A. P.'s Net

Oetje (pronounced eachie) John Rogge was a Harvard Law School classmate of Tommy Corcoran, currently has the juicy job of handling SEC's attack on Transamerica Corp., the $138,000,000 bank holding company accused of registering "false and misleading statements."

Transamerica's boss, old Amadeo Peter Giannini, having retorted that it was simply a matter of accounting theory, began fighting SEC with all the wrath his hot Italian blood could generate. In Washington last week, after a month of legal fencing, Lawyer Rogge haled Mr. Giannini's personal secretary to court. She refused to talk. So did three other Giannini intimates. "This is the most outrageous case of contumacy I have ever seen," bellowed Lawyer Rogge, obtaining a recess until March 20.

Hustling home to San Francisco, old A. P. immediately took his battle to the public. Snapped this onetime backer of the New Deal: "I found bright young men, fresh from academic halls, completely uninformed of life and experience and the ways of business, dominating important councils. By using the force of propaganda they try to compensate. . . ."

Thereupon Banker Giannini himself took a bold propagandistic step. To squelch SEC charges that he took more money from his empire than he admitted, A. P. (who has lately been closeted with cunning Pressagent Edward L. Bernays) released a complete statement of his net worth, including cash, securities, salary, insurance. Instead of the millions most people would have guessed, it totaled only $407,798.46.

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