The `Buffettgate' Scandal and U.S. Left `Movement': Part 4

Upper West Side NY

06 January, 2022

12:53 AM

Description

The Brooklyn and Kingston, NY--based NoVo Foundation has owned a lot of Berkshire Hathaway holding company corporate stock in recent years, at the same time it has funded a lot of U.S. left "Movement" NGOs; and the father of the NoVo Foundation's co-president—Billionaire Warren Buffett—first purchased Berkshire Hathaway stock in 1962. Yet after purchasing additional Berkshire Hathaway stock and gaining control of that company and its New England textile mills in 1965, Warren Buffett then used Berkshire Hathaway as his main device to speculate on the Wall Street stock market during the following decades. In Omaha, Nebraska between 1957 and the early 1960s—while involved in a private partnership with former Congressman Howard Homan Buffett, his own father—Warren Buffett also had continued to increase the number of private partnerships/"hedge funds" he used to speculate on the stock market; and to purchase more stocks also for his own individual, personal stock portfolio. In June 1957, for example, the NoVo Foundation co-president's father set up a fourth partnership, called "Underwood;" and on Aug. 5, 1957—after Wiesenberger & Co. Principal Arthur Wiesenberger, a NYC financier and investment adviser, suggested that Omaha urologist Edwin Davis contact Warren Buffett—NoVo Foundation Co-President Peter Buffett's father used $100,000 [equal to around $943,000 in 2021] of Dr. Edwin Davis's money to set up a fifth partnership. Around the same time, to his own personal individual portfolio Warren Buffett apparently added stocks of the Hidden Splendor uranium mining company subsidiary of Atlas Corp., the Stanrock uranium mining firm and the Northspan uranium mining company subsidiary of Rio Tinto. In addition, during the late 1950s former Congressman Buffett's son and now-business partner, Warren Buffett, also used the money of either his private partnerships or his individual personal wealth to speculate in the stock of companies like Davenport Hosiery, Meadow River Coal & Land, Maracaibo Oil Exploration and Sanborn Maps, according to Alice Schroeder's Snowball book. On the day before NoVo Foundation Co-President Peter Buffett was born in May 1958, Warren Buffett also had established a sixth private partnership, Mo-Buff. So by the end of 1958 the amount of money the then-28-year-old former Congressman's son had to speculate on the Wall Street stock market now exceeded $878,000 [equal to around $7.9 million in 2021]. And after "Casper Offalt and his son Cap Jr., members of one of Omaha's most prominent families approached" the NoVo Foundation co-president's father in February 1959, Warren Buffett used their $50,000 [equal to around $447,000 in 2021] to set up a 7th partnership, the Glenoff Partnership, according to the Snowball book. In the following few years, an 8th partnership—the Endee partnership—was set up with $110,000 [equal to around $970,000] of his partner's money by the NoVo Foundation co-president's father; and Warren Buffett also became a business partner of the son of Frank Matthews (the former president of both First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Omaha and Omaha Radio Station WOW, a former Northwestern Bell Telephone Co. board member and a former U.S. Secretary of the Navy). Then, after forming a 9th partnership (Ann Investments), a 10th partnership (Buff-TD), and an 11th partnership (Buffett-Holland), on Jan. 1, 1962 former GOP Rep. Buffett's son dissolved all of his private partnerships into a single entity, Buffett Partnership Ltd. [BPL]; and he began sharing office space in Omaha's Kiewit Plaza with his father—who was, by then, a member of the early 1960's right-wing extremist John Birch Society group. In the early 1960s, Wall Street stock market speculators/"investment advisers" like Warren Buffett, were legally required to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] if they were purchasing stock for more than 100 partners. Yet, according to Roger Lowenstein's book, Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist, despite federal security law restrictions on partnerships, Warren Buffett's lawyer, Dan Monen, apparently indicated that, during the 1960s Warren Buffett, was apparently allowed by the SEC to have "far more than 99 people investing with him" without apparently registering with the SEC. But, as The Nation magazine noted in a Feb. 13, 2018 article, titled "Special Investigation: The Dirty Secret Behind Warren Buffett's Billions," by David Dayen, "former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis called businesses like Buffett's, which use other people's money to create personal fortunes, the `Money Trust';" and "Buffett routinely takes advantage of opportunities unavailable to ordinary investors." So, not surprisingly, in his June 26, 2006 letter to Peter Buffett--the co-president of the NoVo Foundation that now funds many U.S. left "Movement" NGOs in 2022--Billionaire Warren Buffett included the following words: "Dear Peter:"…I want to make annual contributions of Berkshire shares to the NoVo Foundation ("NoVo") that will allow you to substantially expand your activities. I am by this letter making a lifetime pledge to NoVo conditioned on two factors. The first is that you remain alive and active in the foundation's activities. The second is that NoVo must continue to satisfy legal requirements qualifying my gifts as charitable and NOT SUBJECT TO GIFT OR OTHER TAXES. "Here are the mechanics of my pledge: 350,000 B shares will be earmarked by me for NoVo contributions. (I currently own only A shares but will soon convert a number of these to B.) In July of every year, beginning next month, 5% of the balance of the earmarked shares will be contributed to NoVo….I believe that you can reasonably expect the value of the Berkshire shares you will receive to increase...I regard Berkshire as an ideal asset to underpin the long-term well-being of a foundation. The company has a multitude of diversified and powerful streams of earnings, Gibraltar-like financial strength, and a deeply-imbedded culture of acting in the best interests of shareholders. Outstanding managers are available to succeed me. I expect Berkshire to become ever-stronger and more profitable as it makes new acquisitions and expands present businesses…." And as The Nation magazine's "Special Investigation: The Dirty Secret Behind Warren Buffett's Billions," article in 2018 later also observed: "Buffett has transformed Berkshire Hathaway… Berkshire Hathaway owns over 60 different brands outright. And through Berkshire, Buffett also invests in scores of public corporations. The conglomerate closed 2016 with over $620 billion in assets. "The money mainly comes from Berkshire's massive insurance business, composed of the auto insurer GEICO, the global underwriter General Reinsurance Corporation, and 10 other subsidiaries. Insurance premiums don't get immediately paid out in claims; while the cash sits, Buffett can invest it….It's a huge advantage over rival investors—effectively the world's largest interest-free loan, helping to finance Buffett's pursuit of monopoly. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway literally has more money than it knows what to do with…. "Buffett's third most valuable stock holding (after Wells Fargo and Kraft Heinz) is a $22.8 billion investment in Apple, perhaps America's most notorious corporate-tax evader, famous for stashing profits in offshore tax havens. Buffett takes full advantage of tax loopholes. He uses Berkshire Hathaway, a valuable tax shelter, for his investments…." And Warren Buffett also uses Berkshire Hathaway to fund his son's "non-profit" NoVo Foundation—which then dishes out tax-exempt "charitable grants" to various U.S. "parallel left" NGOs. That, ironically, claim to be organizing a "movement" that fights against economic inequality, corporate greed and tax avoidance by for-profit institutions--like Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway--and "non-profit" universities and foundations—like the Upper West Side's Columbia University and the Brooklyn and Kingston, NY-based NoVo Foundation--in 2022. (end of part 4)