Robert Maxwell Goes to Texas: The Story of Bluebonnet (Part 2)

April 17, 2023

After Robert Maxwell dropped his bid for Bluebonnet, the S&L was sold to insurance man James Fail under exceedingly strange financial circumstances. His backers ranged from figures tied to George H.W. Bush and Arkansas financier and covert “money shuffler” Jackson Stephens.

by Ed Berger Unlimited Hangout

“Bluebonnet” was name given to fifteen Texas savings and loan institutions, bundled together and sold-off by federal regulators at the tail-end of the savings and loans crisis that rocked the United States in the late 1980s. For reasons that remain murky, Bluebonnet became the subject of intense interest by a number of intriguing individuals. As noted in Part 1 of this two-part article, this may have had something to do with the fact that the multiple thrifts that were consolidated into Bluebonnet had earlier been active in a sprawling “daisy chain” of bad loans, real estate transactions and money laundering. This hot money network was overseen and administered a very unusual coterie of conmen who had ties to powerful political figures in Texas and beyond, as well as to organized crime and the CIA.