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The Michigan Daily - Friday, December 8, 1995 - 9A
Ethics panel to hire outside
ounsel to probe Gimnich
d Angeles Times
VASHINGTON - In a stinging re-
Vake, the House Ethics Committee on
Wednesday found that Speaker Newt
Gingrich had violated House rules by
misusing official tesources and voted
unanimously to hire a special counsel
to investigate allegations that he im-
properly used tax-deductible donations
te finance his teaching of a college
rse.
Zhe committee, after nearly a year of
walled secret negotiations, issued a
ngly worded,
tie-page letter to
t Georgia Re- Th e
iLican criticiz
i-his conduct.
he panel said l
t speaker sought
. capitalize" on
h"office 'for per- of ethics
seal gain" by se-
Gurng a lucrative ear i
book contract with -
a company owned
by-media mogul Former Democ
Ripert Murdoch.
hi'the end, how-
ever, the commit-
tee dismissed that complaint and one
other for which it officially found no
wfongdoing.
As part ofa compromise between the
flue Democrats and live Republicans
on the committee, the panel decided not
t punish Gingrich for actions chal-
lenged in the three complaints in which
he was found to have broken House
i %.P
of
vIi
rules. The complaints charged that he
deployed a GOP political consultant in
the speaker's office and twice promoted
political ventures on the House floor.
But even with those five complaints
dismissed, the appointment of an inde-
pendent counsel to investigate the sixth
complaint could lead to a broad review
of Gingrich's conduct.
"This is just a start," said Ben Jones,
a former Democratic lawmaker who
ran against Gingrich in 1994 and filed
the ethics complaint that is the basis for
the appointment of
the independent
counsel. "There's a
5 been a lot more here than
there was in the
(Jim) Wright
e ar case," he said, re-
ferring to the
Democratic House
speaker whom
Gingrich helped
force from office in
- Ben Jones 1989. "There's
atic lawmaker been a pattern of
arrogant disregard
of ethics for many
years."
Gingrich waved off reporters seek-
ing comment late Wednesday night. In
a written statement, he tried to put the
best face on the committee's decision,
emphasizing that all but one of the
charges were dismissed. He said he was
"pleased by the unanimous bipartisan
action of the Ethics Committee and I
am confident after the committee ex-
amines the remaining charge (that) it,
too, will be dismissed."
"This has been a very painful process
for my wife, my family and me person-
ally," he added.
It is unclear whether the outside coun-
sel will be given free rein to investigate
the involvement ofGOPAC, Gingrich's
political committee, in financing the
college course that he taught until this
year. If the counsel is given a green
light to explore all ofGOPAC's records
and dealings, including alleged favors
in return forcontributions, then Gingrich
"has a serious, serious problem, one
that could spell his political demise,"
Jones said.
Stanley M. Brand, who was counsel
to the late Democratic Speaker Thomas
P. "Tip" O'Neill Jr. and represented
Republicans as well as Democrats in
ethics cases, said: "This leaves for in-
vestigation quite a bit of material."
The investigation by an outside coun-
sel will lead to a decision either to file
formal charges or dismiss the case. If
the committee finds the speaker guilty
of major violations, it would recom-
mend punishment to the House, rang-
ing from a reprimand to expulsion.
In any case, the hiring of a special
counsel makes it virtually certain that
the investigation will extend well into
the 1996 election year - a prospect
that aids the political strategy of Demo-
cratic leaders to use the speaker's per-
sonality and his conservative agenda as
campaign issues.
After more than six hours of intense
AP PHOTO
House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) holds a laminated copy of the Republicans'
"Contract With America" at a Capitol Hill news conference Friday, Jan. 20, 1995.
Anti-AIDS
drug WinS
approval
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON - The Food and
Drug Administration has approved the
first of a potent new family of anti
AIDS drugs.
The new drug, saquinavir, belongs to
a class of drugs called protease inhibi
tors. It was approved in just97 days.
reflecting the FDA's push for speedy
approval of drugs for life-threatening
illnesses such as AIDS.
"This is some of the most hopeful
news in years for people living with
AIDS," Donna E. Shalala, secretary of
the Department of Health and Human
Services, said in a statement.
All of the previously approved AIDS
drugs are members of a group called
nucleoside analogs, which work by in-
terferingwith the gene-replication cycle
of HlIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Protease inhibitors attack HIV at a later
stage in its life cycle by blocking the
action of an enzyme that virus particles
use to cut acoat for themselves from the
outer membrane of an infected cell.
The agency approved the new drug for
use in combination with the older class of
nucleoside analogs, since clinical trials
showed that the one-two punch did more
to suppress the activity of the virus than
either type of drug alone. The effects of
saquinavir are relatively long-lasting.
When patients were given saquinavir in
clinical trials, their counts of key immune
cells known as CD4 lymphocytes rose
and often remained elevated throughout
the 16-week trial and sometimes for as
long as a year, the FDA said.
Saquinavir, which is manufactured
by Hoffman La Roche and will be sold
under the brand name Invirase, did not
perform as well in clinical trials as
newerprotease inhibitors madeby other
companies, apparently because it is
poorly absorbed in the body. Rocheis
preparing a more effective form of th
drug for review by the agency.
"It is important to make this drug
available, because even in its present
formulation it's an important weapon
in the aresenal against AIDS," FD.
Commissioner David A. Kesslersaid in
an interview yesterday.
