Original Story: CNBC.com
Parents dropping their kids to college in a car stuffed with blankets and tinned food is a common sight on the streets of university towns across the world.
But one company is attempting to put the bling into university travel by offering a £25,000 ($41,562) package to students wanting to arrive by a private charter flight and fast cars.
Uni Baggage - an Irish charter jet company that transports student belongings across the U.K. and worldwide - has upped its game, looking to tap wealthy students who want to arrive at their new place of study in style.
"Our customers are constantly asking us for the full service. Rather than just book a shipping order they want us to look after the whole process of getting to uni, so we went the extreme and did it in luxury," Paul Stewart, founder of Uni Baggage, told CNBC by phone.
Stewart said he had already received two enquiries from students wanting to take a Rolls Royce Phantom to university since launching the service on Monday morning. He could not disclose the name of the institution the students were going to, but said the package would cost them £15,000.
Read MoreCompany offers free, $1 million vacation
Wealthy students can also book a private jet from one part of the country to another, and then get a flash car - such as an Aston Martin or Ferrari - to their college for a £25,000 fee. Their belongings are transported separately.
In comparison, U.K. university tuition fees are around £9,000 a year and Uni Baggage's regular shipping service is £16.99 per 30 kilograms of items.
Stewart admitted that he expects demand for the luxury packages to be "very little", at around 20 users in a year, with most demand likely to come from wealthy students from China and America.
"We do a lot of shipping for Chinese and American students and they are the two international markets that spend a lot of money with us," Stewart said. "Wealthy students coming to the U.K. that land at the airport and don't want to get a taxi can arrange a luxury car with us, and we will bring their things over from the U.S. or China."
Read MoreInside the $80,000 private-jet safari
The company currently offers an international shipping service and Stewart said it would consider requests for students wanting a private jet from abroad, but stressed the price would be a "substantially higher".
Uni Baggage also offers a helicopter trip for £20,000 and a horse-and-carriage experience for £10,000, although Stewart admitted this was for short distance journeys.
Showing posts with label private jets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label private jets. Show all posts
Friday, September 5, 2014
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
BlackJet - Changing The Way You Fly
Story first appeared on The Huffington Post
Compared to the endless gauntlet of indignities suffered by everyday commercial airline passengers, people who criss-cross the globe in private jets have it made: driving their cars right up to the plane, not having to take off their shoes during security checks, the ability to bring a small bottle of water on board without sparking an international incident, better food (probably), etc. Book a Private Charter Jet with JetSelect today!
But there's a slight problem: the astronomical cost of private jets puts that particular luxury out of reach for all but the most one percent-y of one percenters.
Luckily, the Internets have come to the rescue!
Some of the people behind the San Francisco-based town car service Uber have created BlackJet, a jet sharing service that connects people with empty seats in their private jets with people willing to pay to fill said seats. JetSelect is available now for you to book a Private Jet Charter.
"BlackJet is fairly friction-free...we bring back some of the elegance that has been lost in modern airports," founder Garrett Camp, who also founded both StumbleUpon and Uber, told VentureBeat. "You pull up to the airplane with your car and take off three minutes later. It takes a lot of the stress out of travel.”
"Tens of billions of dollars are wasted every year," he added, noting that one-third of all private jet flights are made with the aircraft almost completely empty. "The average charter plane is in the air one hour a day, while the average commercial plane is in the air 11 hours a day."
BlackJet's ultimate goal is to make hitching a ride on a private plane as easy as hailing a town car using Uber.
Wired explains how the service works:
BlackJet doesn’t own any of the jets but instead helps travelers connect with charter services that fly between the aforementioned cities. Passengers give BlackJet two business days’ notice of when they want to fly. Then the company rounds up other passengers that are interested in the same trip and charters a plane for the group...Flights require some flexibility from travelers on when they want to leave, but the reward of a non-stop, hassle-free flight is worth it.
While BlackJet's mission is to democratize the world of private aviation, its backers are nothing short of A-list: actors Will Smith and Ashton Kutcher, 4-Hour Work Week author Tim Ferris and rapper Jay-Z.
