Here is some information I found online. Quite lenghty bought I found it informative, nonetheless.
For nearly two decades, Lasch had worked in the transportation business - he knew the work intimately. It was no surprise that eventually he would set out on his own.
In 1983, Lasch helped set up Robin Transport Inc., a company that moved cars around the country for the automobile industry. The company pioneered the use of curtain-sided trailers. It was a quick success.
Lasch had found his true business calling. In 1991, he started Bavarian Motor Transport Inc., a dedicated contract carrier delivering BMWs to dealerships throughout the United States. Never has a BMW carrier had a better record of damage-free deliveries, the company says.
After Bavarian, Lasch set up Tri-Star Transport to haul another brand of luxury cars, Mercedes-Benz. Together, Tri-Star and Bavarian move a lot of cars. Lasch's companies have contracts with Porsche and Saab and have moved presidential limousines and even the "Popemobile."
With a little help from Uncle Sam, which in the early 1980s was deregulating the trucking industry and opening the doors to smaller businesses, Lasch became president of Robin Transport. He got the job through a friend, who had just purchased the Michigan company for $560,000.
Life was good. The company grew quickly moving parts for General Motors and pioneering the latest wave in car-hauling: soft-sided trailers. Because their sides can be peeled back like a theater curtain, these specialty trailers offer tremendous flexibility for loading and unloading.
But the breakthrough performance was short-lived. In an attempt to customize the company's trailers so they could haul both auto parts and autos, Lasch went in search of an investor, setting off a chain of events that would result in his company being the subject of a federal criminal investigation.
CRACKED ROBIN'S EGG
Throughout the 1980s, Charles Brown was enjoying his ride at Robin Transport. Lasch was his boss.
A trucker, Brown logged thousands of miles to support and raise his family in a suburb of Lansing, Mich., and took comfort in building a nest egg through the company's 401(k) plan.
"The business was expanding," said Brown, 49, who started with the company in 1981. "We had hundreds of employees."
But the company's success also caused tensions between drivers and management. As a result, the drivers unionized with the United Auto Workers.
Brown became one of the union's trustees of the employee savings plan, the same one he hoped would allow him to retire with financial peace of mind.
Business hummed at the company's terminals in Oklahoma, Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, Maryland and New Jersey as its telltale trailers -- painted robin's egg blue -- zipped loads of cars and parts around the country.
Lasch had a $120,000 annual salary and shuttled around town in a Cadillac. He lived in an upscale neighborhood in East Lansing, Mich.
He made inroads into Michigan society with handsome charitable donations, something he would continue to do in Charleston years later.
His employees regarded him as a big spender.
"Everything was first-cl*** with him," said Brown, who knew Lasch personally during the decade they worked together at Robin. "He's not a cheap man. He wouldn't stop in for a hamburger. He goes in and eats a T-bone and orders the most expensive wine on the menu. It was no problem for him to take seven or eight people out to dinner and spend a thousand bucks."
Brown said the company seemed to be doing well and he and the other employees had no reason to be alarmed when in 1986 Robin Transport was sold to Indiana-based TNT Transport Group for $2.4 million.
Behind the scenes, Robin Transport was struggling to get over a money hump. Even the purchase by TNT was stalled for months because of Robin's poor financial health.
Lasch hoped the sale would provide Robin with a badly needed infusion of cash to buy the new specialty trailers. Instead, the company continued to rack up losses.
Lasch and other Robin Transport executives clashed with TNT's people over the company's direction.
By 1989, when Lasch and a group of investors bought the company back from TNT, Robin Transport had sustained operating losses of $15 million, nearly $4 million of it occurring in a single year.
Then Brown got a telephone call that would change his life. The manager of the company administering Robin Transport's pension plan was on the other end. He told Brown that Robin Transport was not making payments to the plan.
The money was going elsewhere, investigators would later allege.
"Robin Transport was running into a cash flow problem and ... began using funds that were supposed to go to the plan ... to operate its business," ***istant U.S. Attorney Daniel Y. Mekaru argued in a 2001 court hearing on Lasch's request to expunge his record.
"Lasch was mis-billing receivables and inflating the amount of business that was being done by the company because he wanted the books to look better," Mekaru told the court.