The cost to the pharmacist for a year';'
supply of the drug will be S5,800 per-
patient, and a drug industry analyst sai.
the retail price could be as much as 20
percent higher. Gary Rose of the AIDS
Action Council said he was worried tht
the cost of combination therapy with
saquinavir and a nucleoside analog drug
was prohibitive, comingto someS 12,000
a year for basic antiviral therapy.
negotiations Wednesday, the Ethics
Committee emerged with a compro-
mise. The panel, officially known as
the Committee on Standards of Official
Conduct voted, 10-0, to hire a special
counsel to determine whether laws were
violated with Gingrich's "knowledge
and approval" to raise tax-deductible
donations from political supporters to
finance his Renewing American Civili-
zation course at Kennesaw State Col-
lege and Reinhart College in Georgia.
Before calling for an independent
investigator, the committee was re-
quired to find "reason to believe" that
Gingrich had committed a violation.
The committee dismissed some allega-
tions, included in the complaint, that
Gingrich improperly took official ac-
tion on behalf of contributors to the
course.
Fraud sweep results in 400 arrests for phone scams
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON - State and fed-
eral authorities arrested more than 400
telemarketing salespeople yesterday
after an investigation that used retirees
who volunteered to record allegedly
fraudulent telephone sales pitches.
The arrests resulting from "Opera-
tfon Senior Sentinel" took place in 14
states and included telemarketers who
had sold everything from vitamins and
water purifiers to vacations and sweep-
stakes packages.
The retirees who became undercover
agents were recruited through the
American Association of Retired Per-
sons and trained by the FBI.
The elderly are often the targets of
telemarketers, and in mtany cases have
lost their life savings to them. Fraudu-
Action was part of 'Operation Senior Sentinel'
lent telephone sales and contests cost
all consumers more than $40 billion a
year.
"It's a huge problem, and it's really
hard for law enforcement to keep up
with it," said Katie Sloan, manager of
consumer affairs for the AARP.
Almost four out of five of the people
targeted by telemarketers in Operation
Senior Sentinel were elderly, accord-
ing to the FBl. Some were virtual pris-
oners of the calls, receiving five or
more a day.
Virtually all ofthe arrests being made
yesterday were of the employees who
actually make the telephone calls, rather
than those who operate the businesses,
law-enforcement officials said. As in
major drug cases, the officials hope that
lowerlevel employees will identify and
testify against those at the top of their
organizations who come up with the
ideas and recruit the callers.
The recruits for Operation Senior
Sentinel taped conversations with
telemarketers and then forwarded them
to a tape library in San Diego, where
they were catalogued for use in govern-
ment prosecutions. The FBI declined to
release the names of any of the retirees
who were involved because they may
be called as witnesses in future cases.
Law enforcement officials and regu-
lators have been thwarted in the past by
fraudulent telemarketers who use mul-
tiple aliases and complicated schemes,
demand immediate payment and often
slip away to strike in another location
with a different scheme.
"What drives this whole operation is
the recognition that we need a national
strategy to(go after telemarketing fraud,"
said Jonathan Rusch, senior litigation
counsel in the Justice Department's
criminal division. "The message is that
there's no longer a safe state to call or to
operate in."
Telemarketers often use what they
call "mooch" lists of people who have
fallen for phony telephone scams be-
fore. The caller becomes the victim's
best friend, inquiring about a deceased
spouse or the person's health.
Then, comes the pitch. It can be for
any product, investment scheme or va-
cation.
"You'vejustwonavaluableprize (usu-
allycashgold oracar). Buttosecureyour
prize before someone else claims it, you
must send us a check for S1,500 immedi-
ately," is a typical come-on.
Sometimes the money is for taxes on
the prize. The caller can make it easy
for the victim to make the payment by
sending a messenger to pick up the
check or taking credit card numbers
over the phone.
Sometimes the victims do receive
prizes - or products - but they are
often worth much less than the price the
telemarketer receives.
Blood feud: Mother's slaying
leads to battle in courtroom
Congratulations
December Graduates!
"CHICAGO (AP)- Dean Olds had it
all.'A partner in one of Chicago's hot-
test law firms, he had amassed a multi-
million-dollar fortune. He traveled the
world on business and lived1in an ample
brick house in an exclusive suburb
where he and his wife raised their fam-
ily:
That life unraveled quickly and thor-
oughly.
First, there was a bitter divorce pro-
ceeding and a freeze on his assets. Then,
his partners fired him on allegations of
insider trading.
What followed was far worse: On
Dec. 28, 1993, his wife, Suzanne Olds,
was found bludgeoned to death at their
home in Wilmette. Olds' male lover, a
dashing blond part-time model from
iermany, was tried for the crime and
acquitted.
Now Olds' daughters, who believe
their father was involved in their
mother's death, are testifying against
him this week in a civil case to deter-
mine who will get the family fortune.
, In civil court, where the standard of
groof is lower than in criminal court,
4ttorneys say they expect to prove that
Qlds had a role in the slaying.
Olds' daughters told a probate judge
that their mother was terrified of Olds
and his lover, Helmut Carsten Hofer.
They were the only two people in
the world who didn't love- her,"
Courtney Olds said as her eyes filled
with tears.
Olds has never been charged in the
killing. Prosecutors refuse to say
w'hether they consider him a suspect.
Suzanne Olds carried Mace when
Walking her dog. She slept at night only
after securing the front and back doors
and locking the deadbolt on her bed-
room door.
But Mrs. Olds died in a frenzy of
She suspected her husband of gutting
their $4.6-million estate, in part to sup-
port his young lover.
Olds said the estate is worth $4 mil-
lion or $5 million; attorneys for the
daughters refuse to say how much it's
worth.
Olds said that he regrets losing con-
tact with his children but that they have
been misled into believing he is in-
volved in his wife's death.
His children, he said, "are wealthy,
but they want to be wealthier. ... It's
strictly a desire for money."
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