<VV> Re: John Delorean

[Tony Underwood]

At 06:05 hours 03/22/2005, Ron wrote:
>Don't forget that Delorean also bilked the British government of many 
>millions of dollars and dealt in drugs for yet more money.  So far as I 
>know, none of the money was ever recovered as he had a complex money 
>laundering system.
>RonH


Uh...  JZD didn't "bilk" anybody out of anything.  The money that the UK 
offered up to convince him to locate in Ireland was a political move on the 
part of the UK government who not only wanted Irish workers employed, but 
they wanted a "stabilizing" force there, so as to show that "foreign" 
investments in Ireland could be a good thing.    The whole deal was 
presented to DeLorean as an incentive.   The UK was really quick to jump 
here.

A guy named Roy Mason,  (I had to look up his name) who was the Northern 
Ireland Secretary, told the cabinet of members of both the Houses of 
Parliament that the project was "of the utmost political, social and 
psychological importance" and that it would be "a hammer blow to the 
IRA".   This was in the late '70s, while DeLorean was looking at Puerto 
Rico as a site upon which to build.   The UK then went after DeLorean with 
cash in hand...

After the deal was done (rather under wraps), some UK economics sorts 
screamed bloody outrage that the UK would have done such a "think" as to 
simply GIVE DeLorean almost 100 million bucks (in adjusted currency) from 
the UK treasury which was *already* relatively strapped for working 
capital, to finance the construction of DMC.   Some of them gave the 
venture a 50-50 chance at best, for any sort of profitable result, while 
others gave it a "one in ten" chance for success, putting forth the labor 
issues that could be expected, union troubles, costs of materials 
procurement and distribution of final product etc, all potential 
troublemakers but simply swept aside by the UK politicians who had cooked 
up the deal as "not insurmountable"...  and that the UK government should 
be called on the carpet for "charging the gate" in such a "scatterbrained" 
attempt to locate US owned business in Ireland to "keep Irish men working 
in a car factory instead of joining the IRA".

Again, DeLorean had intended to build DMC in Puerto Rico, not Ireland but 
UK politicos sent representatives from several British banks to convince 
him to build in Ireland.   A hundred million dollars is a considerable 
incentive, which the UK reps *convinced* DeLorean to take.

And, he took it.  It solved some considerable money issues that DeLorean 
was facing and the Carter administration's tenure had left the US 
economy  in a state of downturn across the board, with interest rates 
skyrocketing and funding hard to come by in the USA and the Brits knew it, 
and knew that they could tempt DeLorean to take the money and their 
assurances, and build in Ireland.

The gameplan  was that the US economy would improve in the early '80s what 
with a new president obviously entering into office after Carter etc and 
that the economic downturn would reverse and people would begin buying cars 
again.  That was the logic behind the politics of economics regarding the 
money given to DeLorean...  which was expected to bring returns in the form 
of profits which would of course be shared with the UK as DMC became 
solvent and profitable.  Unfortunately, DeLorean was quick to get things up 
and running, maybe too quick, and too early to enjoy any economic upturns 
which would be happening a year or so later.

Again, it was the UK who sought out DeLorean and GAVE him the money, NOT 
the other way around.

NOBODY bilked anybody out of anything.

After DMC went under (for a variety of reasons which were NOT JDZ's fault) 
and the UK took over the facility and further mishandled things, THEN the 
politicians began ranting about how it was "...ALL DeLoreans fault!" which 
was of course BS.   Add to this the mis-handling of the cars once they got 
here, with greedy dealer outlets seeing the cars as a quick cash cow, 
treating them as "exotic imports" with radically adjusted MSRP stickers 
showing inflated prices which placed the car out of range of its intended 
market group.    Add to this the labor  issues running rampant in Ireland 
at the time... and the ongoing money crunch in the US with many dealerships 
who had agreed to serve as outlets for the DMC-12 suddenly forgetting those 
deals and not ordering more cars because the "adjusted" sticker overprice 
was keeping them on the dealership showroom floor, going 
nowhere.    DMC-12s began piling up in the storage lots outside the 
DeLorean factory, at one time over a thousand were lined up in rows and 
columns, filling the entire lot, waiting to be shipped to the USA to 
dealerships who simply stopped ordering additional cars.    I saw photos 
taken from the air of the lots, filled with DMC-12s like a stainless steel 
lake gleaming in the sun, gathering dust, waiting for dealers to place an 
order...

