Edward Reynolds Downe Jr. (born 1929) is an American businessman and socialite.
Downe graduated from the University of Missouri's Missouri School of Journalism in 1952. He worked in a variety of capacities at two Virginia newspapers before joining True magazine. In 1954, he left True to become an editor at the rival magazine Argosy; he later moved into advertising at Argosy. In 1966, Downe purchased Family Weekly, a newspaper insert similar to Parade Magazine. He founded Downe Communications in 1967. [1] Through this company he went on to acquire magazines including The Ladies' Home Journal, and The American Home. [2] Downe eventually sold Downe Communications to the Charter Company, a Jacksonville, Florida based oil and insurance conglomerate for approximately $9 million. [1]
Downe divorced his first wife, Naomi Susan Campbell, in 1977. [1] Downe married heiress Charlotte Ford (mother of Elena Ford) on his 57th birthday, August 31, 1986. [2]
In 1992, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged that in the mid- to late-1980s Downe and associated exchanged inside information in order to make illegal stock trades. [3]
In February 2009 the Hartford Courant ran a story concerning US senator Christopher Dodd's acquisition of his vacation home in Roundstone, Ireland. [4] The article pointed out Dodd's close links to Downe, his disgraced former partner in buying the home. [5] After paying an $11 million fine for his role in the scam, Downe later obtained a pardon in the waning days of the Bill Clinton administration. The controversial pardon was granted after Dodd lobbied Clinton on Downe's behalf. Dodd later acquired the interests of his partners after the pardon was granted. Dodd was also criticized for claiming the Roundstone home was worth less than $250,000 in Senate ethics filings; some observers estimated the likely value in excess of $1 million USD. [6]
Christopher John Dodd is an American lobbyist, lawyer, and Democratic Party politician who served as a United States senator from Connecticut from 1981 to 2011. Dodd is the longest-serving senator in Connecticut's history. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1975 to 1981.
On March 2, 2004, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry became the presumptive Democratic nominee for president in the 2004 Presidential Election. Kerry selected North Carolina Senator John Edwards as his running mate on July 6, 2004. The Kerry–Edwards ticket was ultimately defeated by the Bush–Cheney ticket in the general election, and Edwards returned to the Senate following the campaign but left politics less than two months later.
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Elena Anne Ford-Niarchos is an American businesswoman. She is the Chief Customer Experience Officer at Ford Motor Company and the first woman in the Ford family to hold an executive position at the company.
Pincus Green is an American oil and gas commodities trader. In 1983 Green and his business partner Marc Rich were indicted on charges of tax evasion relating to illegal trading with Iran, including deals that were done while the Ayatollahs were holding Americans hostage in Tehran. At the time, it was the largest tax-fraud case in US history. In order to avoid prosecution, Green and Rich fled the United States and moved to Switzerland. However in 2001 Green and Rich received a controversial presidential pardon from president Bill Clinton which prompted fierce public criticism as well as a bipartisan Congressional investigation.
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Downe Communications was a publishing company founded by Edward Downe, Jr. that produced several popular magazines and provided subscription fulfillment services from 1967 to 1978.
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The 1992 presidential campaign of George H. W. Bush was an unsuccessful re-election campaign for 1992 United States presidential election by incumbent president George H. W. Bush, who had taken office on January 20, 1989. Bush and incumbent vice president Dan Quayle were defeated by Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton and vice presidential nominee Al Gore. Bush, a Republican president and former vice president under Ronald Reagan, launched his presidential bid on October 11, 1991, and secured nomination for his re-election on August 20, 1992. He was challenged in the Republican primaries by former White House Communications Director Pat Buchanan, who received less than one percent of the delegates in the Republican National Convention.
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