John Bierwirth

John Bierwirth   (lawyer, businessman)
Born	21 January 1924 Lawrence, Nassau County, New York
Died	26 May 2013 (Age 89)
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Yale University, Columbia Law School
Single Bilderberg CEO of armaments company Grumman, which in 1985 charged the Pentagon $659 for each of seven airplane ashtrays.  Chairman In office 1977 - 1 August 1988 Employer Grumman Of Grumman. Attended Bilderberg/1985.

John Cocks (Jack) Bierwirth was an American lawyer and businessman. Bierwirth was an attorney by education, and a banking and financial expert by trade. He was best known as the CEO of the military-industrial complex corporation Grumman during the 1970s and 1980s.

Career

John Bierwirth began his business career with White & Case, a New York City law firm. He then moved to the New York Trust Company (later merged into Chemical bank), where he became expert in banking-related legal matters. He later worked for National Distillers and Chemical Corp, initiating petrochemical operations in a number of countries.

He joined Grumman Corporation in July 1972, as vice president of finance. One of his first tasks was to rework contracts with the Navy to help the company avert a potential bankruptcy. In the scheme, the United States Navy, the Grumman Aerospace Corporation and Pratt & Whitney combined their forces with strategically placed Congressional committee members and staff to slip through a $15 million appropriation for a new, more powerful engine for the F‐14, the Navy's controversial interceptor plane. The $15 million grew to at least $2 billion once the engine development program had been undertaken. In none of the relevant Congressional reports was any mention made of the ultimate cost of developing and building the new engine; nor was it ever explained that the new program would add at least $2 million to the cost of each F‐14, which at the time was already the Pentagon's most expensive fighter.

In November 1972, he was elected president of Grumman Corporation. Two years later, he was elected chief executive officer. The company’s board voted him chairman, effective January 1, 1976. He retired on August 1, 1988.

In 1979, the SEC accused Grumman of paying various Japanese government officials (Nobusuke Kishi, Takeo Fukuda, Yasuhiro Nakasone, Raizō Matsuno and others) bribes via Nisshō Iwai (now Sojitz) to buy their E-2C aircraft, charges. The company cleared itself in an internal investigation. The same year, Grumman Aerospace Corp. said its own investigation had found no payments to Iranian government officials to promote sales of its F-14 fighter jets.

In 1983, President Reagan appointed him to the 18-member panel of an international private enterprise task force. The panel was created to advise the president and the directors of the Agency for International Development on the role private enterprise can play in foreign aid.

In 1985, Navy officers, including an admiral with 33 years of service, were being relieved of their duties because a supply depot under their command paid the Grumman Aerospace Corporation $659 for each of seven airplane ashtrays, a number of $404 socket wrenches and other items between 1981 and 1984.

In 1990, Grumman pleaded guilty in federal court and agreed to pay $2.5 million in fines and penalties for illegally trafficking in secret Pentagon budget reports in the early 1980s.

In 1993, Grumman reached a $20 million settlement with the federal prosecutors, averting criminal charges of defrauding the Navy, ending a five-year criminal investigation of the company.

Connections

Bierwirth together with Cyrus Vance and Brent Scowcroft formed a committee to work with China.

 

Event Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/1985	10 May 1985	12 May 1985	New York US Arrowwood of Westchester Rye Brook	The 33rd Bilderberg, held in Canada

Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.