance their next big H…
▶ 27:06
But the loan was guaranteed by HUD. The money was supposed to be for renovation of an apartment complex, but government investigators said less than $10 million was used for that. And the Pulver Group walked away with the other $18 million.…
▶ 29:06
After the investigative reporters had nailed down Renda's and Shimmer's connection to the mafia, we started looking for other mob ties to mainland savings. The next one we found was Leonard Capaldi, C-A-P-A-L-D-I. He's from Detroit, but he …
▶ 34:15
In July of 1983, one of Capaldi's Houston real estate development companies, Sunbelt Properties, purchased 491 acres south of Houston from a pandemonium corporation. The name of that corporation was Corporation Financiere Europa America. Th…
▶ 34:44
Then in December 84, Capaldi bought himself a 400-acre land from his own company, Sunbelt Properties. Mainland lent him $3.5 million for the purchase. Six months later, Mainland subsidiary bought the property from Capaldi for $4.7 million. …
▶ 35:14
That's money laundering. You don't make $1.2 million profit on a piece of land that doesn't have anything on it if you're not money laundering. But in a rare case in which Mainland was not left holding a bag, Hill Financial Savings in Red H…
▶ 39:11
company called Saudi European. This company had connections to Charles Keating and Lincoln Savings, which also went under. So Baker's murder was never solved. He had a lot of shady people around him. Mainland's business was not all just fun…
▶ 39:42
In August of 1985, when Mainland handed at least $12 million in cash to Aiden Khashoggi, the infamous arms dealer and founder of the Safari Club, just a week before Khashoggi paid over the initial $1 million of $5 million to, I don't know h…
▶ 44:14
deposit program. This placed a second mortgage on Khashoggi's Galleria track that was basically not worth a whole lot because he had been trying to sell it for years and couldn't. By the middle of 1985, the wheels were starting to come off …
▶ 44:51
Khashoggi also had another connection to Mainland through money broker Mario Renda. He used to be a partner with Khashoggi, the guy from New York. Mainland proposed to buy the Galleria track for $68 million. The bulk of the money would come…
▶ 45:20
The $30 million in prior loans from the Texas Commercial Bank and San Joaquin would be paid off. Khashoggi would buy $10 million in preferred stock at Mainland and use $12 million as a down payment to buy foreclosed loans and real estate fr…
▶ 45:52
That left $16 million for Khashoggi. Mainland was in a big hurry to close the deal before the end of the second quarter, which was the end of the fiscal year, so that its books would look fine to examiners. It went ahead with the purchase o…
▶ 46:21
Mainland officials found out they had a big problem. They couldn't get an appraisal for the Galleria track to come anywhere near $68 million because it wasn't worth that. Incredibly, Mainland did not get an appraisal until September 11th, a…
▶ 46:53
meaning it was a fraud. At the same time, the county tax appraiser had it valued at $41 million. So Mainland had to lower the sales price of the track. It dropped it to $58 million, which was still $3 million more than the appraisal. But no…
▶ 47:23
Mainland officials had to figure out some other way to get Khashoggi $10 million. So they bought John Roberts $14 million note to Khashoggi, which was a second mortgage on his Aspen Hotel property that was going nowhere. The hotel track was…
▶ 34:52
The list of savings and loans represented at the meeting is a who's who of the biggest failed savings and loans in Texas. Vernon Savings, Mainland Savings, Lamar Savings, Paris Savings, First South Savings, Western Savings, Continental Savi…
▶ 1:02:17
It includes all the previous debt on a piece of property and then adds some of its own. This is what Ken Good did with his Western loan. Another savings and loan that liked to use wraparounds was Mainland Savings. The owners of the company …
▶ 4:26
a certain amount of them in a special security area. Helliwell then told the director to buy a secure fireproof filing cabinet, put the special files in that cabinet, lock it, and take it to Ian Paget Brown, the key. This was the same Ian P…
▶ 4:58
Mainland Savings failed on April 4th, 1986. The way the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation handled Mainland's failure has made it impossible to tell the exact losses, but they have been estimated to be half a billion dollars. Al…
▶ 5:27
of mainland officials, twin brothers from England, Philip and Thomas Nunes, N-O-O-S-E, who worked at mainland in middle management. They were indicted for using offshore companies to buy mainland assets at below fair market value. Not only …
▶ 5:57
Their indictments were the result of information dug up by private investigators, not the FBI. After Mainland felled, the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation hired the Houston law firm of Andrews and Kurth to investigate the fail…
▶ 6:26
Although Andrews and Kurth was paid millions of dollars for its legal work at Mainland, it apparently did not recover a single penny. Much of the law firm's effort was spent defending Mainland and thus several of its officers, including Ray…