Still, "democratize" is a relative term. A cross-country flight will set you back $3,500, not including the couple of thousand dollars users must pony up for the annual fee. Also, the service is still unavailable to the unwashed masses--personalized invite codes are required to gain access. With JetSelect, your Private Jet Charter is available today.
BlackJet started when it was spun off of another private jet company, Greenjets, which offered a similar service.
Competitors Private Jet Club and Flightmaker have been offering single seats on private jets for years; however, largely without the same level of star-power.
As All Things D reports, BlackJet will begin taking reservations on November 15 for flights between New York, Los Angeles and South Florida. Naturally, a mobile app is in the works.
Friday, January 11, 2013
FAA opens probe of Boeing Dreamliner woes
originally appeared on CNN:
U.S. and company officials have announced a probe of the design, manufacture and assembly of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner in the wake of a series of problems that have dogged the jet in recent days.
A private charter jet is also an excellent option. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Federal Aviation Administrator Michael Huerta and the head of Boeing commercial airplanes unit, appeared at a news conference in Washington on Friday to discuss the plans for the investigation.
Both LaHood and Huerta said that even though they are starting the probe, they are confident in the plane's safety. LaHood said he personally would be comfortable flying on the Dreamliner. We are confident about the safety of this aircraft, but we're concerned about these incidents, said Huerta at the news conference. He said the probe would focus on the aircraft's electrical components and how the electrical system interacts with mechanical components.
The Dreamliner uses electrical systems instead of the hydraulics used in other commercial aircraft. The head of Boeing said the company is also convinced about the aircraft's safety, and that the airlines that have bought the plane are also confident in its safety.
These planes are safe, he said. We welcome any opportunity to further assure people outside the industry.
The latest problems were revealed Friday, when oil was discovered leaking from a generator of an engine of an All Nippon Airways Dreamliner at an airport in southern Japan, and a crack appeared in a cockpit window of another All Nippon plane en route from Tokyo to a city in western Japan, according to an All Nippon spokesperson.
This caps a week of problems that began Monday when a maintenance worker discovered an electrical fire aboard an empty Japan Airlines 787 scheduled for departure from Logan International Airport in Boston. A private jet charter is an excellent choice also. The next day, a Japan Airlines flight bound for Tokyo aborted takeoff from Boston after a pilot on another airplane spotted the 787 leaking fuel. On Wednesday, an All Nippon Dreamliner flight was canceled after the crew received an error message related to the plane's braking system.
The plane is widely seen as key to Boeing's future, using lightweight composite materials rather than aluminum to significantly improve its fuel efficiency.
Boeing has delivered 50 of the aircraft. It has more than 800 unfilled orders from airlines around the globe that will take years to fill. In addition to the Dreamliner assembly line at its Seattle-area factory, it built a new 1,000-worker factory in South Carolina to handle the demand. It hopes to double production of the plane this year to about 10 a month.
United Airlines, the only U.S. carrier to have taken delivery of a Dreamliner so far, issued a statement Friday saying it is confident in the plane's safety and Boeing's ability to resolve the issues.
But despite the prestige of the innovative design and the sales success for the aircraft, it has been dogged by repeated production problems. The first Dreamliner was put into service by All Nippon in October 2011. But that flight was more than three years behind the aircraft maker's original delivery schedule.
Shares of Boeing fell 2% in early trading Friday on news of the new problem and the probe.
An aerospace analyst with BB&T Capital Markets, cut his rating on Boeing stock to a "hold" from a "buy" Friday on news of the probe, even though he believes some of the problems reported this week are normal and relatively minor for a new aircraft.
Boeing is correct that this is no different from any other airplane, he said. But the attention these problems are getting from the media and regulators are a cause for concern for the company.
You'd rather not have the FAA rooting around on this, he said.
Still, he said the probe could end up being a positive for Boeing in the long run if it gives Boeing and the Dreamliner a clean bill of health.
If Boeing gets through this fine, they're in a better position, he said.
The aerospace analyst said part of the problem for Boeing in this probe is that it outsourced more of the manufacturing process for the Dreamliner to suppliers than it has for its other aircraft. Boeing doesn't know what it doesn't know, he said.
But the head of Boeing said several times during the press conference that Boeing is confident that the outsourcing process is not responsible for any of the recent problems.
