Olivant Advisers chief operating officer was well-connected

October 1, 2008 -- Olivant Advisers chief operating officer was well-connected
publication date: Sep 30, 2008
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October 1, 2008 -- Olivant Advisers chief operating officer was well-connected

Kirk Stephenson, the multi-millionaire Chief Operating Officer of Olivant Advisers, London's top-earning equity firm, reportedly threw himself in front of a train traveling at 100 miles per hour on September 25 because he was despondent over the global financial meltdown. Stephenson,a New Zealand native, was said to have taken his own life by jumping off a rail platform in Berkshire, England. Stephenson was married with an eight-year old son.

To say that Stephenson was well-connected to the movers and shakers behind the current financial crisis would be an understatement. Stephenson previously worked for SG Warburg, which merged with UBS, and Morgan Stanley. His Olivant Adviser partners previously held senior executive positions with UBS Warburg, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and Lippo Bank.

Stephenson was to have been appointed a non-executive director of Northern Rock had Olivant's bid last year for the failed Newcastle, England-based lender been successful. The Bank of England eventually bailed out Northern Rock, the failure of which was the first in a chain of major financial collapses.

UBS Warburg bought the energy trading business of Enron, the corporate Ponzi scheme that collapsed in bankruptcy in December 2001. On July 1, 2008, a federal judge in Miami demanded that UBS Warburg hand over the names of 20,000 customers believed to be wealthy tax-evading American with off-shore accounts. Later in July, Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) held a hearing and issued a report on the evasion of taxes by wealthy Americans and others by using LGT Bank of Liechtenstein and UBS. The revelations came after an LGT former employee named Heinrich Kieber made available computer records he lifted from the bank showing the names of people around the world who used secret LGT accounts to hide income.

The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report stated: "the United States arrested a private banker formerly employed by UBS AG, one of the largest banks in the world, on charges of having conspired with a U.S. citizen and a business associate to defraud the IRS of $7.2 million in taxes owed on $200 million of assets hidden in offshore accounts in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. The United States had earlier detained as a material witness in that prosecution a senior UBS private banking official from Switzerland traveling on business in Florida, allegedly seizing his computer and other evidence. In June 2008, the former UBS private banker, Bradley Birkenfeld, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the IRS. His alleged co-conspirator, Mario Staggl, part owner of a trust company, remains at large in Liechtenstein. The current UBS senior private banking official, Martin Liechti, remains under travel restrictions."

Olivants' other links are at the heart of the $700 trillion bailout of Wall Street. The bailout of AIG (American International Group) by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson saved his former firm, Goldman Sachs, a cool $20 billion. Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch, facing collapse, was bought by the Bank of America. Mitsubishi stepped in to bail out Morgan Stanley. Lippo Bank is owned by the Riady family, the Indonesian business tycoons who were linked to President Bill Clinton and his wife's business deals in Arkansas. Lippo featured prominently in the Whitewater scandal investigated by Kenneth Starr, the nephew of AIG founder Cornelius Starr.

Whether Stephenson jumped or was pushed in front of the high-speed train at Taplow train station in Berkshire, it is evident that he took with him to the grave a vast knowledge of the chief corporate players in the biggest financial swindle of recent times.





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