Opinion ID: 536999
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Borrowing

Text: 14 It was the way that those borrowed funds were obtained that concerned the government prosecutors. The government alleged that LaRouche communicated to his organization a forgive and forget policy, whereby fundraisers would initially try to persuade individual lenders to convert their loans into contributions. Lenders who still demanded payment would not be repaid. One former LaRouche fundraiser testified that Wertz characterized lenders, who asked for the return of their money, as immoral. According to the government, the nonpayment policy did have two exceptions: (1) if alienating the lender might result in significant adverse political consequences; or (2) if the lender was going to file suit. 15 The government sought to prove that potential lenders heard quite a different story from the organization's fundraisers: they were told that their money would be safer with the LaRouche Organization than with a bank and that they would be repaid on specific terms, at specific rates of interest; the lenders were never told of the organization's financial difficulties; and even when some of the lenders became disgruntled, they were assured of repayment. Many lenders lost significant amounts of money. Furthermore, the government introduced evidence at trial to prove that the defendants knew of the falsity of the repayment and interest representations. 16