A former aircraft mechanic who was also a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, told CNN he also believe the plane is safe and would have no problems flying one itself.
Every single airplane that I ever worked on that was brand new had tons of problems almost all of which were minor in nature, he said. But he said the problems are numerous enough to raise some concerns. These events don't seem to be repeating -- there's a lot of them -- but they appear to be quality control more than they are design, he said.
U.S. and company officials have announced a probe of the design, manufacture and assembly of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner in the wake of a series of problems that have dogged the jet in recent days.
A private charter jet is also an excellent option. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Federal Aviation Administrator Michael Huerta and the head of Boeing commercial airplanes unit, appeared at a news conference in Washington on Friday to discuss the plans for the investigation.
Both LaHood and Huerta said that even though they are starting the probe, they are confident in the plane's safety. LaHood said he personally would be comfortable flying on the Dreamliner. We are confident about the safety of this aircraft, but we're concerned about these incidents, said Huerta at the news conference. He said the probe would focus on the aircraft's electrical components and how the electrical system interacts with mechanical components.
The Dreamliner uses electrical systems instead of the hydraulics used in other commercial aircraft. The head of Boeing said the company is also convinced about the aircraft's safety, and that the airlines that have bought the plane are also confident in its safety.
These planes are safe, he said. We welcome any opportunity to further assure people outside the industry.
The latest problems were revealed Friday, when oil was discovered leaking from a generator of an engine of an All Nippon Airways Dreamliner at an airport in southern Japan, and a crack appeared in a cockpit window of another All Nippon plane en route from Tokyo to a city in western Japan, according to an All Nippon spokesperson.
This caps a week of problems that began Monday when a maintenance worker discovered an electrical fire aboard an empty Japan Airlines 787 scheduled for departure from Logan International Airport in Boston. A private jet charter is an excellent choice also. The next day, a Japan Airlines flight bound for Tokyo aborted takeoff from Boston after a pilot on another airplane spotted the 787 leaking fuel. On Wednesday, an All Nippon Dreamliner flight was canceled after the crew received an error message related to the plane's braking system.
The plane is widely seen as key to Boeing's future, using lightweight composite materials rather than aluminum to significantly improve its fuel efficiency.
Boeing has delivered 50 of the aircraft. It has more than 800 unfilled orders from airlines around the globe that will take years to fill. In addition to the Dreamliner assembly line at its Seattle-area factory, it built a new 1,000-worker factory in South Carolina to handle the demand. It hopes to double production of the plane this year to about 10 a month.
United Airlines, the only U.S. carrier to have taken delivery of a Dreamliner so far, issued a statement Friday saying it is confident in the plane's safety and Boeing's ability to resolve the issues.
But despite the prestige of the innovative design and the sales success for the aircraft, it has been dogged by repeated production problems. The first Dreamliner was put into service by All Nippon in October 2011. But that flight was more than three years behind the aircraft maker's original delivery schedule.
Shares of Boeing fell 2% in early trading Friday on news of the new problem and the probe.
An aerospace analyst with BB&T Capital Markets, cut his rating on Boeing stock to a "hold" from a "buy" Friday on news of the probe, even though he believes some of the problems reported this week are normal and relatively minor for a new aircraft.
Boeing is correct that this is no different from any other airplane, he said. But the attention these problems are getting from the media and regulators are a cause for concern for the company.
You'd rather not have the FAA rooting around on this, he said.
Still, he said the probe could end up being a positive for Boeing in the long run if it gives Boeing and the Dreamliner a clean bill of health.
If Boeing gets through this fine, they're in a better position, he said.
The aerospace analyst said part of the problem for Boeing in this probe is that it outsourced more of the manufacturing process for the Dreamliner to suppliers than it has for its other aircraft. Boeing doesn't know what it doesn't know, he said.
But the head of Boeing said several times during the press conference that Boeing is confident that the outsourcing process is not responsible for any of the recent problems.
A former aircraft mechanic who was also a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, told CNN he also believe the plane is safe and would have no problems flying one itself.
