LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Jackson Stephens: Worthen Bank
built 614 days ago
Joined brother Witt at Arkansas-based investment bank Stephens, Inc. 1946; helped take Wal-Mart, J.B. Hunt public. Bought Donrey Media in 1993; today Stephens Media operates mostly small-town newspapers; online bets include LasVegas.com, CasinoGaming.com. Gave $68 million to University of Arkansas to build spinal research institute, sports complex. Classmates with Jimmy Carter at U.S. Naval Academy, supports Carter Center, former President's human rights organization.
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Perhaps the former president was thanking him for the money Stephens provided young George W. Bush. Stephens arranged for a $25 million investment from the Union des Banques Suisses. The Swiss Bank held the minority interest in the Banque de Commerce et de Placements, a Geneva-based subsidiary of BCCI.
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Stephens is the chairman of Stephens Inc., the nation's largest investment bank off Wall Street. Its home office is located in little ol' Little Rock, Arkansas. He and his brother, Witt, built the Stephens Inc. empire out of a bible, belt buckle and bond business. In 1994, Stephens Inc. was listed as one of the biggest institutional shareholders in 30 large multinationals including the Arkansas based firms Tyson Food (# 10), Wal-Mart (# 113) and Alltel (# 12). Interestingly, it was Stephens who staked Sam Walton when he started Wal-Mart in 1970, and financed Tyson's takeover of Holly Farms in 1988. (Stephens, Tyson and Walton (1917-1992), all billionaires from Arkansas.) Stephens sold a 275 phone exchange to Alltel when they broke into the phone market, and guaranteed in 1990 that Alltel would get Systematics by refusing to sell his 10% stake in Systematics to anyone but Alltel.
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Thanks to Jackson's 37 year old son Warren, Stephens Inc. has investment banking offices in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Kansas City. Some 240 banks in 21 states, including Wells Fargo & Co. and Nations-Bank Corp. now turn to the Stephens for brokerage services.
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This was not the first time Stephens served as the catalyst behind a political scandal. The biggest controversy surrounding him involves what New York District Attorney Robert Morgenthau called "the largest bank fraud in world financial history." Morgenthau was referring to the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, a "criminal enterprise" that catered to drug smugglers, arms dealers and money launderers, and bribed bankers and government officials to gain power and money worldwide. Investigators have dubbed BCCI the "Bank of Crooks and Criminals International."
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In the early 1990s, Cravens left Worthen bank and took the CEO spot at Systematics, an Arkansas-based computer security company owned by Jackson Stephens. Once at Systematics, Cravens selected the Rose Office Law firm to perform some special legal work. One such legal contract involved a top secret intelligence agency, the NSA, and Systematics.
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