Lazio investments brought sizable profit June 16, 2000 Web posted at: 12:41 PM EDT (1641 GMT) NEW YORK (AP) -- An investment by U.S. Senate hopeful Rick Lazio in 1997 brought him a profit of up to 600 percent in less than two weeks on securities in a company controlled by some of his biggest contributors, according to published reports. In August 1997, the Republican congressman spent $2,300 on securities trades in Quick & Reilly, a brokerage, weeks before it was purchased by Fleet Financial Group, The New York Times reported Friday. In what reportedly was Lazio's first foray into high-risk options trading, he unloaded the options for nearly $16,000 on the day Quick & Reilly announced it was being bought by Fleet. Lazio's profits were reported Sunday in Newsday after a review of financial disclosure forms from 1992 through 1998. Further details were reported Friday in the Times. Peter Quick and Christopher C. Quick, former senior executives of Quick & Reilly, who along with other company executives have donated at least $35,000 to Lazio's campaigns since 1995, said they had never discussed the company's stock with Lazio. Some experts in securities law told the Times that Lazio's entry into speculative options trading, coupled with his sizable short-term profit on the deal and his relationship with company executives, might have led to an insider trading investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission had it been aware of the trades at the time. There is no indication that Lazio's investments attracted the attention of the SEC at the time. He described the investments in disclosure forms in 1998. "These are modest investments, and Rick's investment portfolio has returned about 5 to 10 percent, which is quite modest," Lazio spokesman Dan McLagan said. He said Lazio had made "a number of small investments over the years. Some have made money, some have lost money." Lazio's Senate opponent, Hillary Rodham Clinton, had to respond to reports about controversial investments several years ago. She turned a $1,000 investment in the cattle futures market into nearly $100,000 during a nine-month period in 1978 and 1979, when her husband was attorney general and then governor of Arkansas. She was assisted in her trades by an executive of Tyson Foods, which had extensive business before Arkansas state regulators. The first lady said in April 1994 that she did not know whether she should have been required to put up more money, but added that she risked far more than her initial $1,000 investment by getting into the market. Lazio's investment in Quick & Reilly constituted a bet on a company over which he wielded influence because he serves on the House Banking and Commerce Committees, and members of the Quick family had been officers of Wall Street's lobbying arm in Washington. In his 1999 financial disclosure forms, Lazio revealed he had purchased more than $15,000 in stock in Goldman, Sachs & Co. on the day the investment bank went public. "If I had to guess, he's learning by doing, which is not untypical," said Ronald Roge, a certified financial planner from Bohemia, N.Y., who reviewed Lazio's records for Newsday. "You try a lot of things. You do a lot of trading, until you realize you're going nowhere fast, and there's a lot of expenses involved." <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html <A HREF="http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
