To the stockholders of the Panhandle Producing and Refining Co., sleek, glib Serge Rubinstein, 37, last week made a self-sacrificing gesture: he resigned as president and chairman to save the stockholders "embarrassment."
Cause of the embarrassment: his indictment last Jan. 30 by the U.S. Government on draft-evasion charges. Allegedly, the Russian-born adventurer in international high finance who had dazzled Wall Street by his lightning-fast climb to control of 17 companies* in four years had filed false affidavits stating that his induction would leave his dependents without financial support. In severing his four-year...