Every single airplane that I ever worked on that was brand new had tons of problems almost all of which were minor in nature, he said. But he said the problems are numerous enough to raise some concerns. These events don't seem to be repeating -- there's a lot of them -- but they appear to be quality control more than they are design, he said.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Fall of oil exec Roger Parker marked by risky bets gone bad
originally appeared in The Denver Post:
Roger Parker appeared to have it all in 2007. He lived in a historic, $9 million mansion in Cherry Hills Village amid Denver's business and sporting elite. He golfed with John Elway. He traveled by private jet to gamble in Las Vegas and golf in Palm Springs.
Also that year, Parker completed the deal of his career. The chief executive of Denver-based Delta Petroleum sold a $684 million, one-third stake in the growing company to Tracinda Corp., owned by billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian.
The transaction would be Parker's undoing, marking the start of a remarkable downfall. It played out, friends say, as a close business associate discovered that Parker, then married, was having an affair with his wife.
Parker and Delta struggled with risky bets gone bad. Tracinda forced Parker out after about a year and eventually took Delta into bankruptcy. It pursued Parker for more than $7 million from an unpaid loan but recently found just $46 in his retirement account and $10,000 in his brokerage account.
On Nov. 27, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused Parker of tipping off his close friend and another, as-yet-unidentified friend ahead of the Tracinda deal, allowing them to reap hundreds of thousands of dollars in ill-gotten gains. His lifestyle included use of private charter jet services as well as many other exclusive memberships.
Two Cherry Hills homes — one Parker bought in 2004 for $9 million and the one it replaced, recently signed over to his ex-wife — are for sale.
An attorney for Parker did not respond to requests for comment for this story. He has not yet responded to the SEC's claims.
Interviews with friends, associates and businessmen, as well as scores of public documents, paint a picture of Parker, 51, as ambitious and aggressive, someone who set out early on a path toward multimillion-dollar success and social prominence.
He achieved both — with the help of a network of well-placed friends — but he took big risks along the way, spent lavishly and seldom settled for second-best.
Roger was a guy who thinks it all works out in spades, according to Delta's former chief operating officer. At one point, he speculated aloud he would be worth $200 million someday.
Fast success
Parker was a standout student at the University of Colorado business-school program in mineral land management. It trained students to be the property-acquisition brains behind the geologic science that identified potentially drillable resources.
But the 1980s, with the petroleum industry tanking, wasn't the best time to aspire to be an oilman.
There were no jobs, recruiting was down 80 percent, and the only ones likely to find a job after the collapse were those with experience, or new grads, according to an associate who graduated with Parker in 1983. But Roger got involved from the start. While we were all in school, he was getting a feel for the business, getting connections and experience. Parker found fast success from hard work.
Only a couple years out of school, he had the big house, all the trappings of success, according to one source.
That happened at Ampet Inc., a small oil-and-gas company formed by Parker mentor and a family friend, a Breckenridge attorney, and his lawyer father, Parker's parents were investors in the business.
The younger Parker and the junior partner would remain business associates for years, beginning with Parker's seat as executive vice president of Ampet while still a student at CU, records show.
While Parker worked at Ampet, his business partner and an associate formed Delta Petroleum in 1984. Parker was first listed on Delta documents as secretary in 1987.
Golf friendships
Two months later, Parker's father, was nominated to the U.S. District Court bench in New Mexico by President Ronald Reagan.
The elder Parker eventually served as federal chief judge in New Mexico until 2003. Along the way, he invested in oil and gas — including Delta — and as of 2010 was drawing royalties on several Colorado wells, some in the range of $500,000 to $1 million, according to financial-disclosure records required of all federal judges.
Roger Parker's relationships reach deep into Denver's business community and stretch across years.
Boisterous in laughter and quick with a joke, Parker was often found hanging with pals at Elway's, in part because of a friendship with the former Broncos quarterback. Both exceptional golfers, Elway and Parker sometimes partnered in charity events, friends said.
Efforts to reach Elway through the Denver Broncos were unsuccessful.
One of Parker's closest friends is a CU graduate in mineral land management with Parker.
The two are avid golfers — with memberships at Cherry Hills and Castle Pines, among others — and big boosters of CU's athletic program, forming the elite Buff Club Cabinet with others including Van Gilder.
The CU graduate has found a level of success that eluded his friend. He recently sold his Cordillera Energy Partners III for $2.8 billion to the company where he started, Apache Corp. Efforts to reach the college friend for comment were unsuccessful.
