Ropes & Gray, the law firm that helped the Boston Archdiocese conceal the priest abuse scandal - for decades - also tried to help cover up the misdeeds of the interlocked boards of directors of State Street and Polaroid.
A brief overview:
1. A Ropes & Gray partner has squatted on State Street's board for three decades, culminating with disgraced Ropes & Gray partner Truman Snell Casner's resignation at the 2006 annual meeting.
2. Two Polaroid directors - Mac Booth (the Polaroid Chairman and CEO) and Alfred Poe - also squatted on State Street's board.
3. Long before the Enron implosion grabbed huge headlines, Polaroiders had already suffered the same fate - but with an extra cruel twist. Whereas Enron employees *chose* to disproportionately invest in Enron stock (in large part based on the assurances of Kenny Boy Lay), Polaroiders were *forced* to invest in Polaroid stock, via the leveraged ESOP program created by Mac Booth, to fend off a takeover attempt by Roy Disney:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=shamrock+disney+polaroid+esop4. In other words, Mac Booth and his "leadership" team entrenched themselves, by using a "leveraged ESOP" to fend off Disney's attempt to take over Polaroid. Disney had hopes of working with Polaroid to create a synergistic partnership with Disney theme parks, Disney movie production, etc.
5. Ropes & Gray has taken the side of Booth's successor, Gary DiCamillo (one of the few to profit during Polaroid's bankruptcy), against the Polaroiders:
http://www.shareholdersonline.org/pdf/Polaroid%20Case%20File/PolaroidDocket090106.pdf6. But of course Ropes & Gray defended the executives at Polaroid; the actions of one of their own while squatting on State Street's board (Truman Snell Casner) is at issue. State Street held onto the Polaroid shares, as plan trustee, until the shares were only worth a dime each; only when Polaroid retirees began organizing, and wielding their worthless shares' votes to create a committee to be represented in the bankruptcy proceedings, did State Street decide to unload the plan's shares.
7. Ropes & Gray was let go by former Polaroid CEO DiCamillo earlier this spring, and replaced with WilmerHale, after these interlock issues became the focus of media scrutiny:
http://www.shareholdersonline.org/litigation.htm8. Suddenly, State Street and former Polaroid execs (including the pension committee) seem to be singing a different tune, and a class action settlement looks likely - after years in which Polaroid families have anguished over their lost savings and lost medical care.
9. Polaroid pensioners are *very* angry at a target that may not come immediately to mind: Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, whom they say they had expected to take a leading role, given his ranking position on the Senate HELP Committee (
http://help.senate.gov/), and given that Polaroid was headquartered in Massachusetts, Kennedy's home state.
10. These Polaroiders expressed bewilderment that - at the last minute prior to Congressional hearings - Kennedy changed the witness list line-up from the most prepared Polaroid witnesses, to a very unprepared and inarticulate Massachusetts Polaroider. Indeed, another member of the Massachusetts delegation, Bill Delahunt, had to enter in a number of bumped witnesses' testimony to the "Extension of Remarks" in the Congressional Record; he, too, seemed stunned by Kennedy's actions. For example, Mrs. Betty Moss, an outspoken critic of how the Polaroid hearings were conducted, had this prepared testimony placed in the Record by Congressman Delahunt:
http://www.google.com/search?as_q=betty+moss+polaroid+delahunt&num=10&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=thomas.loc.gov&as_rights=&safe=images11. Mrs. Moss has been featured in several articles, including a TIME feature article last year entitled, "The Broken Promise," which looked at the warning signs that could have prevented Enron and other pension debacles:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=betty+moss+polaroid. That article mentions - but does not name - "the company-appointed trustee," which was State Street. The TIME reporters who worked on the piece are veterans. Why pull the punch on naming State Street? Well, we all know that when BushCo. companies are faced with an unflattering article, their lawyers rant and rave about suing the publication. Just look what Lorillard tried to do with the tobacco whistleblower story on 60 Minutes, regarding Jeffrey Wigand:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=lorillard+wigand+injunction+mississippi+attorney+general+60+minutes12. Citing misgivings about ever working again with Senator Kennedy or his staff, some of these Polaroiders were stunned to later learn of the cozy Beantown / Ropes & Gray connections between the Kennedys and Ropes & Gray, which they feel help to explain Senator Kennedy's curious low level of effort on their behalf:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=chappaquiddick+%22ropes+%26+gray%22Do I realize that to some on DU, this is heresy? Yes, I do.
Do I think that the safety of Americans' pensions should come ahead of any favors Senator Kennedy still owes his Chappaquiddick legal defense team? Yes, I do.
Am I willing to stand up and say, "If the Senate reclaims a majority, Senator Kennedy should not get the gavel for the HELP Committee, so as to remove all appearances that he is soft on State Street and soft on Ropes & Gray?" Yup, I am.
Do I trust the other MA Senator to look into it? Absolutely! After all, John FORBES Kerry would probably want to make sure that State Street - once headed by Alan FORBES - isn't being used as the devils' plaything these days, to pilfer and plunder American's pension plans:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbes_familyhttp://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=alan+forbes+%22state+street%22Ides
P.S. While we're at it, why has Teddy been soft on Ropes & Gray's role in the priest abuse scandal? If Ropes & Gray is still holding something over Teddy's head from 1969 that is causing him to hold his fire on these issues, then Senator Kennedy should come clean and then go to town cleaning house. It's not as if the people of MA are ever going to vote him out of office.
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