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Hunvitz during^ his entire career. He has 

 been sued by the Securities and Exchange 

 Commission for alleged stock manipula- 

 tion in a 1971 case (setUed by consent 

 decree while denying any guilt); charged 

 by New York state regulators in 1977 with 

 looting an insurance company (settled by 

 paying S400,000 while denying any wrong- 

 doing); sued by investors for allegedly 

 committing fraud In the takeover of Padfic 

 Lumber (two suits pending); and sued by 

 the Labor Department for allegedly invest- 

 ing Pacific Lumber's pension fund with 

 Executive Life Insurance Co. in return for 

 junk-bond financing of the takeover (pend- 

 ing). Executive Life later collapsed, imper- 

 iling payments to retirees. Pacific Lumber 

 is making up the shortfall while Executive 

 Life is being sold. 



Most of the litigation began in the 

 ]Z^s. In the 1990s, Mr. Hurwitz has kept a 

 much lower profile, but again faces law- 

 suits, this time for allegedly looting 

 Maxxam at shareholders' expense, 



A focus of that action is the desert 

 town of Rancho Mirage, Calif. Locals have 

 battled Mr. Hunvitz for a decade over his 

 efforts to build a complex of luxury homes 

 and a hotel, called Mirada. Lot sales and 

 construction have been slow. 



The Mlrada property was originally 

 owned by Federated Development Co., a 

 company wholly owned by Mr. Hurwitz 

 and his family. Federated borrowed heav- 

 ily from Maxxam to fund the project In 

 1991, the project's poor performance put 

 Federated on the > edge of defaulting on 

 S34.3 million in loans and interest it owed 

 Maxxam. Maxxam 's board, which Mr. 

 Hurwitz chairs, forgave the loans — and 

 paid Federated an additional S8.6 million 

 for the Mirada project. The bottom line: A 

 company that Mr. Hurwitz owned elimi- 

 nated its Mirada debt, received an infusion 



