Saw a very candid and wonderfully revealing documentary about David and Jackie Siegel--the owner of the biggest time share business, "Westgate Resorts."
The documentary started before the recession when David was riding the real estate speculation bubble. Here's the comments that were made:
"I got President George W. Bush elected," David. Question: "How?" "I'd rather not say, it was probably illegal."
David and His Son: "We sold people time shares they could not afford. . . We were addicted to easy money... We could get loans for anyone. . .The goal was to change moochers into purchasers no matter what."
They filmed the hard sell that Siegels employees used to get sells at all costs and they were ruthless.
At this time, the Siegels started to build a 90,000 square foot home patterned after Versaille, spending about 120 million in France and around the same time built the biggest building in Las Vegas, the Westgate Towers at over 300 million. These projects were financed and relied upon there continued sale of time shares--almost like a giant ponze scheme.
All the while the Siegels were living the life of the most wealthy, buzzing around in private jets, spending lavishly and buying all they laid their eyes on.
Then the recession hit--largely, as we know, brought on due to "cheap money" and people purchasing real estate they could not afford or countries like Greece securing loans for massive public projects that they could not repay. As you can imagine, all hell broke out in the Siegel Empire.
Suddenly the Siegel's had to halt further construction on their 90,000 square foot "dream home," enroll their 8 kids in private school, refrain from taking their pack of dogs to the grooming services, sell off their jets and other assets, lay off many of their servants (from 18 to 5), lay off over 6,000 employees and they defaulted on the Las Vegas Towers.
In the turmoil instead of recognizing that perhaps their business model of "selling time shares that people could not afford," feeding their addiction with cheap money and credit, spending money they did not have and becoming over leveraged is what caused the crisis, they made these statements: David, his son and Jackie, "It wasn't our choice, the banks made us lay off our employees . . . The banks cut off our credit line to finance more time share sells." Jackie, "We didn't get any of the bail out money that was suppose to be for the common people like us." (Yes she really said this--the documentary is called--"The Emperess of Versaille," check it out for yourself).
The Siegel Empire is one of the "Small Businesses" that Romney says should get a tax cut. These are the tycons that are funding Romney. This is the guy that would probably do the "illegal" to get him elected. Do you think they will expect something in return from Romney if he is elected?
Currently, David Siegel was able to unload assets and buy them back at substantially reduced prices and unload the debt. He had to sell a controlling interest in his towers and has started up construction on their 90,000 square foot "dream home."
To top it off, recently David threatened his remaining employees jobs if Pres. Obama is re-elected because he was not going to add health insurance as an employee benefit.
Now, David and Jackie–although the documentary painted a negative view of your thought process, it also showed you to be human and you to have done a lot of positive things, I would appeal to that aspect of your characters. So I ask, isn't it a better business plan to sell time shares to those who can afford them, build up equity in your many land holdings, build up cash reserves to finance sales in house, live within your means and have a dedicated and healthy workforce by providing health care and scaling back upon your need for "dream homes" that will cost more than 200 million to complete?
(PS--the Siegels currently live in a house that would be the dream house of several families simultaneously)
Loren M. Lambert © October 24, 2012
The documentary started before the recession when David was riding the real estate speculation bubble. Here's the comments that were made:
"I got President George W. Bush elected," David. Question: "How?" "I'd rather not say, it was probably illegal."
David and His Son: "We sold people time shares they could not afford. . . We were addicted to easy money... We could get loans for anyone. . .The goal was to change moochers into purchasers no matter what."
They filmed the hard sell that Siegels employees used to get sells at all costs and they were ruthless.
At this time, the Siegels started to build a 90,000 square foot home patterned after Versaille, spending about 120 million in France and around the same time built the biggest building in Las Vegas, the Westgate Towers at over 300 million. These projects were financed and relied upon there continued sale of time shares--almost like a giant ponze scheme.
All the while the Siegels were living the life of the most wealthy, buzzing around in private jets, spending lavishly and buying all they laid their eyes on.
Then the recession hit--largely, as we know, brought on due to "cheap money" and people purchasing real estate they could not afford or countries like Greece securing loans for massive public projects that they could not repay. As you can imagine, all hell broke out in the Siegel Empire.
Suddenly the Siegel's had to halt further construction on their 90,000 square foot "dream home," enroll their 8 kids in private school, refrain from taking their pack of dogs to the grooming services, sell off their jets and other assets, lay off many of their servants (from 18 to 5), lay off over 6,000 employees and they defaulted on the Las Vegas Towers.
In the turmoil instead of recognizing that perhaps their business model of "selling time shares that people could not afford," feeding their addiction with cheap money and credit, spending money they did not have and becoming over leveraged is what caused the crisis, they made these statements: David, his son and Jackie, "It wasn't our choice, the banks made us lay off our employees . . . The banks cut off our credit line to finance more time share sells." Jackie, "We didn't get any of the bail out money that was suppose to be for the common people like us." (Yes she really said this--the documentary is called--"The Emperess of Versaille," check it out for yourself).
The Siegel Empire is one of the "Small Businesses" that Romney says should get a tax cut. These are the tycons that are funding Romney. This is the guy that would probably do the "illegal" to get him elected. Do you think they will expect something in return from Romney if he is elected?
Currently, David Siegel was able to unload assets and buy them back at substantially reduced prices and unload the debt. He had to sell a controlling interest in his towers and has started up construction on their 90,000 square foot "dream home."
To top it off, recently David threatened his remaining employees jobs if Pres. Obama is re-elected because he was not going to add health insurance as an employee benefit.
Now, David and Jackie–although the documentary painted a negative view of your thought process, it also showed you to be human and you to have done a lot of positive things, I would appeal to that aspect of your characters. So I ask, isn't it a better business plan to sell time shares to those who can afford them, build up equity in your many land holdings, build up cash reserves to finance sales in house, live within your means and have a dedicated and healthy workforce by providing health care and scaling back upon your need for "dream homes" that will cost more than 200 million to complete?
(PS--the Siegels currently live in a house that would be the dream house of several families simultaneously)
Loren M. Lambert © October 24, 2012
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