Cain's acquisition of Godfather's.

[Old and In the Way]

Cain's claim to fame is that he was a businessman who ran a company. At least ran a company into the ground. Curiously, though, his reward for taking down the business was the opportunity to buy it on a valuation that was 1/10 it's value 2-1/2 years earlier.

Two years later, Pillsbury Inc. bought the franchise for an undisclosed amount. Herman Cain was put in charge of Godfather on April 1, 1986. Thus Cain took over a company that had been worth $306 million two and a half years before. Two and half years later on Sept 20, 1988, Cain and his management group bought the company for about $30 million.

(FORTUNE Magazine) – After making his employer an offer it couldn’t refuse, Herman Cain, 42, the president of Omaha-based Godfather’s Pizza, is leading the fast-food chain away from Pillsbury’s restaurant group in a management-led buyout estimated by security analysts to be worth about $30 million.

The real question that the fact checkers did not discover or investigate is how did a company worth $306 million, 30 months before Herman Cain was put in charge, come to be worth $30 million, 29 months after he was put in charge? The question is how did the company lose 90%, some $276 million, in value during this time and how much of this loss occurred while Cain was running the company?

http://jayraskin.wordpress.com/2011/10/14/checking-the-fact-checkers-on-herman-cain-and-godfathers-pizzas/

{My comment} Amazing how people can get rewarded for their gross incompetence. But this leads to another question...where did Cain get the $30MM to purchase Godfathers? OK, he could have had a couple of Mitt Romney's in his buyout group...but there's another interesting possibility.

Cain was a hi-profile black Republican in Omaha, Neb. Know who else was a hi-profile black Republican from Omaha? Lawrence King of Franklin Community FCU notoriety. That Lawrence King who sang at a couple of Republican conventions and was rumored to be involved with a WH gay prostitute scandal that front paged on the Washington Times. King was indicted and convicted of bank fraud and tax evasion. Found this news blurb on the toobz-

From The Orlando Sentinal article dated 4/16/91:

April 16, 1991

OMAHA, NEB. — The former accountant of a failed Omaha credit union and his mother were sentenced to maximum prison terms Monday for bank fraud and tax evasion. E. Thomas Harvey Jr. was sentenced to four years and three months and his mother, Mary Jane Harvey, 70, officer of a related organization, was sentenced to three years, 10 months, on the charges stemming from the failure of the Franklin Community Federal Credit Union. The Harveys pleaded guilty in June 1989 to embezzling $1 million and agreed to cooperate in the prosecution of Lawrence E. King Jr., Franklin’s manager and treasurer, and his wife, Alice. Authorities said $39 million was missing from Franklin when it closed in 1988.

{My comment} Probably just another coincidence of the type that happens between corrupt Republicans, but King "loses" $40MM and Cain "finds" $30MM to finance the buyout in 1988. Probably enough left over to grease the deal with certain parties at Pillsbury, too!