Rand Ruling

As ArkansasBusiness.com reported recently, W.A. “Tony” Rand, the felonious former North Little Rock movie thater tycoon, and four of his sons have now pleaded guilty to oil-and-gas scams in Texas.

A fifth son, Jeff Rand, is set for trial on similar but separate charges in U.S. District Court in Hot Springs starting in July.

Your Whispers staff couldn’t resist trolling through the plea agreements that, assuming they are accepted by the court, will send Tony, 69, to federal prison for six and a half years; son Greg, 46, for 18 years; son Bill, 41, for 14 years; and son Mark, 44, for between 11 and 14 years. (Son Wayne Rand was sentenced to 20 years, but that was in state court, where sentence and actual time served can be very different.)

Exactly how much money the Rands were able to snooker out of investors is not clear, but the original indictment against Tony, Greg, Bill and Mark issued in May 2009 listed 22 separate investors who put up $5.55 million in a seven-month period beginning in June 2006.

In addition, the state charge against Wayne said he and two unrelated co-defendants raised about $8 million from investors.

So what did the Rands do with the money?

Well, they didn’t drill many wells, but they did enjoy the finer things in life.

Greg, for instance, bought a yacht – a 2006 Sunseeker Predator with a 1,500-horsepower engine. Depending on the length, which isn’t specified in the plea deal, it likely has a resale value of between $1 million and $4 million.

Mark, meanwhile, indulged his fondness for guitars (two Gibson Les Pauls and Fender Stratocasters from 1960 and 1965), art (a Picasso drawing and a painting by Tsuguharu Foujita), jewelry and wine (25 cases stored in Texas and another 455 bottles worth $50,000 stored at Club 55º in St. Helena, Calif.).

All of the above has been seized by the federal government, and Tony had to give up his Jamali painting as well as his 2005 Ferrari and his 2007 Mercedes.