ORANGE COUNTY IN BANKRUPTCY

“Look, everything we heard at that time was very positive with regards to the Orange County investment pool.”

--Investment banker Kenneth D. Ough, He persuaded several cities and school districts to borrow millions of dollars to invest into the county investment pool *

“In the course of our relationship with the county, we offered a variety of securities, none of which were inherently risky. What was risky was Citron’s strategy. . . . We are comfortable with the propriety of what we had done.”

--Merrill Lynch managing director Richard Fuscone

*

“If Mr. Citron considered me a financial adviser, he never told me. . . . If Mr. Citron, in his mind because he had a lot of respect for me, thought of me as a financial adviser, then I’m not going to dispute it.”

--Albert J. De Spirito, A vice president at Dean Witter Reynolds, who Citron called each morning for advice

*

“It sounds a little like the tobacco defense. . . . You sell tobacco to somebody, you warn them that it will kill them. They say, ‘Fine, I take the warning.’ You sell them more tobacco.”

--Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), He criticized Merrill Lynch for assisting Orange County in investments that the brokerage warned him were risky

*

“There was absolutely no conspiracy whatsoever, senator.”

--Jean Costanza, an attorney who advised the county on bond issues, she denied Hayden’s suggestion that the fund’s troubles were concealed.