NAmon/woluLID, 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." TG Alu1 i'~ 338 S. State 996-9191 El N N( 'IAIL 8E1,I~vC 1- .LI If.E I'IZIEOU 1HAVE'I'ALKIED)WITI'I' 8755 ~V.MI A;(SN4 l'ix NI ?1t 11(I (' HI C . sc, I I 6(i.G3 I 3 I 2-3~80-8700 :y 60 tap beers coming in January! I CALL US AND WE'LL HELP JIMMY JOHN'S GOL LaaENI - o~A 6 I I YOUR BIT! ET SUBS q TO ~I EonE 10 G " -;