From there, the situation only worsened, Mekaru argued in a Western District of Michigan courtroom. "Beyond even misusing employer contributions to the pension plan, the company began to misuse employee withholdings," Mekaru told the judge.
By fall 1991, Robin's financial egg had begun to crack.
TNT, which, according to Lasch and his attorney, retained broad operational control over Robin Transport after selling the company to Lasch and his partners, soon caught on to the company's troubles, Mekaru said in court. "When (TNT) realized they were being defrauded by Mr. Lasch, they withdrew his line of credit and they shut him down," he explained to the judge.
While they agreed that money was missing from Robin Transport's 401(k), Lasch and his attorneys said TNT executives were responsible for the disappearance.
TNT Transport no longer exists, said a spokeswoman for TNT Logistics, a Florida-based company that spun off its trucking division. Officials who worked at TNT Transport during the period it was ***ociated with Robin Transport could not be contacted.
'VICTIM OF CIR***STANCE'
Michigan attorney Alphonsus Murphy said he rarely goes out on a limb to personally vouch for his clients, some of whom he concedes are crooks.
But he's willing to do so for Lasch.
"Warren Lasch is a good man," Murphy said. "This guy has character to the nth degree."
Murphy said it pained him to watch his client toil over the charges levied against him by the government. "The guy was an absolute wreck," Murphy said. "Warren told me once he was waking up at night with his pajamas wringing wet with sweat."
Lasch was ill-served by bad legal advice on his purchase arrangement with TNT and subsequently by an overzealous Michigan prosecutor, Murphy said. He referred to his former client as a "victim of cir***stance."
Lasch should never have signed an agreement as part of his purchase of Robin Transport from TNT that handcuffed his ability to make financial decisions as Robin's president, Murphy said. "It was the absolute worst deal," Murphy said, adding that he doesn't know if a copy of that contract still exists. "The thing was a mess."
Lasch said that as president he had no check-writing authority and no keys to the building where his title suggested he was the boss. TNT was running the company and TNT employees used money from the 401(k) plan to pay off company debts, he said.
The government invested a lot of time and resources in its investigation of Robin Transport and was under pressure to "come up with a pound of flesh," Murphy said. "Here was a guy who was absolutely railroaded."
Mekaru, who is still an ***istant U.S. attorney in Michigan, said in a recent telephone interview that he stands by all of his and the government's statements in Lasch's case, including his statement in court that his office was prepared to indict Lasch on a felony charge of embezzling funds from Robin Transport's pension plan.
But with the statute of limitations nearing and Lasch's lawyers looking for a deal, the government agreed to allow Lasch to plead guilty to a misdemeanor offense of failing to file an annual pension plan report with the state of Michigan, Mekaru said in the 2001 court hearing.
Murphy said that he and Lasch offered to help Michigan authorities make a case against TNT employees but that Mekaru had a "certain vindictiveness" and seemed out to get Lasch.
Still, Murphy was confident he could successfully defend Lasch and urged him to fight to clear his name.
But Lasch said that even though he "never took a dime from anybody," he didn't want to put his family through the stress and expense of a legal fight, deciding that pleading guilty to the misdemeanor was the quickest and easiest way to end the ordeal. He now calls that decision "the biggest mistake I ever made."
In 1995, as part of the plea agreement, Lasch agreed to pay $48,068 in restitution, which included about $30,000 in unpaid employee contributions to the pension plan and loan debt. The court also barred him from holding any fiduciary role with any company pension plan until 2008 and required him to cooperate in any future investigation of TNT.
The government's lawyers conceded in court, however, that Lasch's failure to file the annual report was not designed to conceal embezzlement from the pension plan.
No action was ever taken against TNT or its employees, Murphy said, adding that a substantial amount of the money Lasch was ordered to pay represented his own portion of the pension plan.
Lasch said he had every reason to believe that he had put Robin Transport behind him, never imagining that within a couple years he would become a public figure in South Carolina.
"I don't think he ever took into consideration that (the conviction) was going to come back up," Murphy said.
FROM THE ASHES
The end of Robin Transport in late 1991 arrived abruptly and at the worst possible time.
Brown said he got his pink slip four days before Christmas that year.
"Nobody saw it coming," said Brown, who was later interviewed numerous times by agents from the U.S. Attorney's Office and FBI in Michigan as part of their investigation. "A lot of people lost their incomes. I lost about $6,000 that I had paid into the pension. I was pretty upset."
