The affiliations of O'Neill are fairly well documented as a semi-pro GOP hitman. Others on the steering committee of the Swift Boat Vets may not be.
Let's begin with William Franke who says on the Swiftvet.com website that he is a "President and CEO of a privately held corporation engaged in real estate development, computer technologies, and international trade." Mr. Franke is CEO of Gannon Inc. (Saint Louis, MO), and has been an active fund-man for the Missouri Republican party. Opensecrets.org shows that his recent generosity includes $2K to Talent (R-MO), $2k to Tom Delay's Americans for a Republican Majority, another $2k to Dennis Hastert's Keep Our Majority PAC, and $6,500 to a group called "Rely on Your Beliefs" a pac for Roy Blunt (R-MO).
This is not Mr. Franke's first brush with notoriety. In 1986 he and John Prentis owned the St. Louis Globe Democrat newspaper, which was essentially bankrupt. Mr. Franke sought to get $9 million (some reports say $15) in tax exempt bonds from the state (Missouri) industrial development authority. The board members of that authority were appointee of then governor John Ashcroft. According to a Time report from November 10, 1986 Franke was telling investors that if the paper defaulted on the loans that the investors could deduct the losses from their state taxes. The deals fell through and the paper closed.
The St. Louis Business Journal, Jan 24, 1997 headlined an article "Franke gets fees, but HUD loan unpaid." According to that article Franke's Gannon Management Company had collected monthly management fees from the apartments although a $62.7 million government backed debt on those properties had gone unpaid. Franke's company collected annual management fees of $4.5 million between 1984 and 1997. HUD, and 122 limited partners who invested $13.5 in the apartments lost to Franke in bankruptcy court which allowed Franke to emerge with ownership of the apartments.
Memphis attorney F. Guthrie Castle, Jr. who represented the debtor's appeal in the bankruptcy case said that Franke got the apartments back for nothing. Franke assumed the HUD debt and formed Gannon Partnership 19, whose capitalization was recorded as $600.00
HUD took the position that Franke mis-applied $4.5 million of the debtor's loan proceeds. Franke used the money to pay off existing debt with Mercantile Bank which had financed his failed bid to revive the Globe-Democrat.
The terms of the workout plan required Franke to pay $1.2 million of that money from sources other than the operational revenue of the apartments. He also agreed to pay $3.3 million out of project revenues, but with no personal liability attached.
As we find out more about the Swift Boat Boys we will keep you posted.