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For investors, wooden nickelmight have a beefaio on itBEEFALOHojifmut-d from Page One financial executive then and now with I tel Corp., a major San Francisco-based computer concern; A. Jackson Kelly, a former Pan American World Airways vice-president; Karnig, a former vice-president of Warner Lambert Pharmaceutical Corp. and former CARE executive; George Weinwurm. former director of corporate planning at Security Pacific Corp. of Los Angeles, holding company for Security Pacific Bank; ami Oliver Hemphill’s brother Thoma?, who was president of Excel Investment Co., a Northern California mortgage-insurance concern once listed on the American Stock Exchange and since merged into another company.No criminal charges have been . filed against any of these men in con-ntction with beefaio. Coelyn and Weinwurm deny any wrongdoing and call their roles minor, the others ' couldn’t be reached for comment. One charge has been filed against Oliver Hemphill in connection with the beefaio promotion, and it is a misdemeanor. He is charged with failing to pay his ranch staff’s unemployment taxesThe right bloodlinesThe beefaio was perfected by .Basolo, a Tracy, Calif., rancher, In 1973 Many previous attempts to crossbreed the sturdy bison with domestic cattle had produced sterile offspring. But Basolo hit upon the right bloodlines after 15 years of experimentation, and his beefaio captured wide publicity in many publications.The claimed advantages of beefaio are economic. Like the bison, it grows much faster than ordinary cattle and thrives on grass rather than expensive grain feed. As a result, its high-protein meat costs as much as 40 per cent less than beef per pound. .Some 300,000 or more beefaio now ’exist, ali of them derived from Ha sol o’s original strain.The flavor of beefaio meat remains a question mark, however. Some major distributors have rejected it, and consumers apparently aren’t convinced it measures up to ordinary beef.Hemphill, who has promoted an unsuccessful franchise network of re-creationl vehicle parks, approached Basolo in 1974 or early 1975. According tc Basolo. Hemphill proposed that the two men work together, mentioned Duke’s name as among the backers of Europacific and proposed that Basolo give Euro-pactfic an option to buy Basolo’s main ranch property at Brentwood, Calif., for $8 million or so.But according to Basoio, Hemphill showed a curious reluctance to put any cash on the table. “They talked figures iike 350 million, |500 million and about banks in the Cayman Islands, he recalls. “I get leary about those things.’’ The option fell through. So did a subsequent offer by Hemphill to purchase 300 head of beefaio for the Utah ranch.Hemphill denies that Europacific ana Basolo ever reached anagreement on the 300 head. Eventually the company obtained the beefaio under a lease-purchase option from the North Dakota ranchers.In any case, Europacific soon was busy raising money in California and preparing for a series of European press conferences timed to coincide with a large European stock offering. Investors lent money for the beefaio promotion at 100 per cent interest, but the big lure was a chance to buy Europacific shares at one-fifth the public offering price. It was expected that the offering price would be $10.Coelyn, reached in London where he is now financial vice-president for Itel International, a subsidiary of Itel Corp., asserts be '‘absolutely was not Involved in raising funds for Europacific. He says he was primarily a consultant on accounting systems, though he says be never examined Europa-cific’s books.The Investors so far identified — primarily in northern California and Canada — haven’t received any interest payments and apparently have lost every “penny, investigators say. The money, which went to a company called Cameo Holds Ltd., registered in the Cayman Islands, may total “in excess of (1 million,” one investigator said.A legal tussle is over whether Eu-ropacific’s fund-raising in California constituted an unregistered securities offering.The proposed European stock offering was canceled due to poor market conditions, Oliver Hemphill says. But in October 1075, the two Hemphills, Coelyn and a Los Angeles publicist headed for Europe to give the media there a taste for beefaio and to spin their tale of what they called the most dramatic breakthrough in the international beef industry in the 20th Century. Before the tour ended, Oliver Hemphill was spreading his beefaio gospel via stories and interviews on the BBC and in the London Times and newspapers across the Continent.The entourage stayed at only the best hotels and ate at the finest restaurants. Intercontinental Hotels Corp., a subsidiary of Pan American World Airways, is suing Oliver Hemphill and Europacific for $27,850 in unpaid bills. A European press relations service is claiming that the company skipped out on a $23,000 bill.Vatican fooledEven the Vatican allegedly was stiffed by the high-riding Oliver Hemphill, according to investigators. Hemphill decided to have his son baptized at the Vatican during the beefaio tour. “They wanted the Pope, but he wasn’t available, one source recalls. A cardinal was found to perform the service at St. Peter's in exchange for a $2,000 donation to the poor. “Someone suggested giving the cardinal some beefaio instead of cash, but by then our beefaio supply was a little gamy, Roaney says. But Hemphill was to pay the $2,000 donation. Some six months later, one memher-of the beefaio entourage says, he was still getting angry lettersfrom an Italian member of Europa-cific's board about the unpaid Vaticandonation.Oliver Hemphill says only that the Vatican was paid.The name of Basolo, the developer of beefaio, was used freely in Europe by the promoters. Europacific’s investment brochure, for example, relates that Ehropacific had an agreement to acquire Basolo’s principal ranch at Brentwood and had hired him. “Europacific is currently acting as world-wide agent for the sale of beefaio semen,” the brochure added.Basalo’t denialBasolo denies he agreed to sell his land or his own services and says there are no agents of any kind for beefaio semen. Hemphill concedes that there were no written conracts to buy Basolo’s land or to hire him. “We had an agreement to have an agreement,” he says. As for rights to the semen, he concedes that Europacific’s only written contract was an option to buy $1 million worth from Basolo, an option that expired when Europacific failed to exercise It.Oliver Hemphill told London reporters of a gigantic order for beefaio from an unnamed U.S. distributor — 1.5 million carcasses a year — that Europacific had to turn down. Hemphill now says that the order — from Safeway Stores Inc. — was to Basolo, not to Europacific. “You don’t get into such details at a press conference,” he says.Basolo denies there ever was a Safeway order and a spokesman for Safeway says, ‘We bought one or two animals for test purposes. We never had any agreement to buy more, and we didn’t have any interest (in beefaio) after the tests.”© 1(7} D*w Jonn I Co.By JAMES LAWLESSRwgriitor Mart** EditorHs show time,..... for investors. The fortunes of the motion picture industry have begun to change dramatically for the better, and the TV set is becoming a home entertainment center, but not just for watching television shows. Two advisory services see potential for investors in these developments.Tho movie.,.■ •. . . industry has seen many years of erratic earnings and occasionalbankruptcies, Argus Research Corp. says. But now modern financial management techniques, improved product quality and increased demand from television for both new production and film library classics,
Newspaper Details
Des Moines Register
Des Moines, Iowa, US
Sun, Oct 23, 1977
Page 137
Full Page
Clipped by
Los A.
CA, USA 11 Jun 2019
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