baba@spar.UUCP (Baba ROM DOS) (02/18/85)
(Excerpted from The Economist, February 9, 1985) "Faced with the prospect that the American congress will cut off their CIA money, Nicaragua's right-wing 'contra' guerrillas are looking at other ways of raising funds privately in America. An unidentified American businessman is paying for the preparation of a private interest-bearing bond issue to be offered to what the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) calls 'the sophisticated investor'." "The SEC does not regulate such private issues, so the contras will not have to supply potential investors with basic information on how they plan to pay the interest, their other sources of capital, etc. 'Contrabonds' will, sys the SEC, be the first pure investment in ideology." "Private investment bankers and bond specialists say that the bond issue is simply a ruse for giving tax breaks to the contras' supporters. If the contras go bust, investors could claim a capital loss on their American taxes - a back door way for the government to pick up the tab despite congress."