https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/jpmorgan-board-member-jim-crown-dies-in-an-accident/ar-AA1d3i0W?ocid

Reuters

JPMorgan board member Jim Crown dies in an accident

Story by Reuters • 2h ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co. board member Jim Crown died on Sunday in an accident, it said in a memo from JPMorgan's CEO Jamie Dimon which was seen by Reuters.

"He was an integral part of JPMorgan Chase and our lives, and his presence will be deeply missed," Dimon said in a message to the board of directors.

The bank gave no further details on the accident.

Crown, 70, was also the chairman and chief executive officer of Henry Crown and Co, a privately owned company that invests in public and private securities, real estate, and operating companies.

He was also the chairman of The Aspen Institute, and trustee of the Museum of Science and Industry and the University of Chicago and served as a lead director of General Dynamics Corporation.

(Reporting by Nupur Anand and Lananh Nguyen in New York)

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/billionaire-james-crown-dies-in-crash-at-colorado-racetrack/ar-AA1d4bMh?ocid

CBS News

Billionaire James Crown dies in crash at Colorado racetrack

Story by Emily Mae Czachor • 1h ago

A prominent Chicago billionaire died in a car crash Sunday at a racetrack in Colorado, officials said.

James Crown, a businessman and socialite who was part of Chicago's wealthy Crown family, suffered evident blunt force trauma after failing to navigate a turn and hitting an impact barrier at Aspen Motorsports Park in Woody Creek, the Pitkin County Coroner's Office said in a news release. A final cause of death for Crown is still unknown pending an investigation by the coroner's office.

Crown, who owned the Aspen Skiing Company, among other business ventures, was 70 years old at the time of his death. The fatal crash has been ruled an accident by the coroner in Pitkin County, where Crown lived part time in addition to Chicago.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson shared a statement with CBS Chicago in response to the news of Crown's death, telling the station that he was "devastated" when he heard about the crash.

"A lifelong Chicagoan, Jim gave back to the city through philanthropy and leadership on a number of civic and academic boards as he was deeply committed to investing in Chicago and its people," Johnson said in the statement.

"With his generosity, Jim truly embodied the soul of Chicago. I was especially grateful for his commitment to work collaboratively with my administration to build a safer Chicago, having met recently to share ideas. I send my deepest condolences to his wife, four children, grandchildren, and the entire Crown family and pray for their peace," the mayor continued.

Crown was a member of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, a nonprofit community organization, according to CBS Chicago. He recently helped launch an initiative with the Civic Committee that aimed to raise tens of millions of dollars over the next several years to help reduce crime in Chicago by working with local organizations and leaders. Crown said earlier this month that the new initiative aims to improve safety throughout the city.

http://chicago.indymedia.org/archive/newswire/display/76429/index.php

Barack Obama's Crown Dynasty Connection

Chicago's Crown Dynasty financially backs U.S. federal candidate Barack Obama.

Under U.S. federal law an ultra-rich person is not supposed to make a campaign contribution of more than $2,300 per election each year to any one candidate for U.S. federal office. Yet in recent years members of an ultra-rich Chicago-based family, the Crown Dynasty, have apparently been making individual campaign contributions of more than $2,300 per election each year to a federal candidate named Barack Obama. According to the Center for Responsive Politics web site, for instance:

In its 1980 edition, Everybody’s Business: An Almanac (by Milton Moskowitz, Michael Katz and Robert Levering) made the following reference to the Crown family of Chicago ’s history of making money from General Dynamics’ weapons manufacturing activity:

“General Dynamics, more than any other aerospace company, is dependent on the Pentagon; government defense contracts account for two-thirds of their sales…The power behind the scenes is Henry Crown, a Chicago financier and one of the richest, but least known, men in the country. A group headed by Crown, who was 83 in 1980, owns about 20% of the company. His associates, who sit on the General Dynamics board with him, are his son, Lester Crown, and Chicago industrialist Nathan Cummings, founder of Consolidated Foods…”

After Henry Crown's death, General Dynamics sold its F-16 fighter jet production unit and the Crown family reduced its ownership stake in General Dynamics from 20% to 8%. But, according to the General Dynamics web site at www.generaldynamics.com/, in 2005 "General Dynamics Combat Systems” was “becoming the world's preferred supplier of land and amphibious combat systems development, production and support;" and "its product line” included “a full spectrum of armored vehicles, light wheeled reconnaissance vehicles, suspensions, engine transmissions, guns and ammunition handling systems, turret drive systems, and reactive armor and ordnance."

