Last week when Bloomberg reported (and NY papers headlined) the story that Arafat had invested in the company that owns Bowlmor Lanes in NYC and Strike here on Long Island, I didn't link to or put up a post on the story. The reason was that in waking up to that story, I also woke up to a personal ethical dilemma.
Some background:
- My friends and I celebrated the 2003 New Year at Bowlmor. We had fun (and convenient because at that time Chrissy lived only a few blocks away.) I think we also went there a few other times.
- Strike is right across the street from my office here on the Island and we'll head over there after work for few beers occasionally. It was also the meet-up spot where we kicked off my bachelor party.
Retroactively, it's no big deal; I didn't know that Arafat had invested in the company. It appears that the firm didn't know it was his money either. So, I'm safe from feeling any guilt in supporting the company in the past.
But then, last week's story came out and the ball was in my court.
My friends and I (about 10-12 of us) had already booked ourselves a couple of lanes for this New Year's. One of our friends laid out the money on her credit card to hold the reservation. At about $100 a pop, if Chrissy and I chose not to go on principle, I would have had to have paid our friend and Bowlmor gets the money anyway. Also, one of my buddies from college and his wife are coming down from New Hampshire and were looking forward to New Year's in NYC. I seemed to be faced with either making new plans and jamming up the group's plans out of disgust for giving any more money to Arafat's heirs or go and be disgusted with myself.
My friends and I have a pretty apolitical relationship--I really don't discuss politics much outside of F?WF?, and very few of them even know about it let alone read it--so no matter how the whole thing worked out we'd lose money and probably create some tension. That's not to say that any of my friends are apathetic about terrorism or Arafat but it's a snafu that I wasn't looking forward to have to face down.
Thankfully, the company is giving all the money back. They seem genuinely surprised about their investor's identify and are doing the right thing.
Shannon said he was just as surprised by the news.
“We had no idea whatsoever until yesterday,” he said.
Zeid Masri, managing partner of SilverHaze Partners, a Virginia-based investment firm, told Bloomberg Markets Magazine he invested the money in Strike Holdings for Onyx because he had been a former classmate of Shannon.
Strike Holdings, which also owns bowling alleys on Long Island and in Maryland and Florida, said it, too, was unaware the money had come from Arafat.
“Had we known the source of these funds, which represents approximately 2 percent of our company’s equity, we never would have accepted them,” company spokeswoman Marcia Horowitz told the News.
Bullet dodged.
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