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)anny Riskin
July ".3)-(1, 2004
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FALL GUY from page 41
red some crime in my past anyway"
chorded Taubman. "I also think the
judge sounded inexperienced in his jury
instructions."
Recommended by Taubman's long-
time friend and lawyer, Jeffrey H. Miro
of Bloomfield Township, the Davis,
Polk law firm of New York City defend-
ed Taubman. (Miro was our of the
country and unavailable for comment
on this story.)
The lawyers declined to let Taubman
testify in his own defense, citing a possi-
ble arduous five or six days on the wit-
ness stand for a man who had suffered
several minor strokes and three heart
angioplasty procedures.
"The defense lawyers felt no actual
evidence against me was presented in
the trial, so I was safe in not having to
go on the stand," said Taubman. "But I
regret not testifying. I think I would
have won the case.
Taubman roars with laughter over
Mason's anecdote in the book about
how John J. Greene, the U.S. Justice
Department's prosecutor in the case,
became famous through a 1991 convic-
tion . of Manischewitz, the New Jersey
baking company, accused of fixing the
prices on about $25 million worth of
matzah in the early 1980s. After that,
Greene always was known as the
"Matzocutor."
All appeals failed in Taubman's case,
and he nixed a defense counsel's sugges-
don to go to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Besides his one-year-and-a-day sentence,
he was fined $7.5 million.
"But that was nothing," said
Taubman. "I also had to give $186 mil-
lion to Sotheby's customers, who won a
class-action civil lawsuit. I had to pay
that personally or the company would
have gone broke."
Business Mogul
Taubman founded the Taubman Co. in
1950, which has evolved into Taubman
Centers Inc., with 400 local employees
and 31 shopping centers in 13 states,
including Twelve Oaks Mall in Novi,
Great Lakes Crossing in Auburn Hills
and Fairlane Town Center in Dearborn.
Last year, Taubman mall tenant sales
averaged 5468 per square foot. The
firm's newest venture, now in the plan-
ning stages, is an outdoor mall — simi-
lar to the popular City Place in West
Palm Beach, Fla., familiar to many of
Detroit's Jewish "snowbirds" in southern
Florida — to replace the former El
Dorado Golf Course on Pontiac Trail in
Commerce.
Always interested in art, Taubman
bought Sotheby's in 1983. Like Britain-
.
based Christie's, the auction house was
founded in the 18th century to serve
wealthy customers, who have spent as
much as $82 million and $78 million
respectively for Van Gogh and Renoir
paintings. The two companies still con-
trol about 90 percent of the fine art
market. Taubman handpicked Diana
(Dede) Brooks, a 6-foot-tall, hard-
charging dynamo, to be CEO of his
New York-based firm.
The questions raised in the book
point to the possible price fixers in the
case as Brooks, who pleaded guilty but
avoided prison by testifying against
Taubman; Christopher Davidge, former
Christie's CEO, who received an $8
million severance pay package after
resigning, then spilled his guts to , U.S.
anti-trust investigators in return for
immunity from prosecution; and Sir
Anthony Tennant, ex-chairman of
Christie's, who held a dozen private
meetings with Taubman and also was
indicted but not extradited from
Britain.
Mason calls Davidge a "master
manipulator" who got away "scot-free,"
as did everyone at Christie's in the case.
The key meeting, according to Mason,
took place in the parking lot of New
York's Kennedy Airport when Davidge
and Brooks discussed sellers' commis-
sions. Brooks was sentenced to six
months of house arrest, plus probation
and community service.
"If I had any idea she was doing any-
thing wrong, I would have fired her in
five minutes," snapped Taubman. "She
never discussed any of this with me.
And Tennant and I only talked about
auction schedules. There's nothing
wrong with competitors having business
discussions like this. The prosecutors
didn't act in good faith; they would
have done anything just to put me in
prison. But I still believe in the law, and
I believe in the American legal system."
Taubman stepped down as Sotheby's
chairman (though he still owns control-
ling interest), as well as chairman of
Taubman Centers — replaced there by
his son, Robert S. Taubman of
Bloomfield Hills, who is chairman,
president and CEO. Another son,
William S. Taubman of Bloomfield
Hills, is executive vice president of the
organization. Taubman also has a
daughter, Gayle Kalisman, of New
York. He has been married for 22 years
to his second wife, Judith Mazor
Taubman, 60, a former Miss Israel,
whom he met on a blind date.
FALL Gtr on page 44
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2004
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