Tuesday, January 26, 2010Why Did Paul Bryant Jr. Liquidate Fraud-Tainted Company? According to public documents, Alabama Reassurance was a highly successful company, with more than $238 million in admitted assets at the end of 2006.So why did company executives, who include University of Alabama trustee Paul Bryant Jr., indicate near the end of 2007 that they intended to merge Alabama Re into its parent company (Greene Group Inc.) and then liquidate it? Why did they indicate that Alabama Re essentially would be replaced by a new entity, Alabama Life Reinsurance Company?Did this curious move have something to do with the fact that Alabama Re was seriously tainted by insurance fraud? Did Alabama Re executives sense that--in the wake of Enron, WorldCom, and other business scandals--the environment was about to turn nasty in the late 2000s for companies with fraudulent business practices?The most recent public information about Alabama Re comes from the Alabama Department of Insurance report on the company in 2006. This item from page 68 of the report provides insight about Alabama Re's future:Company management represented that, as of September 14, 2007:"Alabama Reassurance Company, Inc. has no insurance liabilities and is in the process of surrendering its licenses. When this is accomplished Alabama Reassurance Company, Inc. will be merged into Greene Group, Inc. and then liquidated.Alabama Life Reinsurance Inc. is now an Alabama licensed life insurer with two assumed reinsurance treaties (North American Life and Securities Life) in force. There are no plans to add any other insurance or reinsurance business."Sounds like Alabama Life Reinsurance plans to keep a low profile, doesn't it? Wonder why that is?Could it be that executives at Greene Group Inc. fear the environment isn't ripe for their kind of activities? Consider this item from mainjustice.com about the Obama administration's concerns regarding financial fraud:Late last year, President Barack Obama signed an executive order that created an interagency task force to fight financial crime. The Attorney General said the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force is the “cornerstone†of the Justice Department’s efforts to combat mortgage fraud, securities fraud, financial discrimination and Recovery Act and rescue fraud.“To those who see victimization of others as an avenue to wealth, take notice: If you fabricate a financial statement, if you propagate an investment scheme, if you are complicit in an act of financial fraud, you are writing your ticket to jail,†Holder said.Is the Department of Justice serious about going after financial fraudsters? Mainjustice.com indicates the answer is yes:The fiscal year 2010 DOJ budget signed into law last month includes funds for 43 positions in U.S. Attorney’s offices to help combat financial fraud. Congress set aside $7.5 million in the budget for U.S. Attorney’s offices to pursue bankruptcy, mortgage fraud, affirmative civil enforcement and other white collar crimes.The U.S. Attorney’s offices received $2.4 million through the fiscal year 2009 omnibus budget to fight economic crimes, according to a DOJ spokesperson. Congress allocated an additional $10 million to the U.S. Attorney’s offices in the fiscal year 2009 supplemental budget to fight financial fraud, the spokesperson said. The supplemental funding does not expire until fiscal year 2011. DOJ was able to hire 76 new Assistant U.S. Attorneys to handle financial fraud cases with the fiscal year 2009 funds, according to the spokesperson.Did Paul Bryant Jr. and his colleagues at Greene Group Inc. see this coming? Is that why Alabama Re is no more?We don't pretend to be experts on business liquidation, but our research indicates it usually occurs when a company needs to be rehabilitated or is on the verge of becoming insolvent. Neither of those seemed to be the case with Alabama Re.And it's not like Greene Group Inc. is getting out of the insurance business altogether. But with Alabama Life Reinsurance, the company appears to be taking a much lower profile than it had before.It's undisputed that Alabama Re engaged in fraudulent activity in the 1990s and that a protector in the Clinton Justice Department called off an investigation of the company after a conviction had been obtained in the Allen W. Stewart case in Pennsylvania. It's likely that the company still had protection under the pro-business Bush DOJ from 2000 to 2008.But the company decides to liquidate in late 2007? How convenient. Is liquidation a fine method for hiding and/or destroying evidence of fraudulent activity?We would suggest that Obama's financial-fraud fighters might want to sift through the remnants of Alabama Re. And they might also want to check the activities of another entity with close ties to Paul Bryant Jr.That would be the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), which Bryant helps run as a member of the UA board of trustees. We've already seen signs that UAB is skittish about the Obama administration's plans to get tough on health-care fraud.Perhaps Alabama's largest employer should be skittish, considering that it engaged in a massive fraud scheme that reportedly totaled some $600 million and got away with barely a wrist slap from the Bush DOJ.Is the Obama DOJ serious about tracking down financial fraudsters? If so, here's a tip: Do some sniffing on Paul Bryant Jr.'s trail. Public documents indicate that where "Bear Jr." goes--whether it's his personal business activities or at the universities that he helps oversee--fraud is likely to follow.
