‘Cushy’ PR Job Takes Back Seat to Criminal Investigation Charges

When Archie Schaffer III moved to Fayetteville in 1991, he thought he was set up with a comfortable public relations job.

“I thought I was moving to the pastoral quiet of the Ozarks, to this cushy corporate job where you get to play golf all the time,” says Schaffer, who came to Northwest Arkansas from Little Rock to be director of media, public and governmental affairs for Tyson Foods Inc. of Springdale.

Then, in October 1991, Bill Clinton announced his candidacy for president.

“All hell broke out because of the perceived ties between Tyson Foods and Bill Clinton. We’ve been on the defensive fighting fires ever since,” Schaffer says.

Schaffer is on the defensive more than ever since being indicted Jan. 15 by a federal grand jury on seven felony charges for providing illegal gifts to former U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy. At the same time, Jack Williams, a Washington lobbyist for Tyson Foods, was charged with eight felony counts of providing gratuities to Espy.

Schaffer and Williams were arraigned in Washington on Jan. 21, each pleading innocent. They are both scheduled for trial June 30.

Schaffer was offered a plea bargain agreement by Independent Counsel Donald Smaltz last fall but rejected it, says William Jeffress, Schaffer’s Washington attorney. If Schaffer had pleaded guilty to one felony count of lesser severity than the seven he now faces, he “pretty much would be assured he wouldn’t be spending any time in prison,” Jeffress says. If convicted on all seven charges, though, Schaffer could face a maximum term of 27 years in prison and a fine of $1.5 million, according to the Office of the Independent Counsel.

Named as unindicted co-conspirators were Don Tyson, senior chairman of the company; his son, Vice Chairman John Tyson; the company itself; and the Tyson Foundation. Smaltz granted immunity to Don and John Tyson under the plea arrangement related to about $12,000 in alleged gifts.

“It’s certainly a highly unusual case when a prosecutor grants immunity to the highest ranking people in a company and prosecutes the little fish,” Jeffress says. “Why they would choose to do that and pursue Archie Schaffer is a question in my mind.”

Democratic target?

Williams had been charged previously in the investigation. The Jan. 15 charges were the first against Schaffer, who many observers believe to be a target of the investigation because of his Democratic political ties.

Schaffer is the nephew of Betty Bumpers, wife of U.S. Sen. Dale Bumpers, D-Ark., who will retire this year after serving since 1975. Schaffer’s wife, Beverly Bassett Schaffer, served as Arkansas Securities Commissioner in the 1980s, a position that required her to deal with regulatory issues pertaining to Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan. As an appointee of Gov. Bill Clinton, Beverly Bassett Schaffer has come under the scrutiny of Whitewater investigators.

“I’m not really sure why they have chosen to come after me,” says Schaffer, who says he knew the charges would be forthcoming. “It has been suggested to me that my political history and my ties to a well-known Democratic senator like Dale Bumpers and a Whitewater figure like my wife might have something to do with it, but I choose not to speculate about that.”

Schaffer, a longtime supporter of Clinton, says he was quoted widely a couple of years ago saying Clinton’s election as president was “one of the worst things that ever happened to Tyson Foods and the state of Arkansas” because of the investigations that ensued.

“Throwing the state of Arkansas in there may have been an overstatement,” Schaffer says. “But I still think it’s the worst thing that ever happened to Tyson Foods.”

Schaffer says his job might be what he initially envisioned once the pressure is off Tyson Foods.

“Were it not for all the extraneous issues such as the perceived Tyson-Clinton connection and the Espy investigation and all of those issues,” Schaffer says, “I think my job would be great. I still believe strongly that Tyson Foods is a great company. Once we get all the extraneous nonsense behind us, I think the job can be what I thought it could be seven years ago when I first came here.”

Schaffer says he doesn’t plan to leave his job at Tyson Foods in light of the investigation.

“I have no plan to do anything different,” he says. “The company has said they fully support me. Obviously, I’m going to be somewhat distracted for the next few months, but I have no plans to leave the company.”

Tyson cops plea

Schaffer’s plea seems unusual since his boss, Don Tyson, pleaded guilty on behalf of the company to charges stemming from the same incidents. But the guilty plea and fine of $6 million was as much a financial move as anything. The cost of defending the company could have exceeded $6 million, and, perhaps more importantly, the company wanted to protect its ability to handle lucrative government contracts for poultry sales.

Schaffer, however, somewhere down the corporate food chain from Don Tyson, would have a criminal record as a convicted felon if he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge in the plea bargain agreement. Instead, Schaffer plans to fight the charges and maintains his innocence.

“I will have my day in court, as they say,” Schaffer says. “I look forward to having the opportunity to clear my name. I remain convinced that I have not done anything illegal and look forward to the opportunity to prove that. I don’t particularly look forward to the process, though.”

Smaltz apparently thinks Schaffer is a vice president at Tyson Foods because that’s what the indictment says. Schaffer’s title is actually director of media, public and governmental affairs, and he’s not a corporate officer.

Who is Archie Schaffer?

Schaffer was born Jan. 7, 1948, in Fort Smith. He grew up in Charleston and graduated from high school there in 1965.

He attended Arkansas State University in Jonesboro from 1965-67, then transferred to the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville in 1967 and received a bachelor of science degree in natural sciences in 1970.

