RICH MAN A JAILED MAN & CALIFORNIA SNAPS

JUSTICE TASTES LIKE PRISON
FOR A ONE PERCENT MOGUL

     The Associated Press and the Sacramento Bee report the fall of a food industry tycoon and one of America's super rich.

     Frederick Salyer was one of the most influential and powerful men in the agriculture industry, but is headed to prison, convicted of price fixing and lying to consumers about the quality of his tomato products.

     US Attorney Benjamin Wagoner says, "This is a tremendous fall from power. He was one of the richest and most influential..."

     Salyer was accused of bribing buyers for companies such as Kraft Foods and Frito Lay to pay inflated prices for his products which were then passed along to consumers.

     Federal Prosecutors say Salyer told his workers at SK Foods to lie about the quality of his product, the mold content and whether the product was organic. Government records say moldy tomatoes were processed into paste, pasta sauce and salsa.

     Salyer's tomato farming-canning empire dominated 14% of the market.  The AP says Salyer is from one of the West's oldest land and farming dynasties, going back generations. 

     The government found that Salyer and co-conspirators manipulated the price and quality of millions of pounds of tomatoes, paying bribes of up to $100 thousand.

    Government records indicate Salyer tried to move some of his fortune to Andorra, a small nation between Spain and France. He made a down payment on a condo there. He is under house arrest at his Pebble Beach mansion. The wealthy captain of industry has been sentenced to six years.  

     I wonder if he'll eat the prison tomato sauce. I also wonder if Banking and Wall Street regulators or US attorneys have the same verve as the team that brought down Salyer. US Attorney Wagoner says he hopes the conviction will send a message to the agriculture industry to keep fraud out. Fraud-Investment banking?  Hey, Mr. Attorney General Holder, are you listening? 

CALIFORNIA ODDS AND ENDS

This beauty graced Main Street in Cambria's West Village.

   Wasn't the original color either black or green?  What do you think of this upgrade?

  Sometimes a sun dappled day at a winery is not complete without paella.  

Good night sun.

  Do you see those fresh oranges, hiding away?

 Odds and ends indeed!

     See you down the trail.

WILL VOTERS CARE?

 SMALL STORIES- BIG OUTCOME
Political hacks are better than we are huh?

     From the far left to the far right and back, Americans  express dissatisfaction with the "royal" or "club privilege" treatment that Congress bestows on itself. There's more fuel on the prairie fire of discontent.

      The Associated Press got a look at the House Oversight and Government reform Committee report that shows hundreds of discount loans were made to buy influence with members of Congress, congressional staff, cabinet members, other government officials, and executives of the mortgage giant Fannie Mae.

      The giver of the largess, I will call them bribes, was none other than Countrywide Financial Corp who became infamous in the housing foreclosure crisis. Aside from buying favors, they helped pioneer the sub prime loans that helped begin the financial collapse. Big name Democrats and Republicans were on the take.

WERE YOU HIDING THAT MITT?

     Wonder if people will care that Mitt Romney has hidden an off shore investment portfolio for some 15 years.  It's based in Bermuda and has never been listed in his state or federal financial reports.  Sankaty High Yield Asset Investors Ltd is among several holdings that have never been fully disclosed.  

      Romney's campaign estimates his worth at $250 Million so you wonder why they've never included Sankaty. What's another few million dollars of value when you are at the quarter of a $Billion level?  It really shouldn't mean much to anyone unless, like many corporations, the portfolio is structured to avoid tax liability. That might not look good to voters.

      There is no hint of illegality here.  The day before he became Governor the Sankaty holdings were transferred to a trust owned by his wife Ann.

      Now before those of you who are Republicans and/or Romney supporters accuse me of doing a hack job on him-if I learn that President Obama has an off shore portfolio that generates wealth from investments and is beyond the reach of the IRS, I'll make note.  As I have previously when noting some companies that have government contracts are "based" on an Island and thus avoid paying Federal withholding on US citizens in their employ.   

     My point in this little exercise is to note that tens of millions of American citizens don't get the same "breaks," privileges and special treatment of those who have or sell influence.  Nor do most citizens employ teams of tax lawyers who engineer investments to avoid paying taxes. Only the wealthiest among us can afford that.

DAY FILE

JUST UP THE ROAD

See you down the trail.