Larry Langford, Paul Bryant Jr., and "Justice" in Alabama Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford goes to trial today on federal corruption charges. But a behind-the-scenes story might say more about our justice system than the Langford trial ever could.Here's the gist of the backstory: If you are Larry Langford--a black Democrat, who grew up in a housing project--you almost certainly will pay for your alleged wrongs. If you are Paul W. Bryant Jr.--a white conservative businessman and a child of wealth and privilege (his father was University of Alabama football icon Paul "Bear" Bryant)--you can avoid scrutiny of your fishy finances.How does Bryant Jr., president of Greene Group Inc. and a member of the University of Alabama Board of Trustees, have connections to the Langford trial?Langford's defense attorney is Mike Rasmussen, who spent almost 30 years as a federal prosecutor before going into private practice. In 1997, Rasmussen was a lead prosecutor in Pennsylvania on one of the biggest insurance-fraud cases in U.S. history. The case ended with a conviction and 15-year federal prison sentence for a Philadelphia lawyer named Allen W. Stewart.Why was Rasmussen, based in Alabama at the time, working on a case in Pennsylvania? It's because a central player in Allen W. Stewart's fraudulent scheme was a company called Alabama Reassurance. In fact, Alabama Re was implicated in at least eight of the 135 counts on which Stewart was convicted--for racketeering, money laundering, wire and mail fraud.Alabama Re just happens to be one of Paul Bryant Jr.'s companies, part of the Greene Group. When the Stewart trial started, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama was Caryl Privett, now a Jefferson County circuit judge.Sources tell Legal Schnauzer that Privett's message to prosecutors and investigators on the Stewart case was this: If you go to Pennsylvania and come back with a conviction, you can move forward with a heightened investigation of Alabama Re. In other words, Paul Bryant Jr. & Co. had stepped in some serious doo-doo.By the time the Stewart case was completed, however, Privett no longer was in office. And when investigators attempted to build on the ugly information they already had uncovered about Alabama Re, someone in a position of authority called off the dogs.That meant that Bryant's company, which was implicated in criminal activity in Pennsylvania, would face no further scrutiny in Alabama.Larry Langford should be so lucky.Mike Rasmussen undoubtedly will have a number of microphones and cameras thrust into his face in the coming days. Wouldn't it be interesting if some enterprising reporter asked this question: "You were a lead prosecutor on a Pennsylvania case in which Alabama Reassurance was implicated in the late 1990s. You were authorized to pursue a heightened investigation of Alabama Re once Allen W. Stewart was convicted in Philadelphia, but someone pulled the plug. Who brought that investigation to a halt? Who took steps to make sure that Paul Bryant Jr. and his company would be protected?"And here is perhaps a bigger question for Mike Rasmussen: "Does it bother you that your current client--a product of a Birmingham housing project--faces the full weight of the United States government today, while Paul Bryant Jr.--the product of wealth and privilege--escaped scrutiny even though his company already had been implicated in criminal activity?"Those questions probably would cause Mike Rasmussen to "hmm" and "haw" quite a bit. Not that he did anything wrong back in the late 1990s. Our sources say Rasmussen was gung ho to go after Alabama Re--and almost certainly would have nailed them--until someone over his head put a stop to the investigation.Our point is not that Larry Langford should be given a free pass. If it is proven that he accepted bribes in exchange for steering government-bond business to certain investment bankers, he should pay the price.But the same should hold true for Paul Bryant Jr. and anyone else who might have been associated with wrongdoing at Alabama Re. Heck, the company only has two employees--Scott M. Phelps, president and director, and W. Rodney Windham, vice president and actuary. Bryant is chairman of the board and Tuscaloosa veterinarian A. Wayne May, a longtime associate of Bryant's, is a director.The statute of limitations probably has passed on the financial fraud involved in the Allen W. Stewart case. But how does Alabama Re conduct its business now? Did it change its ways once it received a "Get Out of Jail Free" card back in the late 1990s?It would not be hard to answer that question. The company and its two employees are located in the Bryant Bank building at 1550 McFarland Blvd. in Tuscaloosa.In his "Message From the Chairman," Bryant says:In times of economic uncertainty, it’s natural and prudent to carefully examine the strength of those financial institutions to which you entrust your hard-earned resources.That’s why I would like to take this opportunity to reassure you that we are always working to make certain our bank is a safe place for your money. . . .So, call us at any of the convenient locations listed on this site. Or, better yet, come see us.I wonder if that invitation applies to federal investigators.
I didn't read any of that, it is way to long. Cam is innocent nothing will come of any of this, listen to me, I have unnamed sources.
http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2010/01/paul-bryant-jr-and-alabama-reassurance.htmlhttp://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2009/10/larry-langford-paul-bryant-jr-and.htmlWeren't these the articles that led to a mass message board epidemic stating that "Alabama would be busted by the FBI for funneling money to recruits through Paul Bryant Jr's personal business?
You've read it already. I'm fairly certain I read those articles on this website.
I'm pretty sure Prowler posted that first article a while back on here. I think that was before the NCAA had the dreaded Dre Kirkpatrick packet in their hands. Still waiting on that, btw. I guess they will get around to it eventually.
Nah...we never had a hushpuppy klan meeting to discuss it. Damn bammers think of everything.
Why is bama so scared RWS? You have Nick $aban
Are you kidding? No way in hell can Saban tackle Cam.
It's ridiculous. You can't even buy a recruit a car these days without people getting all pissed off about it. I'm telling you, you guys need to look into this. It could save AU tons of money.
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