Word: citron
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Orange Countians were eager to pin it all on Citron. So conservative after hours that he preferred to keep his own money in bank accounts, Citron was nonetheless known throughout California as a high-rolling wizard when it came to public money. In 1979 Citron helped change a state law to allow counties to - borrow vast amounts through arrangements called reverse repurchase agreements. Such deals permit treasurers to take out what amount to short-term loans from firms like Merrill Lynch and invest the proceeds in longer-term bonds that pay more interest. In pursuit of this strategy, Citron added...
...last week the 69-year-old workaholic Citron was forced to resign and instantly became perhaps the most hated man in Orange County. So enraged was one taxpayer at the mere sight of Citron's photo in a county office that he threatened to return with a gun and shoot it down. That outburst came shortly after Orange County, stunned by a $1.5 billion loss in the $20 billion investment pool that Citron managed, filed for bankruptcy protection in the largest municipal collapse in U.S. history. "This is the Hindenburg," said Joe Mysack, who follows the bond market as editor...
...bond prices swung down on Wall Street amid fears that other large municipalities might harbor high-risk investments. In Washington, Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan told Congress that he was closely monitoring the situation in Orange County; meanwhile, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission launched a probe into some of Citron's trades in derivatives, which are volatile securities whose value is pegged to some underlying asset or market and which can magnify an investor's gains or losses...
...interest rates rose this year, the value of the bonds that Citron had bought began to tumble. To make matters worse, the Orange County portfolio held $8.5 billion of derivatives, including an exotic type called inverse floaters, whose value also plunged as interest rates climbed higher. Yet Citron, whom associates describe as self-confident to the point of cockiness, stuck to his game plan, believing rates would inevitably go lower. "He had a technique that worked for 15 years, and he didn't see the cycle change," says James Moorlach, an accountant who ran against Citron this year...
...came last Tuesday, one day after Citron resigned and CS First Boston demanded immediate repayment of a $1.2 billion loan that the treasurer had used to buy bonds. County supervisor Harriett Wieder awoke before dawn to the sound of a police officer pounding on her door and summoning her to an emergency briefing. By 11 a.m. California time, Orange County's troubles were the talk of regulators in Washington. At 5:30 p.m. the county filed for bankruptcy protection to prevent other creditors from calling their loans and selling the fund's bonds that they held as collateral...