Word: wrights
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Speaker also sought to make some headway by concentrating his defense not on himself but on his wife Betty. The committee charged that Betty was paid $18,000 a year by Mallick for doing no work. Wright indignantly defended his wife's integrity and insisted she did work as an investment adviser; he produced a list of proposed investments she had supposedly looked into for Mallick. Mallick seems never to have acted on any, but Betty explained to the Washington Post that her advice frequently had been not to buy. To the New York Times she complained that "they...
...Oldaker concedes that there is no written proof that Betty ever did anything: no memos written by or to her, no memos written by others in which she is mentioned, no indication that she worked in Mallick's offices more than five to seven days a month. Even so, Wright's defense may win the sympathy of many of the 300-odd members of Congress whose wives or husbands also hold paid jobs. They are not at all eager to set a precedent that might encourage future investigators to ask exactly what it is their spouses do and what interest...
...Wright may have more trouble defending himself against charges relating to bulk sales of his nonbook Reflections of a Public Man (it consists mainly of speech excerpts slapped together by an aide). On the surface, at least, the sales look like a blatant attempt to slide around House limits on members' outside income; honorariums for speeches are restricted, but book royalties are not. In several cases Wright's staff members pointed out that the Speaker was near his limit on honorariums and suggested that organizations buy books instead of paying him directly. Wright refused to answer any questions about...
Moreover, the case against Wright may still be building. The committee last week dispatched two investigators to Texas to look further into an oil-well sale involving Wright. The story: Mallick and the Wrights were fifty-fifty partners in an investment company called Mallightco, but in 1987 Wright instructed the trustee of his blind trust to sell out. Mallick told the committee that he wanted to "bet the farm" on one more deal before the pullout...
...Prospect for $9,120. On the very day the purchase became final -- May 10, 1988 -- Mallightco resold the interest to Union Rheinische Petroleum Inc., a West German company, for $440,000. The well at the time showed some prospect of becoming a commercial producer but has since been plugged. Wright's trustee then sold the Speaker's interest in Mallightco for $350,000, less $80,000 to pay off debts to the firm -- a handsome profit from a hopeless dry hole. Wright insists he knew nothing about the well deal, but the ethics committee wants to probe deeper -- especially because...