dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

Details of Lamar's Inexplicable Enrichment

In Mexico, they have a crime called "inexplicable enrichment" for politicians who accumulate large sums of money that can't be traced. Luckily for us, diligent work by the Memphis newspaper and Edward Pound and Hilary Stout of the Wall Street Journal have explained many of Lamar's sources.

CCA company stock, $8,900 investment yields $142,000 after Governor Lamar helps the company get a $250 million state contract.
Corporate Child Care Inc. Jack Massey invested $2 million, and Lamar and Honey got a founder's stake for $5000. Their stake's value grew to $800,000 by 1991.
The Jack Massey School of Business paid Lamar $100,000 in 1988, and an undisclosed sum in 1987, to create a "leadership institute" there.
Jack Massey's venture capital firm paid Lamar and Honey $44,000 in directors and consulting fees in 1988.
Lamar and 6 other investors (including Howard Baker) got a stock option in a newspaper firm for $1 each. He sold his share for $620,000.
Whittle Communications, a private education firm, "sold" Alexander stock for $10,000 but didn't cash his check until years later, when they made a deal to sell part of the company for $185 million. Whittle then purchased the stock back from Honey for $330,000.
Lamar bought a house in Knoxville for $570,000 in 1990. He sold it a year later, right after being appointed U.S. Secretary of Education, for $977,500 – to Gerald Hogan, a top executive at Whittle Communications. Pretty much everywhere else in America, housing prices went down in 1991.
Whittle communications paid Lamar $125,000 in consulting fees in 1987 for help with a magazine that ultimately failed. (Lamar had credentials - he workedon his high school newspaper.)
Howard Baker's law firm paid him nearly $400,000 in 1994, and $295,000 in 1995 for working "at counsel" (not directly for the firm): he was campaigning for President full time both years. The firm is a lobbying law firm that represents Martin Marietta, AT&T, US Tobacco, Federal Express and others.
Right after leaving the governorship, Lamar was appointed to the $150,000/year job of President of the University of Tennessee by the Board of Regents, many of whom he appointed while governor. Many employeessaid he didn't show up much, or show much interest in the job.
While he was UT President, the university spent $65,000 for entertainment at Blackberry Farms. Honey Alexander owned a third of the resort, which she bought for $10,000.
While governor, Lamar tried to get a highway built straight to the door of Blackberry Farms, across land that he and his cronies owned. After newspaper stories about the conflict of interest, the plan was dropped.
In 1987, (the year Whittle paid him $125K as a consultant, and that he supposedly worked at Corporate Child Care), Alexander and his family took 6 months off and went to Australia. He wrote a book, for which he received $52,500, and wrote off $128,308 in expenses on his taxes for the adventure.
His federal disclosure form indicates he got preferential treatment from a Tennessee bank - two loans and a $212,500 mortgage at prime rate on a Hilton Head, South Carolina condo.
Lockheed Martin Corporation (the result of the Lockheed – Martin Marietta merger) paid him $93,000 in 1994 as a director. When the two companies merged, Lamar (who has no significant business experience) received a $236,000 bonus for his help. Meanwhile, 30,000 Lockheed employees are being laid off.

Sources:

"Common Man Candidate", Wall Street Journal, May 12, 1995 pA1

"The Man From Tennessee", Lisa Schiffren, The American Spectator, September 1995 p33

"Tennessee Waltz", Time Magazine, March 13, 1995 p80

"The Rich Rise of Lamar Alexander", Doug Ireland, The Nation, April 17, 1995 p517

"Welfare Kings: Lamar Alexander's Bonus", William Hartung, The Nation, June 19, 1995 p873

"Play It Again, Lamar", Arthur Jones, Financial World, August 29, 1995 p63

"Lots of Cash and Effort, Little Result", New York Times, October 17, 1995 pA8

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_C._Massey

Business career

Massey began his business career working as a delivery boy in his uncle's drugstore.[1][3] He then received a pharmacist's license when he was 19 and bought his first drugstore when he was 25.[1][4] He built the store into a pharmacy chain, selling it six years later.[1][4] He founded Massey Surgical Supply in 1930.[5] He sold it to the A.S. Aloe division of the Brunswick Corporation for $1 million.[1][4]

Massey acquired Kentucky Fried Chicken from its founder, Harland Sanders, for $2 million in 1964.[1][2][4] With John Y. Brown Jr., Massey embarked on a rapid expansion program, growing the business to approximately 3,500 franchises and grossing $700 million in annual revenue.[1] Seven years later he sold the company to Heublein for $239 million.[5]

In 1968, Massey co-founded Hospital Corporation of America with Thomas F. Frist, Sr. and Thomas F. Frist, Jr.[1] in Nashville, Tennessee. Massey hired the Nashville law firm Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, LLP to assist with the company's incorporation and later complete many healthcare mergers and acquisitions for several decades.[6] The company became the nation's largest chain of for-profit hospitals and Massey left active management in 1978.[1]

Massey transformed Winners Corporation, one of the largest franchisees of Wendy's hamburger outlets into a major fast-food franchise operation.[1][4] Finally, he listed Volunteer Capital Corporation (a holding company of Wendy's Restaurant fast food franchises) on the New York Stock Exchange.[1]

Massey was an initial investor in the Corrections Corporation of America in the 1980s.[7]