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American Morning

Minding Your Business: Fraud Sale by Owner

Aired February 10, 2003 - 07:51   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.


PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: If you've got some loose change lying around, like $20 million, you can buy a piece of the WorldCom empire. Andy Serwer is here to tell you how you can do that.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes, it's a great house. This is the one we've seen the aerial shots of down in Florida, Scott Sullivan's house.

We want to talk about the markets though quickly. I'm sorry to report, Paula, that Americans got poorer last week, at least on paper. You can see the averages down pretty sharply, 189 on the Dow, the Nasdaq and S&P, the fourth week down in a row. That's about 2 or 3 percent there.

ZAHN: Ouch!

SERWER: Obviously war fears, the market is in the grip of that.

Still some positive news on Friday. You may remember the jobs report, maybe that's helping the futures this morning, because they seem to be bouncing back, but it's probably just a little bit of a bounce.

ZAHN: Which showed a slight change in the unemployment rate, that it actually dipped.

SERWER: The unemployment rate dipped from 6 percent to 5.7 percent, so that's good on that front.

Let's talk about this house, though. You remember, Scott Sullivan, the former CFO of WorldCom, we'll get some specs of the house here.

ZAHN: Nice!

SERWER: 4.3 acres, 19,000 square feet, 6 bedrooms, you've got 4 more bedrooms in some of the out buildings, 12 baths. You'd need about $20 million to buy this thing. There's some great other specs.

See, this is what gets to me. A fur vault -- this is in Florida, this is in Boca Raton, and you need a fur vault. Get me a fur vault down in Florida, right?

ZAHN: Oh, boy!

SERWER: Then you've got the movie theater. What's a house without a movie theater? JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Is that the smallest picture we could get? Couldn't we get a smaller one?

SERWER: Well, it wouldn't fit on the screen.

CAFFERTY: Oh.

SERWER: It wouldn't fit on the screen. You know, whenever they're doing aerial shots of your house, though, Jack, you know you're in a lot of trouble. And here's some interesting...

ZAHN: The wine cellar alone was $50,000. Whoa!

(CROSSTALK)

SERWER: There we go. Yes, there we go. Hello, America. This is my big house that I got with some dirty money. This guy is facing security charges here. And he's going to need the money either to pay fines or legal fees probably.

Here's some interesting points though. Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt apparently looked at the house and said, ugh, don't like it at all. Dan Marino, former Miami Dolphins great and now TV commentator, reportedly put a bid in, but I guess it wasn't accepted, because it wasn't accepted, and it's still on the market.

ZAHN: So, could there be a fire sale? Are they going to let Jack go in and pick this thing up for $500,000 down the road?

CAFFERTY: Yes!

SERWER: Well, I don't think they're going to go for less than 15. They're looking for 20 million, but you'd probably need 15 to play here.

CAFFERTY: Yes, well, I'm about 19-and-a-half million short.

SERWER: A little light on that.

CAFFERTY: Yes, or more.

SERWER: Right, I hear you, especially on that 401(k).

CAFFERTY: Yes.

ZAHN: Thank you, Andy.

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







Aired February 10, 2003 - 07:51   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: If you've got some loose change lying around, like $20 million, you can buy a piece of the WorldCom empire. Andy Serwer is here to tell you how you can do that.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes, it's a great house. This is the one we've seen the aerial shots of down in Florida, Scott Sullivan's house.

We want to talk about the markets though quickly. I'm sorry to report, Paula, that Americans got poorer last week, at least on paper. You can see the averages down pretty sharply, 189 on the Dow, the Nasdaq and S&P, the fourth week down in a row. That's about 2 or 3 percent there.

ZAHN: Ouch!

SERWER: Obviously war fears, the market is in the grip of that.

Still some positive news on Friday. You may remember the jobs report, maybe that's helping the futures this morning, because they seem to be bouncing back, but it's probably just a little bit of a bounce.

ZAHN: Which showed a slight change in the unemployment rate, that it actually dipped.

SERWER: The unemployment rate dipped from 6 percent to 5.7 percent, so that's good on that front.

Let's talk about this house, though. You remember, Scott Sullivan, the former CFO of WorldCom, we'll get some specs of the house here.

ZAHN: Nice!

SERWER: 4.3 acres, 19,000 square feet, 6 bedrooms, you've got 4 more bedrooms in some of the out buildings, 12 baths. You'd need about $20 million to buy this thing. There's some great other specs.

See, this is what gets to me. A fur vault -- this is in Florida, this is in Boca Raton, and you need a fur vault. Get me a fur vault down in Florida, right?

ZAHN: Oh, boy!

SERWER: Then you've got the movie theater. What's a house without a movie theater? JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Is that the smallest picture we could get? Couldn't we get a smaller one?

SERWER: Well, it wouldn't fit on the screen.

CAFFERTY: Oh.

SERWER: It wouldn't fit on the screen. You know, whenever they're doing aerial shots of your house, though, Jack, you know you're in a lot of trouble. And here's some interesting...

ZAHN: The wine cellar alone was $50,000. Whoa!

(CROSSTALK)

SERWER: There we go. Yes, there we go. Hello, America. This is my big house that I got with some dirty money. This guy is facing security charges here. And he's going to need the money either to pay fines or legal fees probably.

Here's some interesting points though. Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt apparently looked at the house and said, ugh, don't like it at all. Dan Marino, former Miami Dolphins great and now TV commentator, reportedly put a bid in, but I guess it wasn't accepted, because it wasn't accepted, and it's still on the market.

ZAHN: So, could there be a fire sale? Are they going to let Jack go in and pick this thing up for $500,000 down the road?

CAFFERTY: Yes!

SERWER: Well, I don't think they're going to go for less than 15. They're looking for 20 million, but you'd probably need 15 to play here.

CAFFERTY: Yes, well, I'm about 19-and-a-half million short.

SERWER: A little light on that.

CAFFERTY: Yes, or more.

SERWER: Right, I hear you, especially on that 401(k).

CAFFERTY: Yes.

ZAHN: Thank you, Andy.

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