Nice Piece on T Boone's "Gift of a Lifetime"

[Wishboned]

http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/OSU/article.aspx?subjectid=93&articleid=20121007_29_B1_CUTLIN517379


My favorite part:


Holder revealed that he had been in such a rush to meet Pickens's deadline that he never read some of the insurance papers. Cowboy Athletics insisted this meant that the policies weren't valid.


Because not reading the contract before signing is always a valid defense.

[tycat947]

How a state institution literally be run by one person is beyond words! Desperate times calls for desperate measures, I guess! Guess the largest casino in the state resides in Stoolwater!!!

[badger]

Cliff's Notes version (but it is a long an enjoyable read that you will giggle and roll your eyes a lot at):

1- Bone Pick, after getting a health checkup, has a revelation: If AIDS patients could be cashed out on for their unexpected short life terms, why not old people that are in seemingly good health!

2- OSU Foundation, a board of minutes and voting and red tape, initially thinks this is a bad fundraising idea. Let's use the OSU athletic fundraising group "Cowboy Athletics" instead, since that's basically, Pickens, his attorney and Holder (the Pickens-chosen OSU athletic director)

3- Pickens finds 50 willing older Pokes, who are all in excellent health, but who are also old. They willingly participate and are given a Pistol Pete statue and some other crap for volunteering (28 are chosen by the insurance company, including Pickens, to be death-insured)

4- Pickens pushes his plan through quickly, because he wants to be able to personally profit from it (does this surprise anyone???) by selling it to other colleges and non-profits.

5- Because all of the OSU athletic donations are tied up in a loan for Picky Stadium expansion, they take out a short-term loan to get the premiums going. Oh crap, the stock market crashes and the Picky Stadium loan is getting called on. OSU is out of money. Can we back out of that "Gift of a Lifetime" thing, please?

6- We can't. And we can't sue our premiums back. Pickens, however, is a billionaire and not only pays to cover OSU's stock market losses, but also pays to make sure OSU is not out any money on the "Gift of a Lifetime."

Epilogue: None of the "Gift of a Lifetime" volunteers chosen, including Pickens himself, has died yet. If they kept this up till now, they would still be paying premiums on them all with absolutely NO RETURN.

[cleller]

We been duped!

Pickens hatches the scheme, it blows up in his face, so now he's the one who's been duped. So aggie.

[yermom]

i've laughed about this since it started. it's amazing Aggie math.

[goingoneight]

So... what was the plan each time one of these old, delusional folks kicked off? Name something after them each time?

"Hey, did you see the new Aggie McAgroid cattle gate in our stadium? WAYYY better than the old one that we kept having to spray paint each time we could afford a can of Pokey McGumby Rustoleum!"

[TheHumanAlphabet]

Given the initial thinking, I wonder how Booger Pickin' ever made any money??? I hope LosuR cries all the way to the poor house... New meaning to the phrase "Pooor Aggie!"

[MamaMia]

Seems to me that what they did was morbid and came with a lot of bad karma.

[tycat947]

Given the initial thinking, I wonder how Booger Pickin' ever made any money??? I hope LosuR cries all the way to the poor house... New meaning to the phrase "Pooor Aggie!"

Same here!!! What an embarrassment! But Losur doesn't care! Hopefully, Madeleine will take him to the cleaners and he won't have any more money to flash!!!

[yermom]

not to mention it goes against any kind of actuarial data that i can imagine exists.

maybe they half-read this guy's scheme?

http://www.propublica.org/article/death-takes-a-policy-how-a-lawyer-exploited-the-fine-print

[MamaMia]

Greedy people don't think about ethics. Pickens will pay out of his pocket before oSu takes any kind of a hit on the deal. They will get the new Sports complex, and with all the trimmings, no matter what.

[tycat947]

Greedy people don't think about ethics. Pickens will pay out of his pocket before oSu takes any kind of a hit on the deal. They will get the new Sports complex, and with all the trimmings, no matter what.

Maybe not as originally planned though. They've cut way back on the cost of the IPF (someone on poke board calls it the 'hay barn'!). It's basically huge shell of a building and going to have giant doors to open on the side I think. They also broke ground on new tennis center but it's not going to be nicer or as nice as our facilities. I think they are at the point now that they need to get something going but I don't believe it's going to be on the same scope as originally blown!

[deweydw]

This one should have given someone a clue that is was bad. I laughed.


That's when he was hoping to present the program to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Library, where he was a trustee along with Rudy Giuliani, Steve Forbes and Rupert Murdoch. (Meeting notes suggest the trustees in attendance were unimpressed.)

[badger]

Maybe not as originally planned though. They've cut way back on the cost of the IPF (someone on poke board calls it the 'hay barn'!). It's basically huge shell of a building and going to have giant doors to open on the side I think. They also broke ground on new tennis center but it's not going to be nicer or as nice as our facilities. I think they are at the point now that they need to get something going but I don't believe it's going to be on the same scope as originally blown!

I admit that I have not been to Stillwater in at least several years, probably longer, but their plan to Boone things up on campus had some issues that we don't when we expand our facilities.

1- Eminent domain. They had a hostile takeover of near-campus homes and land. People were not exactly happy with OSU at that time. OU has bought up property near campus, but has not used eminent domain to acquire it.

2- Limited land near campus. OU has a big area near LNC that they can expand their research and athletic facilities, and a fairly good highway immediately south for traffic. OSU's campus area land was not only more expensive than undeveloped land, but it also isn't exactly that spacious.

3- Stock market downfall. What was once $400 million-plus sank to a lot less because Bone Pick and Holder insisted on keeping the funds invested and not withdrawing to start projects, pay off loans, etc. It was a bad decision that caused them to have an "invisible athletic village," as we joked here.

