The last tycoons: the secret history of Lazard Frères & Co

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The last tycoons: the secret history of Lazard Frères & Co Page 95

by William D. Cohan


  "Felix Rohatyn": CC report.

  "Very shy but very clever": Francois Voss interview, January 31, 2005.

  "If any banker": Reich, Financier, p. 295.

  "The standard shot of him": Ibid.

  "Their relationship was exceptional": Ibid.

  "They were intimates": Voss interview, January 31, 2005.

  "on top of everybody": SEC files, Andre Meyer SEC testimony.

  Lazard's investment in Mediobanca: NYT, September 15, 1955.

  "memorandum of understanding": SEC files.

  Italian manufacturer, Necchi: Ibid.

  "I refer to our meeting": Ibid.

  "behind the back": Ibid.

  "did have and do have": Ibid.

  Tobacco Memorandum: Ibid.

  "an excellent investment": Ibid.

  "the long-range possibility": Ibid.

  "Hartford--she's a blue-blooded lady": Ibid.

  "I had an understanding with them": Ibid.

  "the future vitality of our free economy": Ibid.

  "full panoply" and "inexorable pressure": Ibid., Geneen memos.

  "I think that during the ensuing": Ibid.

  On his first day back in the office: Ibid., FGR's calendar.

  "The course is scenic and exacting": SEC files.

  "Now that it looks like": Ibid.

  "he thought they had the size": Ibid., FGR's SEC testimony.

  "Dr. Cuccia is a very cold": Ibid., Andre Meyer's SEC testimony.

  "Have talked to both Geneen": Ibid., telex from FGR to Andre Meyer.

  IRS ruling and John Seath's letters: Ibid.

  "Mediobanca had the option": Ibid., FGR's SEC testimony.

  October 7, 1969, version of the ITT deal: Ibid., SEC files.

  "urging that the Department of Justice": SEC files, Walsh to Kleindienst.

  "It was, I am afraid": SJC, Walsh testimony.

  "it is our understanding": SEC files, Walsh letter.

  "The door is open": SJC, Jack Ryan testimony.

  "He is a rather quiet individual": Ibid.

  "recognized financial figure": SJC, Richard Kleindienst testimony.

  "at his invitation, to give him": SJC, FGR testimony.

  "I thought he might have seemed": Ibid.

  "I believe that for the record": Ibid., Kleindienst testimony.

  "it might have additional repercussions": SEC files.

  "I probably would have": SJC, Walsh testimony.

  "Hi, Dick": From publicly available transcripts of Oval Office tapes of Richard M. Nixon.

  "Immediately thereafter, I sent word": SJC, Kleindienst testimony.

  FGR's April 29 meeting: SJC and SEC files.

  Kleindienst's specific request: SEC files.

  "amplify and augment": SEC files, FGR's May 3 letter.

  FGR's May 10 meeting: SJC and SEC files.

  "Rohatyn said it was a serious matter": SJC, Kleindienst testimony.

  "They give us Grinnell": Nixon Oval Office tapes.

  June 16 call to FGR: SEC files and SJC.

  "negotiating memorandum": SEC files.

  "within twelve seconds": SEC files and SJC.

  FGR's June 18 call: SEC files.

  FGR's June 29 meeting: SEC files and SJC.

  "to complain about the rather rigid": SJC, Kleindienst testimony.

  "Mr. Rohatyn indicated his belief": SJC, Peter Flanigan testimony; and Flanigan interview with author.

  July 31 settlement agreement: SEC files.

  "We wish to object": SEC files.

  Geneen pledged some $400,000: SEC files and SJC.

  "son-of-a-bitch" McLaren: Nixon Oval Office tapes.

  "McLaren came in like a lion": I. F. Stone, "Behind the I.T.T. Scandal," New York Review of Books, April 6, 1972; also in SEC files.

  Larry O'Brien letter to John Mitchell: SEC files.

  "The settlement between the Department of Justice": SEC files.

  the columnist Jack Anderson: Anderson's columns appeared on February 29, March 2, and March 3, 1972: Anderson, Anderson Papers, pp. 94-96.

  "That was again totally stupid": Interview with FGR, December 17, 2004.

  "the two persons with whom": SJC, Kleindienst testimony.

  "No, sir," he told Kennedy: Ibid.

  "In conclusion, I want to emphasize": SJC, McLaren testimony.

  "I was thought qualified": Ibid.

  "Every meeting was on the record": Ibid.

  "The suggestion that discussions with Rohatyn": Anderson, Anderson Papers, p. 119.

  "talking with my children": SJC, FGR testimony.

  "Let me say now that I": Ibid.

