An On Camera Sitdown With Phil Williams Just Before Nominees Are Chosen For Constitutional Offices
Posted on January 11, 2009 at 8:30 pmThis struck State Treasurer candidate Ira Brody as a fine idea. He was wrong.
SEE ALSO: Terry Frank
Brody Brings The Baggage With His Carpet
Posted on January 9, 2009 at 1:30 pmKen Whitehouse on some new information about one of the frontrunning candidates for state treasurer:
Brody, who moved to Tennessee from New York in 2005, was asked by State Sen. Randy McNally if he had ever been party to any lawsuits or liens. Brody answered that to his knowledge, “no,” other than a dismissed lawsuit over a traffic accident. The claim is also made in the form provided by Brody to the Republican constitutional selection committee.
The negative response has been a major source of consternation for Republican elected officials in both the State House and State Senate and a rift is developing within the caucus over Brody’s candidacy.
In a review of court records, NashvillePost.com has found that Murfreesboro resident Virginia Harris on June 11 of last year filed a lawsuit against InsCap Management in U.S. Bankruptcy Court of Middle Tennessee. The filing directs that the lawsuit – which is still pending – be sent to the attention of Brody, who was an InsCap partner and its chief operating officer and chief financial officer until Dec. 31.
PREVIOUSLY: Death Is The Health Of The State
SEE ALSO: Theo Emery
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Posted on at 8:01 amDavid Oatney doesn’t think the election of Ira Brody as the next state treasurer would send a good one:
In a field of qualified Tennessee candidates, what will it say about our new majority if that majority just coincidentally happens to choose the one who gave the most money. I thought we were supposed to bring change, and govern differently from Naifeh, not receive indictments in the press from Naifeh over practices which he himself is guilty of. That isn’t change, it is more of the same.
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Death Is The Health Of The State
Posted on at 7:19 amFirst time, I ever saw a preacher he said to me, “Son, There’s something strange about you. You’ve got something to do with death.”
Being real young I believed him. Turned out he was right.
~ Napoleon Wilson in Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)
Investigative reporter Phil Williams uncovers a scheme, hatched by one constitutional officer candidate and sold by another, to buy life insurance on state employees without their consent with the intent of enriching the state:
[T]ax watchdog Ben Cunningham was stunned by documents — first obtained by NewsChannel 5 Investigates — that detail an investment concept, by one estimate, approaching $7 billion dollars.
It pushed by a company in which Brody is now a partner. To sell it, that company hired Justin Wilson as its lobbyist. Wilson is the top contender for comptroller — in essence, the state’s budget cop, looking over the treasurer’s shoulders.
(State records show Wilson was then registered on behalf of Blue Water Capital LLC, which later became Lilac Capital LLC, then Inscap Insurance Services LLC. Brody is a partner and chief operating officer of Inscap.)
“It is absolutely essential that we have total confidence in whoever takes these positions,” Cunningham said. “For them to have proposed a scheme like this is just … outrageous.”
The documents show that Wilson, acting on behalf of Brody’s company, wanted the state’s retirement plan to do this: buy life insurance on certain older retirees, as much as a half million dollars each. Then when they died, the money would go back to the state.
His presentation notes that it would necessary to do it “without first obtaining the consent of each insured” person — a concept state employees find appalling. (Read Wilson’s proposal.)
“It’s benefiting from death,” said Jim Tucker of the Tennessee State Employees Association. “Without the knowledge and consent of the person, I just think it’s just horribly wrong.”
It was a complicated financial transaction that would have required the state to:
* issue up to $7 billion in bonds (other estimates put it as low as $1.4 billion)
* then use that money to buy a type of life insurance — called an annuity — that makes periodic payouts
* then take those payouts to pay for term life policies from another insurance company.
* When the retirees died, the money would go back into the pension fund.
SEE ALSO:
Tiny Cat Pants
Matthew Hurtt
Sean Braisted
Jimmy Naifeh’s Got Issues
Posted on January 8, 2009 at 11:52 amWith some of the GOP’s prospective candidates for the constitutional offices:
Among the issues Naifeh has with some of the Republicans seeking the posts are questions about their past political practices and experience. He said that he would like to see Justin Wilson, the former aide to Gov. Don Sundquist who is up for comptroller, answer questions about how contracts were awarded when he was in the governor’s office.
Naifeh also said that Tre Hargett, who is up for secretary of state – the position that oversees the Division of Elections – should answer allegations that he removed an opponent’s campaign paraphernalia from cars when he was a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives.
Perhaps most interesting, Naifeh called Ira Brody, a candidate for state treasurer, a “political hack” who has thrown money around to Republican candidates in an attempt to get the job.
SEE ALSO: Jeff Woods
Cash Rules Everything Around You
Posted on December 17, 2008 at 1:27 pmDavid Oatney’s super secret source on why Vance Cheek has no chance to defeat Ira Brody for the position of State Treasurer:
“Most legislators on both sides of the aisle neither know nor care what it is that these constitutional officers actually do every day. They do know who had given them the most money in the last election. For that reason, your candidate has very little chance to win.”
Betting On Life: A Constitutional Candidate
Posted on December 8, 2008 at 8:39 amKen Whitehouse and Clint Brewer report on state Treasurer candidate Ira Brody and an unsavory business practice his firm has been associated with:
InsCap has also seen its fair share of battles in other states relative to its business of financing premiums for the life insurance policies of affluent families, individuals and institutions. InsCap is closely associated in the minds of the insurance industry with viatical settlements, though Brody says that is not the service InsCap offers.
According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, “a viatical settlement allows you to invest in another person’s life insurance policy. With a viatical settlement, you purchase the policy (or part of it) at a price that is less than the death benefit of the policy. When the seller dies, you collect the death benefit. Your return depends upon the seller’s life expectancy and the actual date he or she dies.”
Inscap’s own Web site says their business makes it possible for “affluent households and large institutions to finance the acquisition of life insurance as an asset.”
UPDATE: Clint Brewer in the comments:
To be fair, this is not the line of work Ira Brody’s firm practices. The article explains that.
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