45 lines
4.7 KiB
Markdown
45 lines
4.7 KiB
Markdown
---
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category: "Other"
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tags:
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- Person
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- WilliamHerbertHunt
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- Oil
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- SilverThursday
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- Wiretapping
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- Dallas
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alias:
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- Herbert Hunt
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- W. Herbert Hunt
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- W.H. Hunt
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summary: "Son of H.L. Hunt who was indicted with his brother Bunker for wiretapping their father's aides, was found liable in the 1980 silver manipulation, and kept Petro-Hunt in a trust beyond his creditors' reach."
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born: 1929-03-06
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died: 2024-04-09
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location: "Dallas, Texas"
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created: 2026-09-21
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updated: 2026-09-21
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---
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William Herbert Hunt (March 6, 1929 to April 9, 2024) was the third son of [[H.L. Hunt]] and [[Lyda Bunker Hunt]] and the business partner of his older brother [[Nelson Bunker Hunt]]. He was born in [[El Dorado, Arkansas]], and ran [[Placid Oil Company|Placid Oil]] and [[Penrod Drilling Company|Penrod Drilling]], the companies held in the trusts their father created for the first family.[^1][^2]
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### The Wiretaps
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In the autumn of 1969 Herbert and Bunker Hunt engaged a [[Houston]] private investigation agency to place electronic surveillance on houses in [[Dallas, Texas|Dallas]], telling its president that they had been the victims of extensive embezzlement. The targets were four [[Hunt Oil Company|Hunt Oil]] executives, among them their father's security chief, the former FBI agent [[Paul Rothermel]]. The agency's men recorded the telephones from rented cars, edited the tapes, and delivered them to the brothers, who paid an itemized bill. A policeman in [[Richardson, Texas|Richardson]] stopped one of the men, [[Jon Joseph Kelly]], on January 16, 1970, and found a recorder in his car. Within three weeks the brothers had told Senator [[James Eastland]] that they were trying to have their father declared incompetent. Kelly and [[Patrick McCann]] were convicted, and named the brothers afterward. Both were indicted in 1973. The [[United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit|Fifth Circuit]] reinstated the suppressed tape evidence against them on December 23, 1974. In July 1975 they were indicted again, with the lawyer [[Percy Foreman]], for obstructing justice by paying for the detectives' silence, and were acquitted.[^3][^4][^5][^6]
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### Soybeans and Silver
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On April 28, 1977, the [[Commodity Futures Trading Commission]] sued Herbert and Bunker Hunt, five of their children, and a family corporation for exceeding the three-million-bushel limit on soybean futures through accounts in relatives' names, and the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit|Seventh Circuit]] ruled for the commission in 1979. That July the brothers formed the [[International Metals Investment Company]] in [[Bermuda]] with two Saudi partners. The group held about 200 million ounces of silver when the [[COMEX|Commodity Exchange]] restricted trading to liquidation on January 21, 1980. On March 27 the brothers could not meet their margin calls. A federal jury found in August 1988 that Herbert, Bunker, and [[Lamar Hunt]], the Saudi diplomat [[Mahmoud Fustok]], and the Bermuda company had manipulated the market, and that all but Lamar had engaged in racketeering. Judgment for the Peruvian company [[Minpeco]] exceeded 132 million dollars.[^1][^7][^8]
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### Bankruptcy
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Placid Oil filed for bankruptcy in 1986 and Herbert Hunt personally in 1988. The brothers paid about 160 million dollars in 1994, most of it to the [[Internal Revenue Service]]. The 1936 trust in his name was beyond the reach of the creditors and held [[Petro-Hunt]], which he ran with his three sons. "After the January 1, 1990, settlement, I walked away with an IRS overhang for ten years," he said in 2001. Of his brother he said: "Bunker and I split up. It seemed like every time one of us got sued, the other got sued too, and we had to hire twice as many lawyers."[^1]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Gwynne, S.C. "Bunker Hunt," *Texas Monthly,* September 2001. https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/bunker-hunt/
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[^2]: "Iconic Wildcatter Herbert Hunt Passes Away," *AAPG Explorer,* 2024; obituary, *The Dallas Morning News,* April 14, 2024.
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[^3]: United States v. Hunt, 505 F.2d 931 (5th Cir. 1974).
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[^4]: Porterfield, Bill. "H.L. Hunt's Long Goodbye," *Texas Monthly,* March 1975. https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/h-l-hunts-long-goodbye/
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[^5]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Headquarters file on Paul M. Rothermel Jr. (FOIA release), DeLoach to Tolson, February 3, 1970. https://archive.org/details/RothermelJr.PaulM.HQ1
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[^6]: McFadden, Robert D. "Nelson Bunker Hunt, 88, Oil Tycoon With a Texas-Size Presence, Dies," *The New York Times,* October 22, 2014.
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[^7]: Commodity Futures Trading Commission v. Hunt, 591 F.2d 1211 (7th Cir. 1979).
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[^8]: Minpeco, S.A. v. Hunt, 718 F. Supp. 168 (S.D.N.Y. 1989); "Money: The Silver Trading Caper," *Reason,* June 1980. https://reason.com/1980/06/01/the-silver-trading-caper/
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