The General Dynamics web site also indicated in 2005 that members of the Crown family like Henry Crown & Company President James Crown and Henry Crown & Company Chairman Lester Crown still sat on the General Dynamics corporate board in 2005—between retired Pentagon officials (like former U.S. Under-Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology Paul Kaminski, former U.S. Naval Chief of Naval Operations Jay Johnson, former U.S. Army Chief of Staff John Keane, Retired U.S. General George Joulwan and former U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Lester Lyles) and a former Royal Navy Vice-Admiral for the UK Ministry of Defense named Robert Walmsley.

A 2003 press release of the General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems business unit in St. Petersburg, Florida also noted that it had formed "a strategic alliance with Aeronautics Defense Systems, Ltd.," an Israeli firm based in Yavne. Aeronautics Defense Systems Ltd. is the firm that developed the Unmanned Multi-Application System (UMASa) aerial surveillance tool which the Israeli military uses to "provide a real-time 'bird's eye view' of the surveillance area to combatant commanders and airborne command posts." According to then-Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the agreement between General Dynamics and Aeronautics Defense Systems to bring together "both companies' state-of-the art technologies in defense and homeland security" was "additional proof of the technological and commercial benefits that alliances between industries from the U.S. and Israel can produce."

From its investments in Pentagon war contractors like General Dynamics and U.S. real estate, the Crown family has accumulated a family fortune of $3.6 billion, according to a 2004 Forbes magazine estimate. The Jerusalem Post also noted in its February 27, 2005 issue that “the Crown family of Chicago ” is also “well-known for its support of sectarian Jewish causes.” In addition, long-time General Dynamics board member Lester Crown was also a member of the Advisory board of Medis Technologies, a joint venture business partner of Israel Aircraft Industries Ltd. in recent years.

Yet, ironically, the 2008 presidential candidate who apparently is being financially backed by the next generation of the Crown Dynasty seems to be marketing himself these days as "the next generation's anti-war candidate."

>>19078197

https://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2010/08/lester-crown-and-barack-obama.html

21 AUGUST 2010

Lester Crown and Barack Obama

"Lester Crown is a Chicagoan with a net worth of four billion dollars. He owns a large stake in and is a former president and board chairman of defense contractor General Dynamics. He also has held large holdings in Hilton Hotels, Maytag (now Whirlpool), and the Chicago Bulls and New York Yankees.

Crown was an early supporter of Barack Obama’s candidacy first for the U.S. Senate, and then for president. He is one of the first and one of his most prodigious fundraisers. As the Obama presidential campaign website says, the candidate “… systematically built a sophisticated, and in many ways quite conventional, money machine.” The Crowns were an integral part of that machinery. One of Lester Crown’s children, James Crown, personally bundled $500,000 in campaign contributions for Obama and served as chairman of the Illinois fund raising effort. Lester Crown and his wife Renee hosted a fundraiser for Obama in 2007 at their home. The event invitation made it clear; their support for Obama was due to his support of Israel, its “right to exist“ and his willingness to strike militarily against Iran." alethonews

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Lester Crown is a good and virtuous man. In the days when i knew him well, I valued his friendshp highly. i still have a very high opinion of him and his family, even if his German Shepherd did bite me once. Nevertheless i think that he is mistaken about the need for a US war with Iran and I suspect that he has had some effect in causing the US to sponsor an all but hopeless negotiation between Natanyahu and Abbas.

I wish him and his well. pl