  "my influence and persuasiveness": Ibid.

  "categorically false": SJC, Kleindienst testimony.

  "I think those are terribly serious": SJC, McLaren testimony.

  Colson memos: SEC files; and NYT, August 13, October 30, November 1, and November 19, 1973.

  Colson and Nixon conversation: Nixon Oval Office tapes, March 30, 1972.

  "Very occasionally": Nicholas von Hoffman, Washington Post, March 10,1972.

  "I am kind of a stubborn": SJC, Kleindienst testimony.

  "One thing I learned": WSJ, October 10, 1975.

  "I did something stupid" to "no clue what this was all about": Interview with FGR, December 17, 2004.

  Chapter 6. The Savior of New York

  "The world of investment banking": Michael Jensen, "The Lazard Freres Style," NYT, May 28, 1972.

  "Andre was impressed": Interview with Robert Ellsworth.

  "Andre didn't know": Cary Reich, Financier: The Biography of Andre Meyer (New York: Morrow, 1983), p. 189.

  "I'd go over to his apartment": Ibid.

  "trivial political gossip": Interview with Ellsworth.

  "four or five hours": SEC files, Thomas Mullarkey testimony.

  "had nothing to do with it": SEC files, FGR testimony.

  "I just distanced myself": Interview with FGR, December 17, 2004.

  On June 16, 1972: SEC files, SEC charge against Lazard.

  "simple gold Tiffany clock": Cary Reich, "The Legacy of Andre Meyer," Institutional Investor, April 1979.

  Kennedy told Casey: WSJ, June 28,973.

  out-of-court settlement: SEC files.

  "That was big, big stuff": Interview with Stanley Sporkin, October 22, 2004.

  a rare public statement: SEC files.

  lawsuits were filed against ITT: SEC files.

  "Secret documents which escaped shredding": Jack Anderson columns from U.S. Senate investigations on the International Telephone and Telegraph Co. and Chile, 1970-71, March-April 1973.

  "model of the new breed": "The Remarkable Felix G. Rohatyn," Business-Week, March 10, 1973.

  "Andre didn't like it one bit": Interview with FGR, January 3, 2005.

  "I am still far from satisfied": FGR "Dark Ages" memo, April 9, 1973.

  IRS decided to revoke: NYT, March 7, 1974, and WSJ, April 15, 1974.

  "In the unlikely event": SEC files.

  FGR testimony November 16, 1973, and April 24, 1974: SEC files.

  Mullarkey testimony November 16, 1973, and April 24, 1974: SEC files.

  Andre Meyer testimony on four separate occasions: SEC files.

  "merger mastermind": Michael Jensen, NYT, June 23, 1974.

  "It's far and away": Ibid.

  "If he pulls it off": Time, June 17,1974.

  FGR editorial about RFC: NYT, December 1, 1974.

  Gus Levy and William McChesney Martin letters to the editor: NYT, December 22, 1974.

  "If Lockheed is the kind": Forbes, January 15, 1975.

  the SEC's second examination: SEC files.

  "I got a call from David Burke" and the story of becoming head of MAC: Interview with FGR, January 20, 2005.

  "For the last two weeks": NYT, June 5, 1975.

  "They may be new to the problem": Ibid.

  "I didn't tell the Republicans": WSJ, October 10, 1975.

  "Congratulations. Sisyphus should have": Fortune, Oc
tober 1975.

  "Plays hob with my domestic life": Washington Post, November 11, 1956.

  "Jeannette was very intelligent": Judith Ramsey Ehrlich and Barry Rehfeld, The New Crowd (Boston: Little, Brown, 1989). p. 97.

  "She was an extraordinarily bright": Ibid.

  Description of FGR's years with Helene Gaillet: Interview with Helene Gaillet, February 3, 2006.

  "stuffed with books, magazines": Peter Hellman, "The Wizard of Lazard," NYT Magazine, March 21, 1976; and WSJ, October 10, 1975. Felix even once described the Alrae as a "dump" and said that when he was dating his second wife, Elizabeth, she insisted he move out (Ehrlich and Rehfeld, New Crowd, p. 165).

  "Look, I was living with a woman": Interview with FGR, May 25, 2005.

  "In those days": Ehrlich and Rehfeld, New Crowd, p. 164.

  "He is the Henry Kissinger": Newsweek, August 4, 1975.

  "It was just a relatively small": SEC files, FGR testimony.

  "There was no reason for me": Interview with Mel Heineman.

  "The only recollection I have": SEC files, Heineman testimony.

  "Mr. Heineman is a nice man": SEC files, Meyer testimony.

  "To the best that I can": SEC files, Heineman testimony.