Drive for status
Parker, twice divorced, enjoyed living large, primarily through houses, golf-club memberships and jets, friends say.
His drive for status was evident in a years-long pursuit of a home at the very pinnacle of Denver society.
Parker sold his first Cherry Hills house and moved into a two-story Tudor he built in 2001 next to the Cherry Hills Country Club. He borrowed $1.6 million to build it and borrowed another $9 million on it over the years. But friends said he was disappointed with the outcome.
In 2004, Parker bought a $9 million mansion from old-money oilman's family along the exclusive Cherry Hills Park Drive. Next door lived the Broncos head coach, and across the street was their legendary money manager.
But Parker was unable to sell the Tudor home, and it remains on the market. The mansion he bought from the oil family — one of the oldest in that area — also is for sale.
Parker acquired a quarter interest in use of a Citation 10 jet, and he sold half of that to Delta.
On a golf trip to Palm Springs, Parker and friends stopped in Las Vegas — the Bellagio and Venetian were among his favorite haunts — to play the tables. Parker believed he could break the house in blackjack, one associate said.
Parker isn't flashy, most comfortable wearing shorts and tennis shoes, driving an SUV, listening to Aerosmith and drinking rum and Coke, friends said.
Parker often does business with friends. One of those is Denver power broker and Parker's personal and business attorney. Earlier this year, Parker pledged 100,000 shares in Prospect Global Energy as collateral to his attorney's law firm for personal legal help, state corporation filings show. At the time, the shares were worth $1 million. Today, they're valued at $167,000.
His attorney who is not representing Parker in the SEC's insider-trading case, would not comment for this story.
One of the attoney's sons, is vice chairman and co-founder of the Denver company, which mines potash.
A Prospect investor who founded Hexagon Investments in 1992, also is a friend of Parker's. He would eventually loan $24.7 million into Parker's latest venture, Recovery Energy, according to financial filings. Efforts to reach the investor for comment were unsuccessful.
Lucrative introduction
Parker was introduced to Kerkorian by a former chauffeur who entered the oil-and-gas business after marrying the former Denver Post owner. The chauffeur, now a Las Vegas resident, had done business with Delta as far back as 2003.
For the introduction — and the resulting sale of a 35 percent ownership share of the Denver company — Davis landed about $5 million worth of Delta shares. Kerkorian would allege later in a settled lawsuit that Parker had secretly arranged contracts and business arrangements for Davis as part of the deal.
Tracinda bought in at $19 a share — Parker had pushed off an initial $17 bid and pressed for more — on New Year's Eve 2007. The $684 million purchase pushed the company stock up 19 percent in one day. It would eventually hit $24.78 from $15.51, when the Tracinda deal was announced.
The SEC alleges in its civil suit that in the months and days before the Tracinda investment was firm and made public, he sent dozens of text messages about it to his business associate. Insiders said Parker didn't even tell some of his closest board members and company executives about the impending deal.
In a related case, his business associate was indicted on criminal insider-trading charges that he allegedly made about $86,000 on the information. He has pleaded not guilty. The SEC alleges that another unnamed individual who is friends with him and Parker racked up a $730,000 payday on Delta stock.
The government has not accused Parker of profiting from the information.
Delta and Parker had encountered the SEC before. In 2006 and 2007 — prior to the Tracinda deal — the government investigated alleged backdating of stock options that were awarded to Parker and other executives. The SEC later dropped its inquiry, and a pair of shareholder suits alleging the practice were settled.
Margin call
Following the merger, it didn't take long before Parker's business plan — a no-hedge, keep-drilling approach — would weigh on Delta's books and, eventually, its stock price.
Several company insiders say Parker's steadfast refusal to hedge some of the company's natural-gas and oil assets against a potential price drop was its most critical undoing. Typically, energy companies hedge by agreeing to sell a portion of their future production at a set price or range.
Delta's former COO and chief geologist, said Delta could have hedged through 2015 but didn't. We'd still be around today if it had.
When shares in Delta dropped below $4 in November 2008, it triggered a margin call on Parker's brokerage account because he had pledged shares as collateral for loans.
Tracinda loaned Parker $7.5 million to cover the shortfall. It said in legal filings it wanted Parker to pay attention to Delta instead of his failing personal finances.
