Pat Robertson is a happy man. You'd be smiling too if you struck a multi-million dollar deal with the Bank of Scotland, and had taken a seat on the board of a major international decor and apparel firm. While denouncing the "new world order," Pat Robertson is a major international finacial player.

ention televangelist Pat Robertson and probably the last thing that comes to mind is trendy eye wear, home fashions, or phone banking. After all, Robertson -- founder of the Christian Coalition and the folksy head of Christian Broadcasting Network -- constantly proclaims his spiritual agenda. Another avuncular figure, Wendy's restaurant chain founder Dave Thomas, praises Robertson for "doing things right," and promoting "wholesomeness and family values." Sometimes Robertson, though, is more acerbic, as when he calls homosexuals "weird," and suggest they are "anti- family, anti-god, anti-traditional, and they want to open our children to all kinds of bizarre sex, and it's wrong."

   Now, Robertson has made another foray into the world of high finance and international corporate intrigue, an area he has wide expertise in, but one which many Americans remain unaware of.

   The prestigious Bank of Scotland announced yesterday that it had formed a joint venture with Robertson to establish a new financial institution to deliver financial services to American customers over the phone. Based in Edinburgh, Bank of Scotland is that nation's second-largest financial institution with assets of $97 billion. According to Virginia-Pilot newspaper reporter Tom Shean, Robertson's role in this latest financial venture stemmed from discussions he had with Bank officials last summer when he sought financing for "unrelated business activity."

   That visit coincided with another Robertson venture a full ocean and continent away, in California. Robertson had formed a private company, CENCO, in an effort to purchase a dilapidated refinery and process foreign oil. He chose a plant in the City of Santa Se Springs near Los Angeles, which until 1995 had been operated as part of the Powerine project, described by the Corporate Watch group as "the dirtiest refinery in the state." Last October, Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) filed suit alleging that the City violated the California Environmental Quality Act when it approved the startup for the $35 million Robertson venture.

   Under this latest arrangement with Bank of Scotland, Robertson will become a minority shareholder in the new venture but is providing "significant" investment, according to the Virginia-Pilot. The money is flowing through Robertson Financial Service, Inc.; headquarters for the new company will be in Stamford, Conn.

   The Scotland deal comes a month after Pat Robertson made another financial deal by joining the board of directors of Laura Ashley Holdings, parent of the apparel and home-furnishings retailer. The company is known for marketing fashion items and accessories, from sunglasses to floral print dress and fabrics.

   Laura Ashley's decision to bring in Robertson surprised and even outraged many observers in the United Kingdom where the company boasts 189 retail outlets. Another 74 stores are peppered throughout Europe, and North America lists 155 outlets. According to the Financial Times of Britain, Robertson, who owns 2 million shares in the company, "will help in its effort to overcome years of seemingly intractable difficulties which a string of chief executives has failed to solve..."

   Reacting to Robertson's involvement with the fashion firm, one analyst mused, "It will certainly take a miracle to sort out Laura Ashley." That's because since the company was listed on the stock exchange in 1985, eight chief executives have come and gone. The British-based operations lost $81 million last year, and stock has dropped 44% in the past twelve months. Analysts cite the customer rejection of the flowery designs that once made Laura Ashley so chic. Kurt Barnard of Barnard's Retail Report was astonished with the news that America's premier religious right evangelist was getting into the home decor business. "Pat Robertson?," Barnard remarked to the New York Post. "It's probably very appropriate, because Laura Ashley needs a lot of prayer." The Post added that Robertson has "considerable financial muscle and drive."

Robertson pal Mobutu Sese Seko, the late and not-so-great dictator of Zaire. Dubbed the "President of Kleptocracy," Mobutu embezzled billions of dollars from his country, but was defended by Robertson and others as a friend of western interests. Robertson obtained diamond and forestry concessions from Zaire for his African Development Co.

   Stepping in at the helm of Laura Ashley the firm's new CEO, Kwan Cheon Ng of Malayan United industries (MUI). This Malaysian group is tied to Robertson through another financial deal which AANEWS reported on nearly two years ago.. It all begins with the controversy over foreign donations to American campaign efforts, and Robertson's involvement with the Chinese government to pump out a steady stream of "no sex, no news, no violence" cable channel coverage to that country's masses.

   In October, 1966, Robertson's International Family Entertainment, Inc. entered into a joint venture with two giant Asian financial powerhouses. One was the Lippo real estate conglomerate owned by the Riady family of Indonesia. Lippo and Riady were at the center of a flap over political donations to the 1996 Democratic campaign, where charges of illegal foreign contributions to politicians surfaced. Both Democrats and Republicans were at the trough with their hands out for cash; speculation ran rampant, including allegations that the Chinese government was seeking to purchase political influence in the US.

