Edward Reynolds Downe Jr. (born 1929) is an American businessman and socialite.
Biography
Downe graduated from the
University of Missouri
The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...
's
Missouri School of Journalism
The Missouri School of Journalism, housed under the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri, Columbia, is one of the oldest formal journalism schools in the world. The school provides academic education and practical training in of journalis ...
in 1952. He worked in a variety of capacities at two Virginia newspapers before joining
True magazine. In 1954, he left True to become an editor at the rival magazine
Argosy; he later moved into advertising at Argosy. In 1966, Downe purchased
Family Weekly, a newspaper insert similar to
Parade Magazine
''Parade'' was an American nationwide Sunday newspaper magazine, distributed in more than 700 newspapers nationwide in the United States until 2022. The most widely read magazine in the U.S., ''Parade'' had a circulation of 32 million and a read ...
. He founded
Downe Communications in 1967.
Through this company he went on to acquire magazines including
The Ladies' Home Journal, and
The American Home.
Downe eventually sold Downe Communications to the
Charter Company
The Charter Company of Jacksonville, Florida was a conglomerate with more than 180 subsidiaries that was in the ''Fortune'' 500 for 11 years beginning in 1974 and ranked 61st in 1984. The company filed for bankruptcy protection in late 1984, e ...
, a Jacksonville, Florida based oil and insurance conglomerate for approximately $9 million.
Downe divorced his first wife, Naomi Susan Campbell, in 1977.
Downe married heiress Charlotte Ford (mother of
Elena Ford) on his 57th birthday, August 31, 1986.
Insider trading
In 1992, the
Securities and Exchange Commission
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street crash of 1929. Its primary purpose is to enforce laws against market m ...
charged that in the mid- to late-1980s Downe and associated exchanged inside information in order to make illegal stock trades.
Irish cottage controversy
In February 2009 the
Hartford Courant
The ''Hartford Courant'' is the largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Connecticut, and is advertised as the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States. A morning newspaper serving most of the state north of New Haven and ...
ran a story concerning US senator
Christopher Dodd
Christopher John Dodd (born May 27, 1944) is an American lobbyist, lawyer, and Democratic Party politician who served as a United States senator from Connecticut from 1981 to 2011. Dodd is the longest-serving senator in Connecticut's history. ...
's acquisition of his vacation home in
Roundstone, Ireland. The article pointed out Dodd's close links to Downe, his disgraced former partner in buying the home. After paying an $11 million fine for his role in the scam, Downe later obtained a
pardon
A pardon is a government decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal consequences resulting from a criminal conviction. A pardon may be granted before or after conviction for the crime, depending on the laws of the j ...
in the waning days of the
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
administration. The controversial pardon was granted after Dodd lobbied Clinton on Downe's behalf. Dodd later acquired the interests of his partners after the pardon was granted. Dodd was also criticized for claiming the Roundstone home was worth less than $250,000 in Senate ethics filings; some observers estimated the likely value in excess of $1 million USD.
See also
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Downe, Edward Jr.
1929 births
Living people
American businesspeople
People pardoned by Bill Clinton
American businesspeople convicted of crimes
Missouri School of Journalism alumni