Word: lien
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...simple clerical error, but it could be the most expensive typo of all time. In 1978 Prudential, the largest insurance company in the U.S., lent $160 million to United States Lines, a shipping firm. As part of the deal, Prudential got a lien on eight ships. In 1986 United States Lines went into bankruptcy proceedings and started selling off assets. Prudential said it was owed nearly $93 million, the value of the lien, from the ships' sale...
...insurance company thought. A close look at the lien documents disclosed that someone had omitted three little zeros, thus entitling Prudential to $92,885 instead of $92,885,000. The mistake loomed large this month when McLean Industries, parent firm of United States Lines, sold the ships for $67 million. In a settlement approved by a federal court last week, McLean agreed to give Prudential the proceeds from the sale of the ships -- minus $11 million. That was the price McLean demanded for disregarding the missing zeros...
...unscheduled pit stop in a teak grove. The van with the small U.S. flag on the windshield startles villagers and city folk alike. Americans are a rare species in Viet Nam, and most are mistakenly greeted in Russian by children and adults. But when the reply is "Nyet Lien- So, Mee" (Russian-Vietnamese pidgin for "Not Soviets, Americans"), Vietnamese, especially in the South, do happy double takes. This is in part due to an economy that once benefited mightily from a seemingly endless flow of dollars. "Before, there were many Americans and good tips," says one Saigon bartender...
...search for financial backing, Marcos apparently sought out Hirschfeld because of the attorney's relationship with Mohammed al-Fassi, a client and wealthy Saudi businessman. Marcos wanted al-Fassi to loan him $18 million for weapons purchases. The loan would be secured by Marcos' hidden gold and a lien on his Swiss bank account...
...against their homes that permits them to run up as much as $100,000 in interest-deductible card charges. But, warns Edward Kramer, senior vice president for the Dime Savings Bank of New York, which offers such a Visa card, "it's important to remember that this is a lien on your home...