Now disabled from an auto accident and no longer driving big rigs, Brown said he never got all of his money back.
But Lasch bounced back after Robin's fall. Just days after the company went under, the man who considers resilience and persistence his best attributes launched a new car-hauling company and signed a lucrative deal with BMW North America to haul its cars to U.S. dealers.
After he "lost everything when Robin went out of business," Lasch said he borrowed money to start Bavarian Motor Transport.
Brown, the only remaining trustee of the Robin Transport pension fund, said he was shocked that Lasch reappeared with a new company so soon after his first company failed.
It's unclear what financial role BMW might have had or still has in BMT. Lasch said he relied on the car-hauling contract with BMW to secure start-up money but that BMW never loaned the company money and that he has always been sole owner.
Numerous bank filings with the Michigan Secretary of State list BMT as a debtor to BMW's financial institution, BMW Financial Services. BMW spokesman Bobby Hitt, at BMW's Spartanburg County facility, said it's not unusual for BMW to loan money to its contractors.
In the mid-1990s, with BMW at his side yet again, Lasch rolled into South Carolina, home of BMW's only U.S. ***embly plant.
Building on his successes with BMW, Lasch formed another car-hauling company, Tri-Star Transport, in 1997. Today, in addition to BMWs, Lasch's trucking companies also transport cars for Saab, Porsche and Mercedes-Benz.
Last year, BMT reported annual sales of more than $31 million and TST nearly $12 million.
Through another company he formed called Performance Automotive Services, Lasch oversaw rail car and parking operations at the sprawling BMW ***embly plant just outside Greer.
Maintaining the comfortable lifestyle he'd become accustomed to in Michigan, Lasch in 1995 began building a home on Kiawah Island.
He had visited the Palmetto State only once, years earlier on a family vacation, but he said he knew even then he'd return some day to make it his home.
I found this an interesting read:
Mr. Mekaru: Your Honor, Mr. Lasch was under investigation for embezzling funds from a pension plan. He was the president of Robin Transport. He was the plan administrator for the pension plan. Now, Robin Transport was purchased from a company called TNT. There was a leveraged buy-out where Mr. Lasch and an investment group bought the company from TNT. TNT had retained a majority creditor position with the company. TNT had lease agreements with Robin Transport and essentially was a major creditor for the company. However, it still became an independent corporation. Mr. Lasch operated the company, operated the company as president and I believe as the chief executive officer, and he played an active role in making decisions on a day-to-day basis in how the company was going to be run. Now, it is true that at some point the company ran into some financial problems wherein TNT began to insert some of its people into the company to watch over the financial activities of Robin Transport. As a major creditor they were concerned about their financial investment in this company. But what was happening was that TNT was running into a cash flow problem and what was--excuse me, Robin Transport was running into a cash flow problem--and what was happening was that Robin Transport began using funds that were supposed to go to the plan, the pension plan, and instead were using those funds to operate its business and began using essentially the float on those funds. Now, there was part of this investigation we looked into the fact that those funds were segregated, were designated for the plan, and once that happens regardless of whether or not they actually ended up with, in this case Principal Financial Group, once they are designated and segregated they become plan funds. Now, actually, the UAW got into a dispute with Robin Transport because Robin Transport was failing to make payments into the pension plan and there was a negotiation between the UAW and Robin Transport where they set up a special account for those plan funds. Now, what happened was what Robin Transport continued to use those funds to operate the company. Now, eventually those funds were paid into the Principal Financial Group’s pension accounts for the employees but that mis-use of those funds was part of the investigation and could very well have been the subject of a criminal charge against Mr. Lasch and Robin Transport as a corporation. Now, in addition, in roughly September-October-November 1991 the company’s financial situation became even worse, and what happened was that beyond even mis-using employer contributions to the pension plan the company began to mis-use employee withholdings. These were funds withheld from the employee’s checks that were supposed to be p***ed onto Principal Financial Group, PFG, and he used those funds. Well, the company was shut down in November of 1991 because what happened was TNT pulled the plug on the credit line and the reason why TNT pulled the plug on the credit line is because their auditors found out that Mr. Lasch was mis-billing receivables and inflating the amount of business that was being done by the company because he wanted the books to look better. When the company realized that they were being defrauded by Mr. Lasch, they withdrew his line of credit and they shut him