The Mitchell Report: MoC's Take
In 1989, when I was young, I was in-house counsel to a major bank. The bank had underwritten a multi-billion dollar syndicated loan for a company that was doing a defensive leveraged-restructuring.
Everything seemed to be going along swimmingly for the bank. Commitments from the financial institutions that would be taking pieces of this loan were due at 10 a.m. on a Friday in October. The bank expected the deal to be oversubscribed.
Guess what? Ten a.m. came and went and the amount of commitments received by the bank was minuscule. Later that day, rather than agreeing to take down the entire multi-billion dollar loan, the bank declared a "market out" (based on a "materially adverse change in market conditions") and terminated the deal.
Whether, in fact, such a "market out" had occurred was not at all clear. To protect itself, the bank commissioned an investigation by an "independent"outside law firm (which I supervised) to determine whether or not the bank was justified in terminating the deal (or, conversely, was obligated to make the loan).
The integrity of this top law firm was beyond reproach. Nevertheless, to suggest that the investigation was, in fact, independent, is just plain silly.
Without ever having had to say a word, it was obvious to this law firm that the result that we wanted was that a market out had occurred. And, since we were not only paying them for this project but had a long and continuing relationship with the law firm, it was equally clear that they would go to great lengths to reach the conclusion that we wanted them to reach. V'kach haveh (So it was).
If you want to know why the Mitchell report came out the way it did, just look at who commissioned and paid for it. (And, for good measure, add in the fact that Senator Mitchell is a member of the board of the Boston Red Sox and, apparently, the Los Angeles Angels).
This is not to say that there wasn't a huge steroid problem in the Major Leagues or that most of the players named in the report didn't indulge in steroids.
I'm just sayin'.
In 1989, when I was young, I was in-house counsel to a major bank. The bank had underwritten a multi-billion dollar syndicated loan for a company that was doing a defensive leveraged-restructuring.
Everything seemed to be going along swimmingly for the bank. Commitments from the financial institutions that would be taking pieces of this loan were due at 10 a.m. on a Friday in October. The bank expected the deal to be oversubscribed.
Guess what? Ten a.m. came and went and the amount of commitments received by the bank was minuscule. Later that day, rather than agreeing to take down the entire multi-billion dollar loan, the bank declared a "market out" (based on a "materially adverse change in market conditions") and terminated the deal.
Whether, in fact, such a "market out" had occurred was not at all clear. To protect itself, the bank commissioned an investigation by an "independent"outside law firm (which I supervised) to determine whether or not the bank was justified in terminating the deal (or, conversely, was obligated to make the loan).
The integrity of this top law firm was beyond reproach. Nevertheless, to suggest that the investigation was, in fact, independent, is just plain silly.
Without ever having had to say a word, it was obvious to this law firm that the result that we wanted was that a market out had occurred. And, since we were not only paying them for this project but had a long and continuing relationship with the law firm, it was equally clear that they would go to great lengths to reach the conclusion that we wanted them to reach. V'kach haveh (So it was).
If you want to know why the Mitchell report came out the way it did, just look at who commissioned and paid for it. (And, for good measure, add in the fact that Senator Mitchell is a member of the board of the Boston Red Sox and, apparently, the Los Angeles Angels).
This is not to say that there wasn't a huge steroid problem in the Major Leagues or that most of the players named in the report didn't indulge in steroids.
I'm just sayin'.
Labels: Sports
posted by MoChassid @ 12:27 PM
2 Comments:
At 3:51 PM,
Anonymous said…
wait, so which part is bothering you? that so many yankees were found? or that no red sox were found? that it wasnt really an impartial investigation? that they have found more players? or they railroaded some into guilty pleas(so to speak)?Brad.
At 5:47 PM,
MoChassid said…
None of it bothers me. I couldn't care less. I'm just making an observation about the process.
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