Who Will End Up in U.S. Jail?

摘要

Behind the deterioration of franco-American rela- tions over Iraq and the savage animosity between George W. Bush and Jacques Chirac lies a sordid and complicated business scandal that could end with several highly placed French businessmen―two are close friends of Chirac's―taking up residence in U.S. prisons. In April 1991 a California insurance company called Executive life, having gone bust, became the object of an investigation by the state of California. In 1992 what had once been France's most successful bank, Credit Lyonnais (now a decrepit institution), put together a deal whereby the bank would buy Executive Life's junk bond portfolio, and a new French insurance company would take over Executive Life's insurance business. At the time of the deal, Credit Lyonnais was owned by the French state. Under U.S. federal law banks could not own insurance companies; under California law state-owned companies could not own insurance companies. The deal was agreed to because U.S. insurance regulators were assured that the new insurance company was independent of Credit Lyonnais. In 1995 the French government created the Consortium de Realisation (CDR) to take over Credit Lyonnais' bad assets, including Executive Life's bond portfolio. But in 1998 it was discovered that the French insurance company that had taken over Executive Life's insurance business was not independent of Credit Lyonnais.