   Another partner with Robertson was MUI Group, Malayan United Industries -- the same company now investing heavily in Laura Ashley. Robertson, the Riady family and MUI were each investing up to $10 million for shares of a Hong Kong-based enterprise known as China Entertainment Television Broadcast, Ltd. CET operates "no sex, no news, no violence" cable programming on over 500 systems throughout China, as well as Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan. From the offices of the Chinese Communist Party to the fatherly technocrats governmening the emergent Asian economies, the formula of cultural blandness fits neatly into the plans of regimes and interests which value conformity over controversy.

   Robertson is close friends with the Riady family, especially patriarch Mochtar Riady. "They're wealthy people," Robertson told the Associated Press in October, 1996 when the financial scandal involving corporate and foreign "soft money" was breaking. Strangely, the Riadys are also close friends with the White House, and the family invested heavily in the Worthen Bank of Arkansas which made a loan to Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign. Democratic operative Charlie Trie, reportedly a bag man for the soft money, worked for Lippo, and was a groupie in a "supreme master" Buddhist cult that campaigned for Clinton.

   Actually, the Robertson leap into electronic financial services and out-of- date floral dresses for women typifies the televangelist's involvement in political and money matters -- a message often at odds with his more explicit homilies against modern culture and the "New World Order" one encounters on Robertson's "700 Club" program. Where does Robertson get the cash to invest in international banks and corporations?

   One answer is the deal Robertson made in March, 1997 when he unloaded his Family Channel and its parent company, International Family Entertainment (IFE) to media mogul Robert Murdoch. The crafty Robertson held Murdoch's feet to the fire in a series of touchy, even heated negotiations; by the time the board room dust settled, Murdoch was paying over $3 more per share for IFE than what was on the the Wall Street ticker. Robertson and his son, Tim Robertson, reaped tens of millions of dollars through the deal; Robertson remained on the board of the new IFE, and Murdoch, whose Fox network is known for iconoclastic programming often denounced by the religious right ("The Simpsons") agreed to continue carrying "The 700 Club" in its prime-time slot.

   AANEWS estimated at the time that the windfall for Robertson and his various enterprises, including Christian Broadcasting Network and Regent University, could run as high as $400 million.

   But Robertson also has a history of less spectacular investments, even financial debacles. One of his more notorious business arrangements took place in the Congo, formerly Zaire, and involved Robertson's friend, dictator Mobuto Sese Seko. Mobuto died last year of cancer, but is known to have sacked his country's treasury, and transported billions of dollars in sequestered accounts in Switzerland and elsewhere. Pundits claimed that Mobuto could have solved Zaire's financial woes by just writing a personal check, and described the brutal dictator as the "President of Kleptocracy."

   Robertson attempted to market Mobuto as a paragon of Christian anti- communism who was holding the line against Marxist guerillas in Africa on behalf of U.S. interests. The two were close friends, and on one occasion Mobuto wined-and-dined Robertson on his personal yacht during a business trip. Robertson then established the African Development Co., an ill-fated venture to mine diamonds and develop lumber concessions granted by the Zaire government. Robertson's much-hyped Operation Blessing -- ostensibly a humanitarian outreach which solicits funds from "700 Club" viewers -- became involved in the story, too. Pilots for Operation Blessing told reporters that aside from a limited number of flights to transport medical supplies, much of their time in the air was spent ferrying mining equipment and other materials required for ADC operations in the interior. One airman, Robert Hinkle, told the Virginia-Pilot newspaper, "We got over there and we had 'Operation Blessing' painted on the tails of the airplanes but we were doing no humanitarian relief at all. We were just supplying the miners and flying the dredges from Kinshasa out to Tshikapa." Tshikapa was the operations base for African Development Company. "We hauled medical supplies one time," added Hinkle. "It might have been 500 pounds at the most..."

   As of October,1998, state officials in Virginia remain mum on the finding of a year-long investigation into Robertson's charity and his diamond mine venture. The Virginia Office of Consumer Affairs had been probing allegations of impropriety since June, 1997 when a state senator first raised the issue of tax exemptions for Robertson, and possible consumer fraud. According to the Virginia-Pilot newspaper edition of October 1, 1998, State Attorney General Mark Earley refused to disclose any information or findings. Robertson contributed $35,000 to Earley's campaign -- the largest donation from a single individual -- and he poured another $50,000 into the successful gubernatorial effort of Jim Gilmore.

   Even with the collapse of ADC, though, Robertson's has displayed uncanny abilities as a business tycoon. He also continues to wield political clout, and has taken over the leadership of Christian Coalition, a group he founded a decade ago. Last month, CC hosted a "First in the Nation Primary" gala in New Hampshire where Republican leaders and presidential hopefuls, including publisher Steve Forbes, paid court to honor him. For Robertson, things are looking up. Whether its votes, financial services or international wheeling- and-dealing, this "man of god" who excoriates consumer culture and warns of technological collapse because of the Y2-K bug or some other apocalyptic event, remains very much a "man of this world."

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