By January 2009, the situation was, in one insider's viewpoint, desperate. He was the eternal optimist of gas prices coming right back, the insider said. They didn't.
By May 2009, Kerkorian had had enough. Three board members asked Parker to resign as chairman and CEO. Parker couldn't get along with new co-chairman Daniel Taylor, a Kerkorian board appointee.
Parker left with a severance payday of about $7 million.
New venture
Parker wasn't unemployed for long.
With the help of friends, he staged a comeback through a new venture, Recovery Energy.
While Reiman was the money lender, the oil-and-gas properties that made up Recovery's inventory came from Davis. Van Gilder provided the office space.
Parker paid for much of it with shares in the new company, a tactic he had used before.
Filings show the company's production and revenues followed a downward trend. Revenues in 2010 were $9.76 million but only $8.36 million in 2011. Oil and gas production in the second quarter of 2012 was down 24 percent from 2011.
Interest expenses in 2011 almost equaled the value of the oil and gas the company produced.
Parker engaged in an unusual practice with his Recovery shares that may have been intended to land a bigger payday or ward off a creditor such as Tracinda.
Normally, executives try to obtain the shares they are granted as quickly as possible, a process known as vesting. Parker, however, amended his employment agreement 14 times over more than two years to push back the date when his Recovery shares would vest and come into his possession.
Tracinda in late August won a judgment for the $7.5 million loan — now $7.7 million — against Parker, who argued he'd been shorted about $5 million in an effort to sell the last of his Delta stock in 2009.
Tracinda has been following Parker with garnishment orders to collect — first on his pension account and then his securities account. Total garnered: $10,745.
It followed with a garnishment order at Recovery for Parker's salary, roughly $21,000 a month, and is making a grab at about 1.3 million of Parker's Recovery shares.
Parker resigned from Recovery on Nov. 14, just ahead of another garnishment effort by Tracinda. SEC notices show his business partner began selling Recovery stock heavily just after.
Two weeks later, the SEC named Parker a co-defendant in its insider-trading lawsuit against another associate.
Friends said he left town on a trip when the case was about to be made public.
Roger Parker appeared to have it all in 2007. He lived in a historic, $9 million mansion in Cherry Hills Village amid Denver's business and sporting elite. He golfed with John Elway. He traveled by private jet to gamble in Las Vegas and golf in Palm Springs.
Also that year, Parker completed the deal of his career. The chief executive of Denver-based Delta Petroleum sold a $684 million, one-third stake in the growing company to Tracinda Corp., owned by billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian.
The transaction would be Parker's undoing, marking the start of a remarkable downfall. It played out, friends say, as a close business associate discovered that Parker, then married, was having an affair with his wife.
Parker and Delta struggled with risky bets gone bad. Tracinda forced Parker out after about a year and eventually took Delta into bankruptcy. It pursued Parker for more than $7 million from an unpaid loan but recently found just $46 in his retirement account and $10,000 in his brokerage account.
On Nov. 27, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused Parker of tipping off his close friend and another, as-yet-unidentified friend ahead of the Tracinda deal, allowing them to reap hundreds of thousands of dollars in ill-gotten gains. His lifestyle included use of private charter jet services as well as many other exclusive memberships.
Two Cherry Hills homes — one Parker bought in 2004 for $9 million and the one it replaced, recently signed over to his ex-wife — are for sale.
An attorney for Parker did not respond to requests for comment for this story. He has not yet responded to the SEC's claims.
Interviews with friends, associates and businessmen, as well as scores of public documents, paint a picture of Parker, 51, as ambitious and aggressive, someone who set out early on a path toward multimillion-dollar success and social prominence.
He achieved both — with the help of a network of well-placed friends — but he took big risks along the way, spent lavishly and seldom settled for second-best.
Roger was a guy who thinks it all works out in spades, according to Delta's former chief operating officer. At one point, he speculated aloud he would be worth $200 million someday.
Fast success
Parker was a standout student at the University of Colorado business-school program in mineral land management. It trained students to be the property-acquisition brains behind the geologic science that identified potentially drillable resources.
But the 1980s, with the petroleum industry tanking, wasn't the best time to aspire to be an oilman.