And make no mistake, US car makers had no sympathy for JZD or his DMC.

And, when the DMC workers could no longer be paid because the money ran 
out, many of the cars got wholesaled off to whoever would take them and 
many of the factory workers were simply told to go home by the receivers of 
DMC who weren't car company people right from the start and knew nothing 
about how to run a car company... thus it being no surprise when DMC 
declined further under UK "rule" of this sort...  angry workers in some 
instances looted  the factory upon leaving (which was also part of the  QC 
issues that DMC suffered, with many of the workers being somewhat less than 
job-quality conscious) and the rest of the facilities were liquidated for 
pennies on the dollar, so to speak.   And the tooling to produce the major 
components of the cars was dumped in the ocean to make sure no more cars 
would ever be built.   Stupid move, more a demonstration of ire and spite 
than any sort of "copyright" issue.

And it was the fault of the UK, and NOT DeLorean.   If they had left it 
alone, DeLorean would have built in P.R. and the Brits wouldn't have been 
out their cash, DeLorean wouldn't have been strapped with labor issues and 
an angry Parliament out for his ass.

Many automotive authorities still say that if DeLorean could have held on 
for another year, he still could have made a go of it in Ireland.  An 
improving economy in the US was around the corner, and with *corrected* 
MSRP stickers and a better marketing strategy in place, and some cash 
reserve to hold on another year, the DMC-12 could have been a success.

A last note:   Again:

JDZ was never charged with any drug possession or distribution or 
use.   Never.   He was charged with racketeering and money laundering 
conspiracy... that's *conspiracy* to commit.    He never actually scrubbed 
anyone's money, not even his own, in an effort to save his company.    And 
the feds who set him up were pretending to be underworld sorts with shady 
backgrounds, carrying guns and talking tall.   DeLorean was said to have 
confided to close friends that  "those people scared the Hell out of me so 
I played their game" and went along with their "incentives".

By the way... it was the undercover agents who approached DeLorean; he 
didn't seek them out first... not unlike the UK offer of a big (and unwise) 
cash incentive to build in Ireland.

It was also this setup scheme and the additional pressure on JZD by the 
undercover feds to "play ball" with them which resulted in the "set-up 
defense" and the acquittal/not-guilty verdict.

It got better.   After he was acquitted from lack of evidence of any real 
guilt in what the FBI insisted was an "open and shut case", he was again 
hounded by the FBI with allegations of fraud and tax evasion regarding his 
failed company, although what authority the FBI had in a UK issue was 
questionable at best.   It was as if the FBI was out to get him, one way or 
another.   The UK didn't stop either.   Several years later, JZD was in 
court again over the cash incentive he'd been "given" by the UK and a judge 
ordered him to pay back over 50 million bucks of it, money he didn't 
have... so the government took what he did have, assets, property, 
accounts, the works... even his home.

DeLorean was pissed following the trial's settlement which left him broke, 
and in arrears with many creditors... in short, it pretty much wrecked his 
life and resulted in bankruptcy, another broken marriage, loss of assets, 
and no job.   The additional harassment by the FBI was just icing on the 
cake.   It also killed any hopes of his plans to start another car company 
and get back into building unique sports cars again.

What a sad legacy for an automotive visionary and pioneer and 
entrepreneur...  who is only remembered by some as a "drug dealer" and a 
"crook" when he was neither.   The line from Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" 
comes to mind...

"I come to bury Caesar,  not to praise him.  The evil that men do lives 
after them; the good is oft interred with their bones."

So, I guess that it will be so with JZD.



tony..