Wheeler-dealers are coming out of the woodwork to capitalize on the death of John F. Kennedy Jr.
But whether they’re on the level is a question among investment advisers.
One company that earlier claimed it would pay $110 million for John F. Kennedy Jr.’s George magazine yesterday backed off the big number and said it wouldn’t pay that much – and doesn’t really want the magazine as an ongoing concern. Rather, it wants only the name of George magazine to use in the title of a thick commemorative book it plans to rush into print for Christmas gifts, for a total 5 million copies.
The company identified itself as Cititrust Group Ltd., which was registered in Nova Scotia on the same day that the bodies from JFK Jr.’s plane were recovered.
One of its principals, Luis Silva de Balboa, is a controversial Chilean who was once a candidate for Chile’s parliament. He withdrew his candidacy when local newspapers discovered that Balboa, who said at at the time was was a lawyer, didn’t have a high school diploma.
Another name linked to Cititrust Group is Thomas Irving, who told reporters he was a member of the Irving family, Canada’s second-richest family. Family sources said he wasn’t.
Irving, who speaks with a thick South American accent and says he is French-Canadian, told The Post he was managing director of Cititrust, which he says has a 20-year history of investments in timber, real estate and publishing, but declined to name any properties.
Irving wouldn’t give an address or telephone number of Cititrust, saying that his staff was on holiday for two weeks while the firm moved into new quarters in Toronto.
Irving said that if Cititrust and a group of four Canadian investors buy George, they will finance the one-shot commemorative book, printed in several languages. George’s staff would be hired to create it, he said.
Irving said he would include in the book a “valuable archive” of unpublished Kennedy family letters and photos that he is buying from a Long Island collector, whom he identified as Thomas Bennett of “eastern Long Island.” No such collector could be located by The Post.
Sources close to George said if a $110 million offer for the title had been made it would have been sold in a heartbeat.
The magazine is jointly owned by the Kennedy estate and Hachette Fillipacchi, which said it never received any bids, either.