Shadowy N.Y. Businessman : Furmark Had Roles in Big Bankruptcy, Iran Ventures
December 12, 1986|BOB DROGIN and WILLIAM C. REMPEL | Times Staff Writers
NEW YORK — Roy M. Furmark, the shadowy New York businessman who testified before a closed Senate Intelligence Committee hearing for nearly four hours Thursday about his knowledge of U.S. arms sales to Iran, was a key figure in the largest bankruptcy in Canadian history.
Furmark also joined with Saudi billionaire Adnan Khashoggi in a separate venture in 1985 to supply arms, military equipment and foodstuffs to Iran. The venture did not succeed.
Federal court records in New York show that Furmark was vice chairman of the board of directors, executive vice president and treasurer of the ill-fated Newfoundland Refining Co. in Come By Chance, Canada, which left more than $600 million in debts when it failed in 1976.
The collapse spawned a tangled web of lawsuits in which Furmark and his co-defendants were ultimately judged liable for more than $50 million. The judgment was settled out of court in 1982, according to lawyers in the case.
Furmark testified after CIA Director William J. Casey told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday that Furmark, a former client and apparent friend, had telephoned him on Oct. 7 about the possible diversion of funds from sales to Iran of U.S. arms.
Casey said Furmark had told him that unidentified Canadian businessmen were threatening to sue to recover $10 million they said they were owed for providing money for the Iran arms deal. Casey said such a lawsuit could have disclosed U.S. involvement in the deal and jeopardized chances of obtaining release of Americans held hostage in Lebanon by pro-Iranian extremists.
Runs From Reporters
Furmark, a tall, heavy-set man in his 50s with a salt-and-pepper goatee, literally ran from reporters after his appearance on Capitol Hill. That was in keeping with a man who has not put his or his company's name on the door to the Furmark Corp. offices in mid-Manhattan. The offices were closed Thursday.
"He's a cemetery," one business associate said. "He doesn't tell me anything about what he does."
The associate, who answered phone calls to Furmark Thursday but refused to identify himself, said he and Furmark had been in "the oil business" together since 1978. He said Furmark is in the "oil and gas business" and "has oil wells all over."
Court records show Furmark was also a ranking officer in several other companies owned by John M. Shaheen, a flamboyant New York financier and oilman who died in November, 1985. Shaheen had worked with Casey in the World War II Office of Strategic Services.
Sued Over Loans
The Clarkson Co. Ltd. of Toronto, trustees in bankruptcy for the Come By Chance refinery, sued Shaheen, Furmark and three other individuals and three companies to recover more than $51 million apparently lent to Shaheen and six of his companies by the refinery. Furmark was an officer and director in each of the six companies, according to court records.
The refinery, built by Shaheen in cooperation with Newfoundland's provincial government to turn out 100,000 barrels a day, closed after two years of operation. It was Canada's largest bankruptcy.
According to a decision by the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals dated Sept. 5, 1981, Furmark and Shaheen signed a promissory note and letter of agreement dated Oct. 27, 1975, when the refinery was already insolvent. The documents postponed for 10 years payment of more than $45 million in debts to the refinery from 29 Shaheen affiliate companies, as well as Shaheen, Furmark and the other defendants.
The court affirmed a lower court ruling against the Shaheen group, finding in part that the promissory note and letter "were a fraudulent conveyance . . . with intent to hinder, delay and defraud creditors."
Signed Promissory Note
One lawyer in the lengthy litigation recalled Furmark's role clearly. "He was the one who signed the promissory note that is the heart of these shenanigans," said the attorney, who asked not to be identified.
Furmark's attorney in the case, Donald B. Daparma, could not be reached late Thursday.
In the 1985 Iran venture, Furmark held a minority interest in Bayway, a Panamanian corporation formed in 1985 as a joint venture controlled by Khashoggi and the late Cyrus Hashemi, sources told the Times.
Hashemi, an Iranian arms dealer who died last summer, had been a federal informant in a major U.S. Customs Service undercover "sting" operation in New York that led to the indictment last April of 18 individuals and companies on charges of conspiring to sell more than $2 billion in arms to Iran.
Among those arrested were two Khashoggi associates, including Samuel Evans, a London-based American attorney for both Bayway and Khashoggi.
Partner Sold Holdings
Months earlier, Khashoggi's Bayway interest had been bought out by Hashemi for $500,000, the amount Khashoggi had invested. Hashemi, in turn, reportedly sold Khashoggi's shares to an American businessman in Europe.
It was not clear whether Furmark remained active in the venture after Khashoggi's withdrawal. But, prior to collapse of the original partnership, Khashoggi and Hashemi had met with Iranian officials at the Iran Embassy in Bonn, West Germany, to negotiate sales of the arms and other goods.
