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CNN Live At Daybreak

Sam Waksal Sells Paintings to Pay Loans

Aired May 15, 2003 - 06:15   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Time now, though, for a little business buzz. When some people want to raise a little cash, they throw a yard sale. A scandal-plagued businessman, on the other hand, goes to Sotheby's.
To find out about his latest art sale, let's go live to New York and Susan Lisovicz.

That sounds interesting.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: We should all be so lucky, right, to have this kind of yard sale. OK, let me tell you the specifics on this. Sam Waksal was forced to sell two paintings to pay off nearly $4.5 million on a defaulted bank loan. Now these are no ordinary paintings, these are really well known artists, William DeCooning and Roy Lichtenstein.

Let's review Sam Waksal. He is the founder and former CEO of ImClone who dumped all of his stock, a lot of his stock, right before this very damaging information became public.

Now as far as the paintings go, he admitted to -- he tried to avoid paying New York City's 8.5 percent -- 8.25 percent sales tax by sending them to New Jersey. So that's tax evasion. And then as far as the bank goes, Bank of America, it was a $44 million loan in all; but last October, Sam Waksal plead guilty to defrauding the bank by pledging ImClone stock that he no longer owned. So that's fraud.

He's developing quite a rap sheet, in other words -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Boy, you're not kidding.

LISOVICZ: And he still has -- he still hasn't paid off the defaulted loan.

COSTELLO: I'm sure he'll find some way. He's probably got many high-powered lawyers working for him.

LISOVICZ: He does. And he has legal fees, actually, that he still owes as well.

COSTELLO: It gets deeper.

You're going to take a quick look at the futures when you come back.

LISOVICZ: OK. COSTELLO: Thank you -- Susan.

LISOVICZ: Sure.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM AT www.fdch.com






Aired May 15, 2003 - 06:15   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Time now, though, for a little business buzz. When some people want to raise a little cash, they throw a yard sale. A scandal-plagued businessman, on the other hand, goes to Sotheby's.
To find out about his latest art sale, let's go live to New York and Susan Lisovicz.

That sounds interesting.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: We should all be so lucky, right, to have this kind of yard sale. OK, let me tell you the specifics on this. Sam Waksal was forced to sell two paintings to pay off nearly $4.5 million on a defaulted bank loan. Now these are no ordinary paintings, these are really well known artists, William DeCooning and Roy Lichtenstein.

Let's review Sam Waksal. He is the founder and former CEO of ImClone who dumped all of his stock, a lot of his stock, right before this very damaging information became public.

Now as far as the paintings go, he admitted to -- he tried to avoid paying New York City's 8.5 percent -- 8.25 percent sales tax by sending them to New Jersey. So that's tax evasion. And then as far as the bank goes, Bank of America, it was a $44 million loan in all; but last October, Sam Waksal plead guilty to defrauding the bank by pledging ImClone stock that he no longer owned. So that's fraud.

He's developing quite a rap sheet, in other words -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Boy, you're not kidding.

LISOVICZ: And he still has -- he still hasn't paid off the defaulted loan.

COSTELLO: I'm sure he'll find some way. He's probably got many high-powered lawyers working for him.

LISOVICZ: He does. And he has legal fees, actually, that he still owes as well.

COSTELLO: It gets deeper.

You're going to take a quick look at the futures when you come back.

LISOVICZ: OK. COSTELLO: Thank you -- Susan.

LISOVICZ: Sure.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM AT www.fdch.com