There were no jobs, recruiting was down 80 percent, and the only ones likely to find a job after the collapse were those with experience, or new grads, according to an associate who graduated with Parker in 1983. But Roger got involved from the start. While we were all in school, he was getting a feel for the business, getting connections and experience. Parker found fast success from hard work.
Only a couple years out of school, he had the big house, all the trappings of success, according to one source.
That happened at Ampet Inc., a small oil-and-gas company formed by Parker mentor and a family friend, a Breckenridge attorney, and his lawyer father, Parker's parents were investors in the business.
The younger Parker and the junior partner would remain business associates for years, beginning with Parker's seat as executive vice president of Ampet while still a student at CU, records show.
While Parker worked at Ampet, his business partner and an associate formed Delta Petroleum in 1984. Parker was first listed on Delta documents as secretary in 1987.
Golf friendships
Two months later, Parker's father, was nominated to the U.S. District Court bench in New Mexico by President Ronald Reagan.
The elder Parker eventually served as federal chief judge in New Mexico until 2003. Along the way, he invested in oil and gas — including Delta — and as of 2010 was drawing royalties on several Colorado wells, some in the range of $500,000 to $1 million, according to financial-disclosure records required of all federal judges.
Roger Parker's relationships reach deep into Denver's business community and stretch across years.
Boisterous in laughter and quick with a joke, Parker was often found hanging with pals at Elway's, in part because of a friendship with the former Broncos quarterback. Both exceptional golfers, Elway and Parker sometimes partnered in charity events, friends said.
Efforts to reach Elway through the Denver Broncos were unsuccessful.
One of Parker's closest friends is a CU graduate in mineral land management with Parker.
The two are avid golfers — with memberships at Cherry Hills and Castle Pines, among others — and big boosters of CU's athletic program, forming the elite Buff Club Cabinet with others including Van Gilder.
The CU graduate has found a level of success that eluded his friend. He recently sold his Cordillera Energy Partners III for $2.8 billion to the company where he started, Apache Corp. Efforts to reach the college friend for comment were unsuccessful.
Drive for status
Parker, twice divorced, enjoyed living large, primarily through houses, golf-club memberships and jets, friends say.
His drive for status was evident in a years-long pursuit of a home at the very pinnacle of Denver society.
Parker sold his first Cherry Hills house and moved into a two-story Tudor he built in 2001 next to the Cherry Hills Country Club. He borrowed $1.6 million to build it and borrowed another $9 million on it over the years. But friends said he was disappointed with the outcome.
In 2004, Parker bought a $9 million mansion from old-money oilman's family along the exclusive Cherry Hills Park Drive. Next door lived the Broncos head coach, and across the street was their legendary money manager.
But Parker was unable to sell the Tudor home, and it remains on the market. The mansion he bought from the oil family — one of the oldest in that area — also is for sale.
Parker acquired a quarter interest in use of a Citation 10 jet, and he sold half of that to Delta.
On a golf trip to Palm Springs, Parker and friends stopped in Las Vegas — the Bellagio and Venetian were among his favorite haunts — to play the tables. Parker believed he could break the house in blackjack, one associate said.
Parker isn't flashy, most comfortable wearing shorts and tennis shoes, driving an SUV, listening to Aerosmith and drinking rum and Coke, friends said.
Parker often does business with friends. One of those is Denver power broker and Parker's personal and business attorney. Earlier this year, Parker pledged 100,000 shares in Prospect Global Energy as collateral to his attorney's law firm for personal legal help, state corporation filings show. At the time, the shares were worth $1 million. Today, they're valued at $167,000.
His attorney who is not representing Parker in the SEC's insider-trading case, would not comment for this story.
One of the attoney's sons, is vice chairman and co-founder of the Denver company, which mines potash.
A Prospect investor who founded Hexagon Investments in 1992, also is a friend of Parker's. He would eventually loan $24.7 million into Parker's latest venture, Recovery Energy, according to financial filings. Efforts to reach the investor for comment were unsuccessful.
Lucrative introduction
Parker was introduced to Kerkorian by a former chauffeur who entered the oil-and-gas business after marrying the former Denver Post owner. The chauffeur, now a Las Vegas resident, had done business with Delta as far back as 2003.