▶ 6:56
from mainland was the only actual legal action taken against the people who were actually responsible. After the feds and Andrews and Kurth had allowed the statute of limitations to expire for filing a lawsuit for damages against the office…
▶ 7:26
author's desk. It contained a lawsuit drawn up by Andrews and Kurth against the officers and directors of Mainland that had never been filed. The unfiled lawsuit contained page after page of detailed allegations of wrongdoing, including cri…
▶ 7:52
Insurance Corporation acknowledged that there had been wrongdoing at Mainland, but it wouldn't have been worth filing a lawsuit over. Half a billion dollars was stolen from us. They said that the former officers and directors at Mainland di…
▶ 9:53
The claim by the feds that Mainland officers and directors didn't have any assets to go after was nonsense and proven so in the details of the unfiled lawsuit. The attorneys at Andrews and Kurth determined that Raymond Hill had received $4 …
▶ 10:19
Hill not only was the largest stockholder at Mainland and the chairman, his law firm handled property foreclosures for Mainland. Hill, according to the unfiled lawsuit, drained in excess of $4 million from Mainland or its subsidiaries durin…
▶ 10:51
between 82 and 85, was outrageous, unreasonable, excessive, and not commiserate with the quality of his duties at mainland. He destroyed it and got paid handsomely for it. Hill, who happened to also be an Episcopalian Sunday school teacher,…
▶ 11:18
He said he had done nothing wrong and claimed that the statements in the unfiled lawsuit was libelous. He also claimed to be broke, although he never disputed the actual dollar figures in the unfiled lawsuits for his services. Hill had that…
▶ 11:50
There has even been speculation that Hill had signed a secrecy agreement with the CIA himself. Basically, a get out of jail free card. The junior attorneys at Andrews and Kurth, who worked on the lawsuit, apparently wanted to file it agains…
▶ 13:24
not addressing the actual relationship, was who he talked to when he called the office. In an April 2nd, 1990 letter to FBI Director William Sessions, Houston attorney Ted Walker, who had also borrowed money from Mainland, and later filed a…
▶ 14:25
one of which was James Baker. Raymond discussed in detail the family relationship that he had with the Hill family and between him and the Hill family and Baker family to include Christmas dinners for decades. In June 1985, after Mainland S…
▶ 22:45
the Contra and everything else. Okay, Bazarian had numerous connections to Beebe's financial circle. He was a borrower from Dixon's Vernon Savings and was involved in a small Oklahoma savings and loan with Beebe's business associate, Michae…
▶ 48:47
When the ex-son-in-law, Robert Corson, found out about this, he became furious and told an employee never to talk to Michener's employees again and never to mention Michener's name in his office. This story was told to the Houston Post repo…
▶ 55:10
The reason he had pointed us to mainland savings was that it had lent more than $3 million to a limited partnership full of Houston and Texas Democrat politicians. The partnership went bust and the loan went bad, leaving the taxpayers holdi…
▶ 52:23
a 20-acre track of vacant land near the Galleria in Houston. That partnership split up in 1985, just days before Khashoggi put up $1 million to ship the first Iranian arms to Iran via Israel. So they sold all of this investment, guys. All o…
▶ 16:20
The financing bank, according to the statements on file in Miami, was Allied Bank, Michener. Continental Savings wasn't the only savings and loan whose stock was financed by Allied Bank. Raymond Hill, a Houston attorney and owner of Mainlan…
▶ 16:51
Why would you loan somebody money to buy a stock? Hill went to Continental Savings, Carol Kelly, who sent him to Bebe. And according to Bebe's partner, Dale Anderson, one day Bebe called Anderson to tell him that they were going to Houston …
▶ 17:18
Hill was a scared weakling, according to Anderson. You could smell it. We said we'd give him a million dollars tomorrow, but we wanted a piece of the action. He didn't want to do it. Although that particular deal didn't go through, there we…
▶ 18:49
said, hey, you need to hire my son. And he got a job. Hill got into the savings and loan business in the 1960s when he was riding in an airplane with a good friend, William Shepard, who told him that two of them should buy a savings and loa…
▶ 19:25
bank located just outside of Houston. Hill's friend and partner, Shepard, is a major character in Jonathan Kitney's groundbreaking book, The Fountain Pen Conspiracy, that was written in 1973. I have that book. It's an interesting book. In 1…
▶ 23:25
After Hill moved his stock loan out of Allied, he financed it at several different Houston banks. According to a former mainland CEO, Ron Bearden, these included Suburban Bank, South Main Bank, North Shore Bank, and River Oaks Bank and Trus…
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Michener's friend, Jimmy Lyons. Who's Jimmy Lyons? Well, Jimmy Lyons just happens to be one of the big fundraisers for Iran-Contra. In June 1984, Mainland paid out almost $20 million to Allied in a deal that showed Hill's friendship with Me…
