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A. The Phoenician resort grossed $48 million in the first year of operation. Its occupancy rate was in the neighborhood of 76%. Hotels are a perfect hedge against inflation because you can raise the room rates every day. And what is critical is that its gross income, food, beverage, everything else, per room, was approximately $80,000.
My hotel is the complete perfect example of what they're doing when they take away assets from people. They came out in a midnight raid. They brought photographers, they brought the media, the police, the FBI. They raided that hotel, took it over, tacked termination notices on the doors of some 30-odd employees, including the general manager, at 1:30 in the morning. What in the hell do you think you're dealing with?
Q. You said that this whole thing with the Government has made you feel like | Richard Nixon.
A. I did? Well, if I said it, it's probably true. The Government is spending unconscionable amounts of money, they switch law firms like you switch coffee cups. Their whole purpose is to break us so we can't be heard. Their theory is a dead man tells no tales. It's no wonder nobody speaks up. They're afraid of going to jail. They're afraid of going more broke. And the Government's doing a fantastic job of making an example out of me for everybody else to shut up. These other owners would rather give away their savings and loans than lose their respectability, end up like I am, hounded, harassed, broke. I'm being slammed and ridiculed and called a thief and a bum and a liar. They even tied me into Noriega for forming a Panamanian company to do business in England. Nothing wrong with any part of it. The committee flat said I was doing drugs. Lincoln made a loan to Covenant House, and I waived one of the interest payments on the building which housed these poor kids, and the next thing I know I'm accused of funneling that money through the Knights of Malta, a high- placed Catholic society, to the Nicaraguan rebels to buy arms. This comes out of the Congress. You print everything that the Fed feeds you. The person they're talking about doesn't exist.
Q. What a way to end a career.
A. I would like to say one last word: I'd love to have Lincoln back. If I got Lincoln back, it would not cost the U.S. taxpayers one dollar, and all my bondholders would get paid off. Now if there are S&L losses like I'm saying -- many hundreds of billions of dollars -- why wouldn't it make sense to try with some of us, mainly me. Give us our assets back and let us work them out, see what happens.