Incredible Yankee

The biggest overseas supplier of fresh foods to U.S. armed forces in Europe is a 35-year-old ex-G.I. by the name of Robert T. McLane. McLane's huge fleet of refrigerated trucks delivers American-style white bread twice weekly to U.S. units from Berlin to Bordeaux; every day he ships eleven freight cars of fresh milk to Army mess halls and post exchanges. At the delivery entrance of Paris' U.S. embassy, at the private billets of American officials, at some 400 service clubs and European restaurants, McLane's trucks roll up with everything from fresh celery to fresh caviar, from pineapple to pretzels. Last week McLane launched his new est project: to convert Europe to the short-order diner. McLane hopes to install his own infra-red cookers in some 6,000 small cafes, thus create a vast new market for his precooked hot dogs, cheeseburgers and U.S.-style barbecue.

In his quick rise to success Merchant McLane has introduced into Europe the most modern and businesslike American methods of food processing and distribution. But to get where he is, McLane has also used such unbusinesslike methods as smuggling, bribery, corrupting public officials, jumping bail and evading arrest.

From Guns to Eggs. Massachusetts-born, Bob McLane studied at Babson Institute before he went off to World War II, fought across The Netherlands, returned to Europe after the war as a military government clerk in Wiesbaden. On a trip home in 1949 McLane first ran afoul of the law. U.S. customs officials arrested him in Boston for bringing in an undeclared diamond ring, got him convicted in Federal Court and fined $500. ; Back in Europe that year McLane took leave from his military government post to visit wartime Dutch friends who ran a wholesale food business, got the idea that I he could do business with the Dutch. As his friends' agent, he landed his first U.S. Army contract--for $1,000,000 worth of : fresh eggs. He quit his job and went into ; the food business for himself.

When he discovered that the Army spent $1,000,000 yearly just to handle : empty milk bottles, McLane cannily worked out a deal to import U.S. machinery for packaging milk in cardboard containers. To pay for the equipment, he borrowed $250,000 from the Dutch reconstruction bank, then signed up The Netherlands' giant Sterovita Corp. to supply the milk, through McLane, for all U.S. forces in Europe.

Coffee Cache. Because he could use Post Exchange permits to transport his milk across the German border without paying customs, McLane got the idea of smuggling coffee into Germany in the; tank trucks he used for bulk deliveries. .

He filled tanks with coffee beans he bought in Belgium for 60-c- per lb., concealed them with a small inner tank containing a few gallons of milk, resold the coffee on the German black market for up to $11 per lb. The scheme worked fine until German customs officials got suspicious, arrested him with a 5,500-lb. load ; of coffee. Friends in the Post Exchange service got him freed on $12,000 bail, and McLane promptly skipped the country. The Germans tried him in absence, found him guilty and sentenced him to seven months in jail.

Though he could no longer go to Germany, McLane found he could still make plenty of money there. To PX snack bars he sold, at 21.5-c- per qt., 250,000 qts. of chocolate milk monthly, all labeled "minimum butter fat content 2.6%." Independent tests in German laboratories showed it was actually skim milk that cost only 10^ per qt. to produce. Though he was forced to cut his price, McLane held on to orders for other dairy products, meat, fresh fruits and vegetables. As he blandly explained, he got and kept his contracts by bribing purchasing officials. Says he: "If you wanted business, you had to do business with The Organization."

Covering the Trail. At the trial of a Post Exchange official two years ago, McLane turned state's evidence, won his own immunity and identified The Organization as a small group of purchasing agents for the U.S. armed forces who handed out fat Government contracts in return for personal kickbacks of 1% to 5%. All told, McLane said, he paid The Organization some $235,000 by depositing money to an account in Zurich's Credit Suisse. Out of twelve PX officials McLane named, only one, Charles E. Wilson, was tried. He was convicted, fined $5,000 and sentenced to six months in jail.

Last week McLane said that he is still paying off purchasing agents. Says he: "I'll give names, dates, places--and amounts I'm paying off--to any official investigator or prosecutor trying to clean up U.S. purchasing agencies in Europe. I'm a businessman first, last and always; and to get business, I sometimes have to pay off." But the Army's Criminal Investigation Division, which had the PX payoff problem dumped in its lap last year, has not asked him for new evidence. Though the PX thinks bribe-taking is about cleaned up, C.I.D. finds there is null evidence of payoffs around. The big barrier to taking the cases to court is the Swiss banking system. Swiss law forbids disclosure of bank records; thus C.I.D. cannot get its hands on the vital pieces of evidence it needs to get convictions.

Gentleman's Gentleman. McLane has no qualms over his past, no worries about the present. He expects to gross $11 million this year, has already pocketed large profits from the $50 million worth of Dutch goods that he has sold to U.S. armed forces. "No kidding," says he, "the first million is the hardest." After his fast exit from Germany he bought a mansion at Waterloo, Belgium, lives there with his wife and three children. To upgrade his social position, he joined Belgium's Royal Jockey Club, built up a stable of 35 thoroughbreds. From the owners' enclosure at Longchamps he has elbowed his way into the international set of Prince Aly Khan and French Textile Mogul Marcel Boussac. As his gentleman jockey-trainer, McLane hopes to hire his friend, Group Captain Peter Townsend, as soon as Townsend's R.A.F. service ends this summer.

But McLane's favorite hobby is still making money. With his Europe-wide distribution system he plans to introduce U.S. frozen foods and prepackaged meat, introduce U.S. advertising and merchandising methods. If such methods fail to bring in profits fast enough, McLane has plenty of other ideas. Says he: "I'll do business either way, straight or otherwise."

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