  "were linked": SEC files, Mullarkey testimony.

  "Mr. Sundick, are you": Ibid.

  "It's my present impression": Ibid.

  "Andre found some people": Interview with FGR, December 17, 2004.

  Sam Harris's letter to Irwin Borowski: SEC files.

  October 13, 1976, settlement between SEC and Lazard: SEC files.

  "new light on one of the most complex": Judith Miller, NYT, October 14, 1976, p. 78.

  the SEC's single-spaced compendium: In the Matter of International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation, Lazard Freres, release no. 14049, October 13, 1976.

  criminal grand jury: Interviews with Robert Price, April 15, 2005; Disque Deane, August 17, 2005; Patrick Gerschel, June 21, 2005; and others.

  Felix adamantly and repeatedly denied: Interviews with FGR among them, May 25, 2005, and January 17, 2006.

  Sporkin denied: Interview with Sporkin, June 3, 2005.

  "I swear on the Torah": Interview with Price, December 14, 2005.

  "I will confirm that, yes": Interview with Deane, August 17, 2005.

  "Felix would deny that he was walking": Interview with Gerschel, June 21,2005.

  "we are very pleased": NYT, May 9,1981.

  "was unable to push a paper clip": Reich, Financier, p. 311.

  "It was brilliantly conceived": Ibid., p. 331.

  wrapped in brown paper: Message from Disque Deane, August 22, 2005, and interview, September 13, 2005.

  "It was not so much a sale": Ibid., p. 359.

  "It was a typical rich man's": Ibid., p. 360.

  "The prized Andre Meyer": Ibid.

  "stand as an enduring": Douglas Dillon homage to Andre Meyer, Congressional Record, October 11, 1979.

  "The Meyer Galleries were as crisp": Paul Goldberger, NYT, September 19,1993.

  "Timeliness, style and charm": Jacob Javits, Congressional Record, October 11,1979.

  "Rohatyn's voice cracked": Reich, Financier, p. 355.

  "Sometimes I imagine": Ibid., p. 356.

  Chapter 7. The Sun King

  "haute banque d'affaires": "The Making of Lazard's Michel David-Weill," Euromoney, March 1981.

  "perhaps a little bit more": Interview with a Lazard partner.

  "I guess the thinking of the 'early runners'": Interview with a Lazard partner.

  "Frank Zarb once told me": Interview with a Lazard partner.

  "Objectively, Michel is the landowner": Jean-Claude Haas, "Assault on the House of Lazard," Forbes, September 4, 2000.

  "This is not a partnership": Interview with Frank Pizzitola, April 18, 2005.

  "You would need many advanced degrees": Interview with a Lazard partner.

  "did things as a helper": Fortune, November 1977.

  "If you don't see us getting back": Cary Reich, Financier: The Biography of Andre Meyer (New York: Morrow, 1983), p. 243.

  "I had to persuade him": Ibid., p. 244.

  "The president stepped down": Fortune, November 1977.

  "the real significance of the Franco Wyoming deal": Reich, Financier, p. 246.

  "Memorandum to Partners": Andre Meyer, December 26, 1974.

  "So as to show who was in charge": Interview with a Lazard partner.

  "Pierre was so smart": Interview with Robert Ellsworth.

  "My father had, in my opinion": Interview with MDW, November 30, 2005.

  "He was an immortal": Interview with Patrick Gerschel, June 21, 2005.

  "I have a certain degree of influence": Robert J. Cole, "End of an Era at Lazard," NYT, January 30, 1977.

  "Mr. Rohatyn is a very important man": Ibid.

  "not something I yearn for": NYT, August 22, 1976.

  "Suppose I was appointed": Peter Hellman, "The Wizard of Lazard," NYT Magazine, March 21, 1976.

  July 2, 1976: Memorandum to partners from Donald Cook.

  August 19: Memorandum to partners from Donald Cook.

  "And it went from bad to worse": Interview with Gerschel, January 20, 2005.

  September 1976: Memorandum to partners from Andre Meyer and MDW.

  "strictly confidential": Cole, "End of an Era at Lazard."

  "We saw them drifting downward": Cary Reich, "The Legacy of Andre Meyer," Institutional Investor, April 1979.

  "The risk was not of losing business": "The Making of Lazard's Michel David-Weill."

  "He was politicking": Interview with Gerschel, June 21, 2005.

  "I told him it wouldn't be good": FGR, Newsweek, May 4, 1981.

  "We were riding through": SEC files, Mullarkey testimony.

  "The Lazard I knew": Interview with FGR, November 29, 2004.

  "The firm was very lucky": Interview with MDW, January 31, 2005.