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Pinnacle filed for bankruptcy and by 1984 was in default of all of the Allied loans still owing $21 million. Allied had already posted the security property for foreclosure when Mainland stepped in and bought the loans for $19.2 million. Pe…
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was a last resort. It was almost unheard of for a medium-sized savings and loan like Mainland to buy a big oil and gas loan by itself, much less buy one for 90 cent on the dollar. It just was not done. Also at that time, oil drilling was in…
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So basically, the net result of that was Mainland just handing over $20 million. So Mainland lost $14 million on the deal. And it didn't make any sense unless you look at the relationship between Hill and Michener. But there was more to Mai…
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that Houston Post investigated to include this author. In the spring of 1987, two Houston reporters, the author and Gregory Say, were interviewing Raymond Hill at Mainland Savings. It had failed in 1986, the year before. It was the biggest …
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No one paid much attention to Mainland's failure at the time. Talk of a possible taxpayer bailout of the industry was more than two years away. While the press release from the federal agency explaining its takeover of Mainland was wild. He…
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The increase reflected the association's aggressive program of high-risk, poorly underwritten land and construction lending funded through brokered deposits and in-house sales of high-cost jumbo CDs. Although, that's the end of the quote. T…
▶ 27:59
It was all fake. By the beginning of 1987, it was becoming apparent that something bigger was happening and there wasn't just a few savings and loans that it was occurring with. One of the business writers say for the Houston Post wrote a s…
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Say quoted the U.S. attorney in Houston who named Mainland Savings as one of the participants. The story prompted an anonymous call to the reporter telling him to investigate transactions between Mainland Savings and a man by the name of Ho…
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and then immediately flipped the properties by selling them to limited partnerships that they themselves owned. Then, in late 1984 and 85, they sold all of the promissory notes, securing the enormous mortgage debts to mainland savings. This…
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It enabled the speculators to cash in their paper profits. There were 56 of these notes with a total face value of $333 million. At the time of the sale of the promissory notes to Mainland, the apartment complexes were worth $192 million. S…
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How much did it and ultimately the taxpayers lose on this purchase when mainland savings went bust? The reporters went to see Raymond Hill for answers. The interview was intended to be a friendly information gathering fact-finding one. We b…
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However, instead of taking questions from us, he started rambling with a speech about mainland savings and why it failed. It was the similar story about how everyone had the best intentions. He went on to say, the inflation of the late 1970…
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You're asking me to remember the details of actions that I didn't personally handle? He then tried to hide Mainland's accounting firm. Then he hid behind the accounting firm saying, in every case, we consulted with Coopers and Libra. Then h…
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the richest enclave church in all of Houston. He said that he had not been subpoenaed to appear before any grand jury investigating Mainland's failure. He went on to say, I can tell you that I don't expect to be subpoenaed. Finally, when as…
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Why gave Raymond Hill the idea that he was never going to get subpoenaed about these deals? Who was he really working for? Searching for the answers to those questions led to a discovery of Hill and Mainland's relationship to Mafia CIA, Ira…
▶ 39:05
There were 3,234 savings and loans and 1,043 of those failed. That's almost a third of all our SNLs. Yep. The total cost to taxpayers was $132 billion. Texas failures, the 1988 peak, accounted for greater than 40% of the failures. Mainland …
▶ 46:59
taken aback on the research I did outside of this book on how this whole thing went down. Because what you're going to find, and it goes into a couple of examples in a couple of future chapters, about here's the bank, like Mainland, and her…
▶ 1:28:54
Yeah, he's an interesting connection. You start getting more and more mafia connections in here. You talk about James Baker, not mafia, but he had money involved in Mainland Savings, who lent money to Khashoggi. And Baker is a huge partner …