For the introduction — and the resulting sale of a 35 percent ownership share of the Denver company — Davis landed about $5 million worth of Delta shares. Kerkorian would allege later in a settled lawsuit that Parker had secretly arranged contracts and business arrangements for Davis as part of the deal.
Tracinda bought in at $19 a share — Parker had pushed off an initial $17 bid and pressed for more — on New Year's Eve 2007. The $684 million purchase pushed the company stock up 19 percent in one day. It would eventually hit $24.78 from $15.51, when the Tracinda deal was announced.
The SEC alleges in its civil suit that in the months and days before the Tracinda investment was firm and made public, he sent dozens of text messages about it to his business associate. Insiders said Parker didn't even tell some of his closest board members and company executives about the impending deal.
In a related case, his business associate was indicted on criminal insider-trading charges that he allegedly made about $86,000 on the information. He has pleaded not guilty. The SEC alleges that another unnamed individual who is friends with him and Parker racked up a $730,000 payday on Delta stock.
The government has not accused Parker of profiting from the information.
Delta and Parker had encountered the SEC before. In 2006 and 2007 — prior to the Tracinda deal — the government investigated alleged backdating of stock options that were awarded to Parker and other executives. The SEC later dropped its inquiry, and a pair of shareholder suits alleging the practice were settled.
Margin call
Following the merger, it didn't take long before Parker's business plan — a no-hedge, keep-drilling approach — would weigh on Delta's books and, eventually, its stock price.
Several company insiders say Parker's steadfast refusal to hedge some of the company's natural-gas and oil assets against a potential price drop was its most critical undoing. Typically, energy companies hedge by agreeing to sell a portion of their future production at a set price or range.
Delta's former COO and chief geologist, said Delta could have hedged through 2015 but didn't. We'd still be around today if it had.
When shares in Delta dropped below $4 in November 2008, it triggered a margin call on Parker's brokerage account because he had pledged shares as collateral for loans.
Tracinda loaned Parker $7.5 million to cover the shortfall. It said in legal filings it wanted Parker to pay attention to Delta instead of his failing personal finances.
By January 2009, the situation was, in one insider's viewpoint, desperate. He was the eternal optimist of gas prices coming right back, the insider said. They didn't.
By May 2009, Kerkorian had had enough. Three board members asked Parker to resign as chairman and CEO. Parker couldn't get along with new co-chairman Daniel Taylor, a Kerkorian board appointee.
Parker left with a severance payday of about $7 million.
New venture
Parker wasn't unemployed for long.
With the help of friends, he staged a comeback through a new venture, Recovery Energy.
While Reiman was the money lender, the oil-and-gas properties that made up Recovery's inventory came from Davis. Van Gilder provided the office space.
Parker paid for much of it with shares in the new company, a tactic he had used before.
Filings show the company's production and revenues followed a downward trend. Revenues in 2010 were $9.76 million but only $8.36 million in 2011. Oil and gas production in the second quarter of 2012 was down 24 percent from 2011.
Interest expenses in 2011 almost equaled the value of the oil and gas the company produced.
Parker engaged in an unusual practice with his Recovery shares that may have been intended to land a bigger payday or ward off a creditor such as Tracinda.
Normally, executives try to obtain the shares they are granted as quickly as possible, a process known as vesting. Parker, however, amended his employment agreement 14 times over more than two years to push back the date when his Recovery shares would vest and come into his possession.
Tracinda in late August won a judgment for the $7.5 million loan — now $7.7 million — against Parker, who argued he'd been shorted about $5 million in an effort to sell the last of his Delta stock in 2009.
Tracinda has been following Parker with garnishment orders to collect — first on his pension account and then his securities account. Total garnered: $10,745.
It followed with a garnishment order at Recovery for Parker's salary, roughly $21,000 a month, and is making a grab at about 1.3 million of Parker's Recovery shares.
Parker resigned from Recovery on Nov. 14, just ahead of another garnishment effort by Tracinda. SEC notices show his business partner began selling Recovery stock heavily just after.
Two weeks later, the SEC named Parker a co-defendant in its insider-trading lawsuit against another associate.
Friends said he left town on a trip when the case was about to be made public.
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