Schaffer attended the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock for one year before leaving to serve as Dale Bumpers’ campaign director in his successful 1970 race against Winthrop Rockefeller for governor.

He was the top aide and spokesman for Gov. Bumpers in 1971-75, then served in a similar capacity for Bumpers after he was elected to the U.S. Senate. In 1977, Schaffer returned to Charleston to serve as administrator of Greenhurst Nursing Home, which his family owned.

In 1985, he went back to Little Rock to help manage Bumpers’ re-election campaign for the Senate. Clinton had threatened to run for Bumpers’ seat, and Bumpers figured he needed all the help he could get. Clinton decided not to run — but still caused strained relations between the two political heavyweights — and Bumpers was re-elected over Republican Asa Hutchinson, now the U.S. representative from the 3rd Congressional District.

Good Suit Club exec

In 1987, Don Tyson, Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton and Charlie Murphy, chairman of Murphy Oil Corp. of El Dorado, formed the Arkansas Business Council, better known as the Good Suit Club. Schaffer served as the group’s executive director from 1987-91.

The council, composed of prominent business people, was a driving force in raising funds for educational issues in Arkansas. The group worked to overhaul the state’s post-secondary vocational education and community colleges, Schaffer says. The Good Suit Club was criticized by some, though, for allegedly rubber-stamping Clinton’s educational reforms. Financier Jackson T. Stephens and Alltel Corp. Chairman and CEO Joe Ford resigned from the council over the dispute.

In 1991, Bob Justice retired from Tyson Foods, and Schaffer called his friend Don Tyson to ask for Justice’s job as corporate spokesman.

Schaffer had met Don Tyson, an early supporter of Bumpers, in 1970. That year, Bumpers visited Don Tyson in the same corporate office that Schaffer now occupies to ask him for his political backing. Bumpers told Don Tyson he had been so busy he hadn’t had time to get a haircut. Don Tyson called his barber, who arrived at the office and cut Bumpers’ hair while the two men talked.

As a formality, Don Tyson sent Schaffer to interview with Leland Tollett, president and CEO of the company.

“I told Leland I thought the company needed to be more open and proactive in dealing with the media and everybody else unless you’ve got something to hide,” Schaffer says. “Unless the company is not proud of the way our business is running.”

Tollett hired Schaffer and told him to take a couple of months to visit Tyson’s processing operations.

“I came back and told Leland I thought, as a general rule, the company was doing a great job,” Schaffer says. “I didn’t see anything out there the company needed to be ashamed of or embarrassed about, and we needed to get out there and tell people what Tyson Foods is all about.”

Schaffer first married at the age of 20. After 16 years and two children, the couple divorced. A week after Bumpers was re-elected in 1986, Schaffer married Beverly Bassett while the two were in Hawaii, where she was attending a conference. The couple has one child.

Beverly Bassett Schaffer opened an office in Fayetteville in 1991 for the Little Rock law firm of Wright Lindsey & Jennings. She stopped practicing altogether in 1997.

“She works in the yard, mainly,” Archie Schaffer says. “She’s developed a passion for gardening.”

Schaffer is known to Northwest Arkansas journalists as a spokesman who speaks his mind. He doesn’t tiptoe around issues other corporate PR types might try to sidestep.

“I like to be honest and open in this job,” Schaffer says. “In the long run, the more open, honest and above board you can be, the better off you’ll be. It has gotten me into trouble from time to time.”

Key Critic of Smaltz

Schaffer has been a vocal critic of the independent counsel’s investigation into Espy. In 1994, he penned a press release about the investigation titled “Witch hunt continues.”

“In view of Mr. Smaltz’s biased and unfair attacks on us in the media, his wholesale search for disgruntled ex-employees, his grandiose plans and empire building, his waste of taxpayer funds by the millions, could the media and the courts be blamed for beginning to wonder about his fitness to be independent counsel?” Schaffer wrote in 1994.

In a statement released Jan. 15, Schaffer said, “As spokesman for Tyson Foods during the past four years, I have been highly critical of Mr. Smaltz and his office. That I would be indicted, while senior management of the company received immunity from prosecution, is therefore unfair, but not a surprise.

“I will fully defend the charges. The allegation that the company bestowed benefits worth $12,000 upon Mr. Espy is false, and the suggestion that he would be or was influenced in his official acts by attending social functions as the company’s guest is not only false, but cynical.

“I regret that the company, for business and financial reasons, decided to make a plea bargain with Mr. Smaltz. I made a different decision. I am confident that when the allegations are tested in a court of law, the truth will prevail.”

In a June 23, 1997, press release, Tyson Foods said all 120 invited guests at the poultry federation meeting were provided food and lodging at the meeting in Russellville. The release stated that Espy was in Dallas on business when he sat in Tyson Foods’ sky box at Texas Stadium during the playoff game.

“The company deplores the independent counsel’s apparent view that acts of common hospitality — consisting of a couple of meals and a football game — can rise to the level of criminal conduct in the absence of any attempt by the company to exploit its virtually nonexistent relationship with Mr. Espy,” the release stated.

Jeffress says the independent counsel “has an erroneous view of what constitutes a crime in this country.

“The idea that to invite somebody to a birthday party, even if that person is the secretary of agriculture, is a crime is something that nobody would have assumed in this country before Mr. Smaltz got on his high horse in this case,” he adds.