Vic Socotra

04 March 2009

Other Peoples Money

(Bruce W. Higgins In the Act of Robbing the SunTrust Bank in Our Lobby)

I was going to do a rant this morning about the A.I.G bail-out. American Insurance General, or whatever it is, appears to be a gigonzo company whose continued existence is essential to the Fate of the West. It is being propped up by the Federal Government, and of course, you and me.

Most of this stuff just sort of goes over my head these days, what with all the billions flying around. One of my pals is in that line of work, though, and he got my attention. He has been watching what is going on. This is not about fixing old mistakes. This fraud is a work in progress. He is livid.

He summed it up pretty well with this: “I read that and my anger at what we are doing for AIG is beyond comprehension....these guys have now taken 10 times what the auto industry as a whole has and yet they maintain a A+ rating from S&P, while GM, Chrysler and Ford are all in the CCC range. On what planet does that makes sense...the credibility of the rating agencies is at the heart of our capitalist system so what does this say to China who holds trillions of supposedly AAA rated securities?”

It dawned on me that the haphazard nature of the government intervention is part of the continuing catastrophe. AIG is one of my pal’s competitors- his outfit is sound, and he is convinced that AIG has been gaming the system for years. Now he has to go to work and compete again them as cut their prices to customers below cost, knowing that it will be years before those losses develop. By then, he is convinced that the US taxpayer is subsidizing the whole enterprise against legitimate private competition in the marketplace.

“Explain to me,” my pal demanded. "How can a company that has now gone to the Government three times in six months for additional funding maintain the same credit rating that my company does, now with federal assistance? The whole game is rigged and now the Government is enabling the criminals....”

I had to agree, even if it was rhetorical. I can't explain this and I take solace in the fact that no one else seems to able to, either. Other people’s money is what it is all about, as best I can figure. In this case it used to be our retirements and that of our kids and their kids, if they decide to have any.

Unfortunately, I don’t have more time to delve into the government-sponsored Ponzi scheme at AIG. I have to deal with other people who have had to adopt new business practices, and this one was where I work.

The picture isn’t that good; surveillance camera images normally aren’t. I don’t normally bother much with them, except it was of a robbery at the bank in the lobby of my office building. The entrance is not far from where the smokers stand outside the main lobby.

I don’t think I would have looked twice at Bruce W. Higgins during the working week. He looks pretty much like the rest of the folks here, or at least he did in his last official picture as vice president of business development at a Fairfax County consulting company.

Mr. Higgins has over 13 years of professional experience, though the vast bulk of it not in the bank robbery business. His resume, which is still on-line, includes 6 years as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of a $500 million dollar Engineering and Energy company, 3 years as the Senior Vice President of Business Development / Corporate Strategy for a $30 million dollar Federal IT Consulting company and 2 years as the Information Technology Program Executive for the FEMA Multi-Hazard Flood Map Modernization ERP Program (MHFMMP).

In addition to felony robbery, Bruce advertises primary skill-sets in Strategic Program Management, Project Launch and Program Processes implementation, SAP ERP Implementation and Deployment, Acquisition and Procurement Management, Independent Validation and Verification (IV&V), Earned Value Management Systems, Change and Configuration Management, Risk Management, and Business Process Reengineering (BPR).

Before turning to solo bank heists, Bruce was an effective team leader. His on-line resume includes past performance in managing program assets of $750 million, and staffs of over 200 people.

Maybe he had anger issues, or maybe the situation just got to him. I don’t know. He got canned from that job in 2007, just as people were starting to realize there were some real and systemic flaws in the way housing was going, and the thin edge of that was already apparent in go-go locales like Fairfax.

In the surveillance photo there is clearly a little more desperation in his demeanor as he reaches inside his jacket, as though he were going to produce a firearm and start shooting at the petite woman who had the Saturday opening-up duty.

You can’t imagine a nice or more polite little neighborhood than what we have there around the office. It is faux urban; all the tall buildings have been imagined there since the County Master Plan was adopted in 1980, and most of were not completed until a few years ago.

Arlington still had segregated schools and theaters then, and the Klan, and the Nazis had their headquarters just up Wilson Boulevard, in the place that is now the Java Shack. So the whole thing was pretty forward leaning. Over the years, the County decided to become a “diverse and inclusive world-class urban community with secure, attractive residential and commercial neighborhoods where people unite to form a caring, learning, participating, sustainable community in which each person is important.”

That is what the vision statement says, anyway, and it might be why Bruce came down here to rob the bank.

Being composed of single-use office suites, our building is a silent tomb on the weekend. Most of the yuppies live in the tall condos clustered closer to the Metro station a couple blocks to the east. At nine-thirty on Saturday morning, just at opening, Bruce made his daring move.

The interesting thing is that with all his Web 2.0 personal information on the web, big as life, he got away and is still at large, just like the people at AIG.

Arlington County Police Detective Sean Bryson is in charge of the investigation, and I won’t ask for a cut on the reward if you get a line on Bruce. Regardless of the circumstances of how he came to change his business model, robbery is wrong and I oppose it.

If you have a not tip, Detective Bryson can be reached by email at sbryson@arligntonva.us. <mailto:sbryson@arligntonva.us.>

Meanwhile, if I can find a tip-line to report the whereabouts of the senior management at AIG I will try to get it to you tomorrow. Someone must care; it is a hell of a lot more money than Bruce stole and they did not even have the courtesy to pretend to use a gun.

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