  "I was born to great opportunity": Wyndham Robertson, "Passing the Baton at Lazard Freres," Fortune, November 1977.

  "Too bad, you have come too late": Among others, Institutional Investor, May 1993.

  low overhead, M&A focused: Robertson, "Passing the Baton at Lazard Freres."

  Patrick Gerschel's background: Interview with Gerschel, January 12, 2005.

  "You know a clerk is a clerk": Ibid.

  "It was a very curious kind of place": Ibid.

  "People who write memos": Ibid.

  "This was cuckoo land": Ibid.

  "To be number one at Lazard": Interview with Francois Voss, January 31,2005.

  "It was a shocking breach": Reich, Financier, p. 339.

  "At first, Patrick was just": Ibid.

  "Patrick was trying to become the senior partner": Interview with Disque Deane, August 17, 2005.

  "since he never talked to Cook": Interview with Gerschel, January 12, 2005.

  "wasn't very good": Ibid.

  "I thought that was an asinine remark": Reich, "Legacy of Andre Meyer."

  "Andre Meyer's view of life": Interview with Gerschel, January 12, 2005.

  "He loved that firm": Ibid.

  "He was just a young man": Interview with FGR, January 20, 2005.

  "I was a special case": Interview with Gerschel, January 12, 2005.

  "Don't be so silly": Ibid.

  "In New York, if you had asked": "The Making of Lazard's Michel David-Weill."

  "At that time and even seen": "The Last Emperor," BusinessWeek, May 30,1988.

  "the heir of a celebrated line": Le Nouvel Economiste, July 1978.

  "After 183 years of doing business": NYT, May 1, 1975.

  "It was a Napoleonic first act": Interview with a Lazard partner.

  no intention of promoting any internal candidates: Interview with WL, January 26, 2005.

  "disappointed": Interview with Peter Lewis, March 8, 2005.

  "We cut back quite a bit": NYT, September 11, 1979.

  "Particularly during the years": Reich, "Legacy of Andre M
eyer."

  "It was like looking in the mirror": Ibid.

  "Mr. Meyer wanted to know": Reich, Financier, p. 348.

  "It is a little different if you are a partner": Ibid.

  "the relationships are getting closer": Reich, "Legacy of Andre Meyer."

  "Last month, four Lehman partners": Fortune, September 1978.

  "Before coming to Lehman Brothers": Ken Auletta, Greed and Glory on Wall Street (New York: Warner Books, 1986), p. 55.

  $5,000 bonus check: Ibid.

  "So it is to be war": Ibid.

  "Count me in, Jimmy": Fortune, September 25, 1978.

  "I was very well impressed": Ibid.

  "But my personal relationship with him": Reich, "Legacy of Andre Meyer."

  "angry shouting, sealed desks": Ibid.

  "Door locks were changed": Auletta, Greed and Glory, p. 58.

  "With his big cigar": Interview with Pete Peterson, May 26, 2005.

  "cancelled the bonus of my secretary": Auletta, Greed and Glory, p. 58.

  attempting to buy a real estate asset: Ibid., pp. 56-58.

  "Everybody was pretty appalled": Interview with Peterson, May 26, 2005.

  "And I just sat there": Ibid.

  "It is the sort of typecasting": Auletta, Greed and Glory, p. 56.

  "People have said Jim Glanville": Ibid.

  "Pete is a friend of mine": Interview with Ward Woods, February 16, 2005.

  "I mean, Glanville was": Interview with FGR, January 3, 2005.

  letter of "congratulations": FAP, Frank Altschul to Bobby Lehman, October 4, 1966.

  "My view on U.S. relations with Israel": Auletta, Greed and Glory, p. 56.

  "Glanville wrote one of the most": Interview with Peterson, May 26, 2005.

  "And I recall saying": Ibid.

  "That there was a place": Interview with Woods, February 16, 2005.

  "We live in cramped quarters": Fortune, September 25, 1978.

  "As is often the case": WL memorandum to Sidney Wolf, October 15,1975.

  "And he says to me": Interview with Mina Gerowin, January 6, 2005.

  "The secretaries have to go": Reich, Financier, p. 349, and "Legacy of Andre Meyer."

  "You don't have to say with whom": Reich, Financier, p. 349, and "Legacy of Andre Meyer."

  "Do you want to know what I do": Reich, Financier, p. 349.

  "I found a group": Interview with Woods, February 16, 2005.

  "dark place": Interview with WL, January 26, 2005.

  "He had a powerful grip": Interview with Damon Mezzacappa, August 2, 2004.

  "We went to this meeting": Interview with Roger Briggs.

  "created somewhat of a problem": "The Making of Lazard's Michel David-Weill."

 

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