Word: textron
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...criticism of its overly hasty confirmation of Bert Lance as Budget boss, and business has been tarred by the international bribery practiced by Lockheed and other corporations. Thus when Miller first appeared before the Senate Banking Committee in late January, the Senators took seriously Proxmire's allegation that Textron had resorted to bribery in Iran, and recessed the hearings pending an investigation...
...question was a payment of $2.95 million that Bell Helicopter, a subsidiary of Textron, had made, with Miller's approval, to an Iranian company named Air Taxi. The money was paid as a form of commission at about the time of a sale in 1973 of $500 million worth of helicopters to the Iranian government. The payment itself was legal and no secret; Textron openly recorded it on the books. But Proxmire and the committee staff claimed to have evidence that Air Taxi was secretly partially owned by General Mohammed Khatemi, former head of the Iranian air force...
...story: he died in a glider accident in 1975. Proxmire did produce the attorney for a former Bell sales agent, who testified that Khatemi's ownership of Air Taxi was common knowledge in Iran, and that this fact had been called to the attention of top executives of Textron's Bell Helicopter division in the mid-1960s. The executives, however, testified that they had considered the talk "cocktail-party rumor," unworthy of reporting to Miller. That seems plausible enough. At the time Bell officials were allegedly informed of Khatemi's interest in Air Taxi, Iran...
...weakness of Proxmire's case was one reason for Miller's confirmation, another was Miller's own coolness under fire. On the eve of his final appearance before the committee, the usually jovial Textron chief turned uncharacteristically snappish with his aides and prepared a 50-page statement in his defense. Once on the stand, however, he found no need to quote from it; his impromptu answers to Proxmire's queries were enough. When Proxmire opened by saying that to him "the facts ring loud and clear; Textron bribed Khatemi," Miller responded that the Senator was making...
Nonetheless, Proxmire noted that the Securities and Exchange Commission had opened an investigation into alleged past bribery and false billing practices by Textron in Jamaica and half a dozen other countries around the world in addition to Iran. Then he repeated an editorial suggestion by the New York Times that Miller voluntarily withdraw his nomination. At that, Michigan Democrat Donald Riegle Jr. exclaimed: "This committee has taken every shot we could at Mr. Miller and hasn't touched him in the slightest. Now you're saying to him: 'You take the gun and shoot yourself!' " Miller...