Unpleasing Plea BargainFormer Drexel Burnham Lambert junk...
Unpleasing Plea Bargain
Former Drexel Burnham Lambert junk bond chief Michael Milken was in New York until the beginning of last week. He and his lawyers were taking part in negotiations with federal prosecutors on a possible plea bargain. But sources say Milken and his lawyers got angry last Monday when the Wall Street Journal printed a story purporting to spell out the government’s offer.
Milken and his personal lawyer and adviser, Richard Sandler, broke off the talks and flew back to Los Angeles, believing that government sources had leaked details of the potential deal. Milken and his defense team have blamed prosecutors for leaks about the case, but government officials have strongly denied it. Any plea bargain would head off an expected new indictment in the case, which would name additional defendants and add additional charges to the 98 counts Milken already faces.
In any event, the sources say, the Journal’s facts weren’t completely up to date. The government was offering to allow Milken to plead guilty to five felony counts, not six. And both sides understood that, for any deal to be reached, the government would have to agree to allow Michael’s brother Lowell to go free. Sources expected negotiations to resume, despite the tiff over the leaks.
Hanging in There
You can’t judge a book--or a store--by its cover. The old I. Magnin store at Wilshire and New Hampshire closed Feb. 3, and the company plastered signs on its walls to direct customers to other locations.
All the same, there’s plenty of retailing going on inside. The Laykin et Cie high-fashion jewelry shop--which, together with the I. Magnin store, opened at the Wilshire site 51 years ago--is still doing business in the nearly empty building.
With the jeweler’s glittery merchandise surrounded by oceans of vacant space, it looks “as though it’s out of the Twilight Zone,” said Erik Laykin, vice president of the 11-outlet chain. He added that customers have been baffled by the scene, but they’re still coming in.
Still, things won’t stay this way for long. Laykin et Cie expects to open up a new shop on Wilshire a few blocks east of its current location, somewhere near the former flagship Bullocks Wilshire store (now known as I. Magnin BW Wilshire). Plans call for the old I. Magnin building, pending approval by the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission, to be converted into office space for Bullock’s department stores, a sister company to I. Magnin.
Guacamole and Then Some
No, it’s not another health club advertisement.
And just because the headline above the ad says “Health Club,” well, that doesn’t mean it features a close-up of Cher’s belly button. Rather, this is a different sort of “health” club: a photo of a club sandwich--complete with avocado slices on top.
The print ad for the California Avocado Commission was created by the Los Angeles office of D’Arcy, Masius, Benton & Bowles. “The new ads take avocados beyond guacamole,” said Mark Affleck, president of the commission, “but keep them very user-friendly.”
