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Stephens, Jackson

Jackson Stephens

Funded the ultra-conservative Club for Growth. hightower

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Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

**Jackson Thomas Stephens** (August 9, 1923 – July 23, 2005)[[1]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_T._Stephens#cite_note-1) was the founder of Little Rock, Arkansas-based Stephens Group, a diversified family of investment and media companies.

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Stephens was born on a farm near Prattsville, Arkansas, the youngest of 6 children.[2] and grew up during the Depression. Stephens attended the United States Naval Academy, where he met and became friends with a midshipman from Georgia named Jimmy Carter.[3]Upon graduating he joined the Little Rock investment house Stephens Inc., which his brother W. R. "Witt" Stephens had started in 1933. Forged out of a bible, belt buckle, and bond business, by 1994 Stephens Inc. was listed as one of the biggest institutional shareholders in 30 large multinationals including the Arkansas based firms Tyson Foods, Wal-Mart and Alltel

Career highlights

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Stephens and his wife Mary Anne were such outspoken backers of Republican causes, and in particular of President Ronald Reagan that the early 1980s they were known as "Mr. and Mrs. Republican of Arkansas."[3] In a rare interview in the early 80's, Jackson declared that Reagan was giving the country "exactly what we need. Some of us call it tough love."[3] Stephens and his company donated $100,000 to the national Republican Party both in 1988 and 1991.[4]

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  1. ^ Jackson T. Stephens, 81, Financier, Dies, Associated Press, July 28, 2005
  2. ^ Dennis A. Byrd, Financier, philanthropist Jackson T. Stephens, 81, dies, Greenwood Democrat Tuesday, July 26, 2005
  3. ^ a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_T.Stephens#cite_ref-mojo_3-0) b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_T.Stephens#cite_ref-mojo_3-1) c(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_T._Stephens#cite_ref-mojo_3-2) Profile: Jackson T. Stephens (with Mary Anne)
  4. ^ New York Times February 5, 1992 "Wealthy Investment Family a Big Help to Clinton" by Jeff Gerth
  5. ^ www.epsicopalcollegiate.org
  6. ^ Clinton Foundation

7.

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George W. Bush, Jr.

None of George Bush's offspring is more his father's son than George W. Bush. George Jr., or "Shrub" as Molly Ivins refers to him, began his own Texas oil career in the mid-1970s when he formed Bush Exploration. Like the business dealings of his brothers, George's company was not a success, and it was rescued in 1983 by another oil company, Spectrum 7, run by several staunch and well-heeled Reagan-Bush supporters. But by mid-1986, a soft oil market found Spectrum also near bankruptcy.

Many oil companies went belly-up during that time. But Spectrum had one asset the others lacked -- the son of the vice-president. Rescue came in 1986 in the form ofHarken Energy, just in the nick of time. Harken absorbed Spectrum, and, in the process, Junior got $600,000 worth of Harken stock in return for his Spectrum shares. He also won a lucrative consulting contract and stock options. In all, the deal would put well over $1 million in his pocket over the next few years -- even though Harken itself lost millions.

Harken Energy was formed in 1973 by two oilmen who would benefit from a successful covert effort to destabilize Australia's Labor Party government (which had attempted to shut out foreign oil exploration). A decade later, Harken was sold to a new investment group headed by New York attorney Alan G. Quasha, a partner in the firm of Quasha, Wessely & Schneider. Quasha's father, a powerful attorney in the Philippines, had been a staunch supporter of then-president Ferdinand Marcos. William Quasha had also given legal advice to two top officials of the notorious Nugan Hand Bank in Australia, a CIA operation.

After the sale of Harken Energy in 1983, Alan Quasha became a director and chairman of the board. Under Quasha, Harken suddenly absorbed Junior's struggling Spectrum 7in 1986. The merger immediately opened a financial horn of plenty and reversed Junior's fortunes. But like his brother Jeb, Junior seemed unconcerned about the characters who were becoming his benefactors. Harken's $25 million stock offering in 1987, for example, was underwritten by a Little Rock, Arkansas, brokerage house, Stephens, Inc., which placed the Harken stock offering with the London subsidiary of Union Bank -- a bank that had surfaced in the scandal that resulted in the downfall of the Australian Labor government in 1976 and, later, in the Nugan Hand Bank scandal. (It was also Union Bank, according to congressional hearings on international money laundering, that helped the now-notorious Bank of Credit and Commerce International skirt Panamanian money-laundering laws by flying cash out of the country in private jets, and that was used by Ferdinand Marcos to stash 325 tons of Philippine gold around the world.)

Stephens, Inc., also helped introduce the BCCI virus into US banking in 1978 when it arranged the sale of Bert Lance's[cleared?]  National Bank of Georgia to BCCI front man Ghaith Pharoan. (The head of Stephens, Inc., Jackson Stephens, is a member of President Bush's exclusive "Team 100," a group of 249 wealthy individuals who have contributed at least $100,000 each to the GOP's presidential-campaign committee.)