In a separate case, Furmark was involved in negotiations to purchase another financially troubled oil refinery. He told a New York Times reporter in 1980 that he was adviser on energy investments to Roger E. Tamraz, a Lebanese financier who headed a group of Arab investors interested in taking over the Commonwealth Oil Refining Co. of Puerto Rico, which had filed for Chapter 11 reorganization proceedings under the Federal Bankruptcy Act.
Bob Drogin reported from New York and William C. Rempel from Los Angeles.
http://articles.latimes.com/1986-12-12/news/mn-2565_1_arms-sales
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John M. Shaheen (1915 in Lee County, Illinois - 1 November 1985, in New York) was an American financier and businessman. He had been involved in oil and life insurance.[1]CareerPrior to World War II Shaheen worked in publicity in Chicago.[2] During World War II Shaheen was at the Office of Strategic Services, and was awarded the Silver Star and Legion of Merit.[3] At OSS he was "chief of OSS Special Projects"[4] and head of the Reports Declassification Section,[2] and an advisor on the 1946 film O.S.S.. [5] His friendship with William Casey, CIA Director under Ronald Reagan, derived from this period.[6][7] Under President Richard Nixon Shaheen was also "a special ambassador to Colombia".[3]Shaheen founded a life insurance business, selling life insurance from airport vending machines, before moving into the oil business.[3][8] This included the Come By Chance Refinery in Newfoundland, Canada, which went bankrupt in 1976 owing around $500m, and was "one of the single largest bankruptcies in Canadian history to that date".[9] In 1973 it was rumoured that Shaheen was going to found a newspaper,[10] to be called the "New York Press".[11] At the time his company, Shaheen Natural Resources, owned three radio stations and part of a television station, but had no experience in print media.[11] It was reported in 1973 that he had made over $200m since World War II.[12]Shaheen was one of the principal contributors to Richard Nixon's campaign in 1968, and in the top 100 Republican donors in 1972, giving $100,000.[11]In 1981 Shaheen founded the Hong Kong Deposit and Guaranty Bank.[13]
John M. Shaheen was the technical consultant as Comdr. John M. Shaheen for the movie O.S.S. staring Alan Ladd. John achieved a notable record in the European and Pacific theaters and was awarded a Silver Star and Legion of Merit for his work with the Office of Strategic Services. In World War 2, Project Larson was undertaken, an OSS operation set up by OSS Chief of Special Projects John Shaheen. The stated purpose of the project was to kidnap Italian rocket and missile specialists out of Italy and bring them to the United States. However, there was another project hidden within Larson called Project AZUSA with the goal of interviewing Italian physicists to see what they knew about Werner Heisenberg and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker. John hatched a wild plot to reach the Italian Naval Command in hopes of convincing the Italian admirals to surrender their fleet to the allies. John hadn't realized that the main body of the Italian fleet had already set sail for Malta to surrender to the British. John was a large donor to the Republican Party. John later became embroiled in the October Surprise conspiracy in which the Reagan-Bush team conspired with Iran to hold the American captives until after the election. John was also allegedly involved in the Iran/Contra conspiracy. John had served with CIA chief Bill Casey in the OSS and they remained close associates throughout their lives. John had plans to start an afternoon New York City newspaper but it never happened. He was involved in several radio stations and cable TV companies located in the western United States, headed up by John's sons and Milt Hibdon. John built a refinery in Come By Chance Bay in Newfoundland, but it did not operate properly and resulted in the biggest bankruptcy in Canada up to that time.
John was active in several Office of Strategic Services veteran groups including the Veterans of the OSS.
Oilman Betting New Paper Will Succeed in New York City - The Tuscaloosa News, Tuesday, October 16, 1973
Carl Friedrich Freiherr von Weizsäcker (June 28, 1912 – April 28, 2007) was a German physicist and philosopher. He was the longest-living member of the team which performed nuclear research in Germany during the Second World War, under Werner Heisenberg's leadership. There is ongoing debate as to whether or not he, and the other members of the team, actively and willingly pursued the development of a nuclear bomb for Germany during this time.[citation needed]
In January 1945, Heisenberg, with most of the rest of his staff, moved from the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institut für Physik to the facilities in the Black Forest.[19]
The Black Forest (German: Schwarzwald, pronounced [ˈʃvaʁt͡svalt]) is a great, forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwestern Germany. It is bounded by the Rhine valley to the west and south. Its highest peak is the Feldberg with an elevation of 1,493 metres (4,898 ft). The region is almost rectangular in area with a length of 160 km (99 mi) and breadth of up to 60 km (37 mi).
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