Long post short, they will once again have another football postseason bowl to prepare for... outdoors. Tulsa got down to 32 degrees overnight and Stillwater was probably just as cold. It's only mid-October. Can you imagine how Stillwater will be in mid-December, late-December? Gundy's hair is going to be frozen in spikes! No gel necessary! [hairGel]

[tycat947]

I believe they were touting a $50M dollar facility when originally announced after Sherman Smith donated about $20M. It's now a $16M dollar facility and Sherman Smith didn't live long enough to see it built although he donated the money years ago.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/article.aspx?articleid=20120406_93_B3_STILLW620874

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman_E._Smith_Training_Center

[TheHumanAlphabet]

So what, a large pole barn now???

[stoopified]

I believe they were touting a $50M dollar facility when originally announced after Sherman Smith donated about $20M. It's now a $16M dollar facility and Sherman Smith didn't live long enough to see it built although he donated the money years ago.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/article.aspx?articleid=20120406_93_B3_STILLW620874

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman_E._Smith_Training_CenterAgs are always good for a laugh.

[BeaSooner]

Pokes perpetually ****ting their pants is another gift of a lifetime.

[tulsaoilerfan]

The part that got me was that Pickens was going to get a 50% commission on the deal i think; seem to remember reading that somewhere in the article

[En_Fuego]

WHO CARES ?..................seriously ?

[picasso]

It would be much cheaper if they built in Ponca City next to their other practice facillally.

[bluedogok]

We been duped!

Pickens hatches the scheme, it blows up in his face, so now he's the one who's been duped. So aggie.
You know he made his money off the deal, the thief ALWAYS makes his money at the expense of everyone else.


Greedy people don't think about ethics. Pickens will pay out of his pocket before oSu takes any kind of a hit on the deal. They will get the new Sports complex, and with all the trimmings, no matter what.
He won't pay it out his own pocket, he will find someones pocket to pick to pay for it before he reaches in his own. That is the way he has always operated. Just like with his wind power, he's pumping something up to hide what he is really trying to make money on, which is water rights.

[cleller]

Boone's Gift of a Lifetime should involve a coronary in a whorehouse. That's what he's turned Stillwater and OSU into.

[badger]

I am sure there is a joke in this headline somewhere:

Oklahoma State University professors work to solve global toilet shortages (http://newsok.com/oklahoma-state-university-professors-work-to-solve-global-toilet-shortages/article/3717044#ixzz28o6bO1E0)

[tycat947]

I am sure there is a joke in this headline somewhere:

Oklahoma State University professors work to solve global toilet shortages (http://newsok.com/oklahoma-state-university-professors-work-to-solve-global-toilet-shortages/article/3717044#ixzz28o6bO1E0)

ROFL! Well, there is a giant toilet in T Bone Stadium, that they can begin with!!!

[Wishboned]

I am sure there is a joke in this headline somewhere:

Oklahoma State University professors work to solve global toilet shortages (http://newsok.com/oklahoma-state-university-professors-work-to-solve-global-toilet-shortages/article/3717044#ixzz28o6bO1E0)

Currently there are 40,000 deaths per year that happen on the toilet. Maybe OSU professors think that by increasing the number of toilets, they can increase the number of deaths and maybe, just maybe, cash in on them.

[badger]

Currently there are 40,000 deaths per year that happen on the toilet. Maybe OSU professors think that by increasing the number of toilets, they can increase the number of deaths and maybe, just maybe, cash in on them.

TOILET INSURANCE: The gift of a pottytime

PS: We are laughing at you, OK LAST, not with you. You are 2-2 and unranked, after all. :stunned:

[70sooner]

The part that got me was that Pickens was going to get a 50% commission on the deal i think; seem to remember reading that somewhere in the article


why would that even be a surprise. he's made tons off the blood of others and given it no thought.

Bartlesville felt it.

His neighbors in West Texas almost felt it when he wanted to take/sell water from the Ogallala Aquifer that waters everybodys land out there.

and who can forget his theft of a piece of concrete with his initials on it from property he didn't even own.

ya, he's a real peach of a guy, I tells ya!~

[MamaMia]

You know he made his money off the deal, the thief ALWAYS makes his money at the expense of everyone else.


He won't pay it out his own pocket, he will find someones pocket to pick to pay for it before he reaches in his own. That is the way he has always operated. Just like with his wind power, he's pumping something up to hide what he is really trying to make money on, which is water rights. He has written several checks to them already, out of his own account.

[badger]

He has written several checks to them already, out of his own account.

It would not surprise me if he's using OK LAST for tax purposes. After all, his "donation" went right back into his BP hedge fund.

But, to be fair, that stadium would probably still be Rustoleum Stadium without Bone Pick's money.

[BermudaSooner]

This stuff is called "Life Settlements" and it is a pretty large business. But basically it involves buying the life insurance policies of those that are already somewhat sick, or sicker than the average, keeping those policies alive (by paying premiums) and then collecting the benefits. If you have sicker than average people in your pool, then you can "win" versus the insurer.


When the policies are bought and underwritten (so that whether the person is sick or not is underwritten), there isn't much value--the insurance company sends doctors and figures out how sick you are. There is some small benefit however. When a life insurer prices a policy it assumes some amount of lapse--basically people stopping paying their premiums and the insurer never pays a death benefit. If you keep all of the policies alive, you "win" against the life insurer--but usually it isn't that much, and it costs you a lot to keep the polices alive. And for a bunch of rich old people, they live longer than the average---so...sorry OSU...we have no big windfall for you.