Last year's top givers aren't exactly gone, and in Washington they're definitely not forgotten. Fred the Obscure An ailing tycoon hands down the family tradition. A fter stepping from obscurity to top last year's 400, Cleveland billionaire Fred Lennon has dropped back out of sight, and off the list. His wife passed away in late 1995, and, at 91, Lennon himself is reported to be in worse health than when Mother Jones profiled him last year. The longtime Republican devotee is still well enough to write checks, though, including some to worthwhile causes.
Success is secrecy.
Imagine what he'll do with his inheritance. J.C.T. Lerach's Initiative Tired of waiting for his payoffs to pay off, this lawyer took political matters into his own hands. While continuing to file class action lawsuits against such firms as SyQuest Technology and Silicon Graphics, last year Milberg Weiss spearheaded Proposition 211, a California initiative that would have made it easier for stockholders to sue companies, and made board members personally liable in cases of investor fraud. Prop 211 wouldn't have been necessary without 1995's Securities Litigation Reform Act, which made it harder to sue corporations for stock fraud. Despite all this big spending, Lerach and company still found it in their pocketbooks to help out a few needy politicos.