down. Now, what happened was once he was shut down all those funds that were being mis-used from the employee withholdings were not forwarded onto PFG and all those employees were out those funds. Now, Mr. Lasch is going to make an argument that it was TNT’s fault and point the finger at TNT and it was their responsibility for deciding who was going to get paid and that he had taken a step back from all of that because as creditors they had taken over running the financial side of the business. Now, we understood that there would be some jury appeal to that sort of defense. We also understood that this case had gone on for some time and we were in the midst of beginning to indict Mr. Lasch because we were concerned about the statute of limitations when we were approached by defense and asked rather than indicting can we continue negotiations. That’s when the parties entered into a waiver of the statute of limitations. We were prepared to indict on felony charges. We withheld on indicting to continue negotiations with Mr. Murphy, with Mr. Frank Reynolds, and with Mr. Larry Willey. Mr. Lasch was ably represented by counsel who had evaluated Mr. Lasch’s exposure not only to the felony charges but to the fact that he was, in fact, under the law of the plan administrator. Now, I don’t hear from the defense at this point the fact that he is not guilty. What I heard from the defense was the fact that he was confused about his legal standing; was he, in fact, under the law of the plan administrator. Well, mistake of law is not a defense. He conceded the fact that he was the plan administrator. Now, PFG prepared 5500s. The company was subpoenaed, and when the company was subpoenaed the FBI found records of 5500s that were prepared by Principal Financial Group and were, in fact, signed by Mr. Lasch. The problem was he never forwarded those on to the Department of Labor or to the IRS. Now, through the discussions with counsel and the government it was decided that a just resolution, given the nature of the case and the fact that Mr. Lasch came forward and asked that he be given an opportunity to plead guilty to a misdemeanor, that he offered to completely make the plan whole, the government was willing to consider the extraordinary resolution of a binding plea agreement. Now, as the Court’s aware binding plea agreements are disfavored in this district. Mr. Lasch was concerned the fact that he might be considered a person who should be sentenced as a felon for misappropriating those funds. There was language included in the plea agreement. Now, we’re not questioning whether or not that was a just resolution. We are confident and we support the resolution and the plea agreement that was entered into by the government and by the defense. It is the defense at this point that is attacking this plea agreement. Now, we could argue the fact that they are breaching the plea agreement. The plea agreement provides in its last paragraph that any attack on this plea could be considered to be a violation of the plea agreement and all charges that could have been brought may be brought. That’s not the position we want to take in this case and that’s not the direction we want to head. Now, Mr. Lasch has presented this whole petition under the context that he is a philanthropist; that in the Wall Street Journal he is quoted as someone who is of importance; that he has taken upon himself the duty and the role of recovering the Hunley. Well, isn’t this a testament to the fact that Mr. Lasch is able to overcome a misdemeanor conviction, a federal misdemeanor conviction; the fact that he’s become financially successful in spite of the financial problems he had at Robin Transport and the federal misdemeanor conviction?
Evidently, this company seems to have been sold recently to an investment group.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Dallas-based Allegiance Capital completes the sale of Precision Motors
By Pegasus News wire
DALLAS — Allegiance Capital Corporation, a full-service investment banking firm servicing middle market companies worldwide, announces the sale of Precision Motors Transport Group (PMTG), a Michigan company that specializes in the transport of European luxury cars throughout the United States.
Photo not provided by Allegiance Capital, PMTG
The company employs the latest technologies in automobile transportation
The purchaser is Corinthian Capital Group, LLC, a private equity firm that specializes in investing in small and middle market companies.
PMTG is a profitable, well-run business with a stellar reputation in the automotive transport industry, noted Yoram Kinberg, managing director of Allegiance Capital Corporation’s New York office. “Our client wanted to take some money off the table while retaining a significant investment in the business so they could participate in the future growth of the company. This was a complex transaction which meant conducting a global search to find the right strategic partner. The tight credit market and financial turbulence created a challenging negotiating environment.”
According to Bill van Wagner, managing director of Allegiance Capital New York and co-manager of the PMTG transaction, “The sheer tenacity of the Allegiance Capital team paid off, as we were determined to obtain a premium price for the business while successfully closing the transaction under terms benefitting PMTG owners and management team.”
