Wednesday, September 29, 2004

There was never any doubt that million dollar CEO Bob Parker would not have taken his new positoin at O'Sullivan Industries if he meant he had to live in Lamar.
The company confirmed today that Parker has it written in his contract that he can receive a whopping care package if he has to 'relocate from the greater Atlanta area." If that were to happen, he would receive at least $1 million and benefits.
According to the company's annual report. filed today with the Securities and Exchange Commission, O'Sullivan has termination protection agreements with all of its executive officers, other than Parker and the two other officers, Rick Walters and Michael Orr, who followed him to O'Sullivan from Newell Rubbermaid.
Those three have lucrative severance plans built into their contracts.
Parker and Walters, who okayed the report, briefly commented on the firing of a number of longtime O'Sullivan officers. "We are negotiating severance agreements with several executive officers who have left O'Sullivan since May 2004.
As usual in this kind of report, no mention was made of how these officials came to "leave" the company."
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Federal officials are keeping a watchful eye on the executive director of River of Life Ministries of Joplin after he filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this week in U. S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Missouri.
River of Life Ministries sounds like a group that might send missionaries to Africa or operate soup kitchens in the poor areas of town, and maybe it does, but its chief reason for existence appears to be the operation of two residential care facilities in the area, Guest House II in Joplin, and the Carthage Guest House.
Its executive director, Robert Joseph Dupont Jr, Joplin, is a convicted felon, having pleaded guilty in federal court on Feb. 13, 2002. to a charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Dupont was the primary target in a 22-count indictment issued June 15, 2000, alleging a health care fraud scheme involving several residential care facilities, thousands of claims, and more than 200 patients, according to court records.
Government prosecutors said Dupont and the others who were charged certified patients as homebound and submitted false claims to Medicare and Medicaid. They said the agencies that were affiliated with Dupont worked with doctors to file the false claims.
Dupont's bankruptcy papers indicate that he owes $120,100 to the Department of Justice, money he is supposed to repay the government under provisions of his plea agreement. The paper say Dupont has $994,025 in asseets, including $975,000 in real estate, and $1,419,675 in liabilities, including $1,339,000 in secured claims.
Dupont is also the former owner of the Drake in Carthage and Guest House facilities in Lamar, Butler, St. Louis, and Springfield.

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