Daniel H. Overmyer

Daniel Harrison Overmyer (December 6, 1924 – July 24, 2012) was an American businessman, warehouse mogul, and television broadcaster. During the height of his career, Overmyer was referred to as "the king of warehousing".^[3]

A second-generation warehouse operator, Overmyer aggressively expanded his holdings in the 1950s and 1960s with a warehouse design structure unlike prior models, which emphasized ease of transportation of goods and more efficient storage. At its height, the D. H. Overmyer Warehouse Company boasted over 350 warehouses and 32 million square feet of space in North America and Europe. Overmyer also extended his influence to

Overmyer married Shirley King in 1943; they had four adopted children.[11]^[12] Overmyer was arrested in 1953 when breaking in with another person into a Huron, Ohio, apartment to take back a foster child returned to their mother.^[13] The chargers against him were eventually dropped.^[12] After Harrison died in 1960, Cora was named as the main beneficiary to his $500,000 estate, but Overmyer sued Cora and the bank overseeing the estate. Two years after the litigation began, Cora died, and Overmyer asserted full control.^[14]

From 1962 to 1966, Overmyer controlled the Toledo Monitor, launched in 1959 as a business newspaper but ventured into

Purchase of equipment for the station began in late 1965;[44] by 1966, a $3 million order was placed to purchase programming in 1966,^[45] and transmitter sites were secured later in 1966^[46] for all but the Atlanta and Pittsburgh stations.^[47][48] The television stations were to have been financed by Overmyer's warehouse company, but the lead contractor for the warehouses encountered financial distress, owing $18 million to shareholders in 1967;^[49] this resulted in multiple unfinished buildings with liens placed on them.^[50] The warehouse company also had substantial overhead: the financial development team frequently traveled across the country, with monthly airfare as high as $80,000.^[49] Overmyer agreed to guarantee a $5–6 million debt from the contractor,^[51] which in turn restricted available funds to construct the television stations.^[52] By January 1967, only the San Francisco and Cincinnati stations had progress of any sort,^[53] and construction on the Atlanta, Pittsburgh and Houston stations had not started.^[54][55] The cash crunch brought on by guaranteeing the contractor's debt was later attributed as the reason for Overmyer's 1967 sale of Progress National Bank.^[17][56]

A fourth television network

The United Network and The Las Vegas Show, hosted by Bill Dana, premiered on May 1, 1967. In early May, Overmyer sold his 20 percent interest in the network to majority stockholders for $240,000 cash and a promissory note for $115,000. On June 1, 1967, the United Network folded because of insufficient advertising revenue and costly AT&T distribution charges, effectively cancelling The Las Vegas Show.^[58] Dana later mused, "at least I set a record. I'm the first man in history to sink an entire network."^[61] The network later filed for bankruptcy with $690,000 in debts.^[62] Lewron Television, a television production services company, sued both United and Overmyer for unpaid rental bills.^[63] Overmyer was initially found liable of up to $53,683 in a summary judgment;^[64] this was later reversed on appeal.^[65]

Selling the permits to AVC

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• Station built and signed on by Overmyer
• Permit sold by Overmyer to AVC, which signed on the station
• Permit sold by Overmyer to AVC, but never constructed
• Application previously made by Overmyer but withdrawn
• Station acquired separately by AVC to form U.S. Communications Corp.

Needing financing to finish construction of the stations, Overmyer agreed on March 28, 1967, to sell 80 percent majority control of his construction permits to the American Viscose Corporation (AVC).^[66][67][68] One partner in the investment firm facilitating the sale with Overmyer was a stockholder in WPHL-TV, an existing UHF station in Philadelphia; another partner was appointed to the AVC board of directors after the sale.^[69] AVC arranged to merge the Overmyer permits with WPHL's parent company to form U.S. Communications Corporation on June 8, 1967, giving the combined company six television stations in the top fifty markets.^[70][b] The FCC approved the sale on December 8, 1967,^[72][73][74] waiving a proposed rule in place since 1965^[75] that sought to limit television station ownership within the top fifty markets;^[76] a practice the FCC had employed before in similar transactions.^[77]

Days after the deal was approved, Rep.

When the deal closed on January 15, 1968, Overmyer received the second $1.5 million portion of the total $3 million agreed to in the loan contract.[73] AVC was an investment company with no experience in television broadcasting, thus only provided financing for U.S. Communications, while WPHL was used for leadership: two WPHL executives became part of U.S.'s management team.^[84][85][86] Overmyer's role was limited to only his 20 percent stock in the Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Houston permits, with no managerial oversight; U.S. also included a provision that could compel Overmyer to divest his 20 percent interest^[73] and an option to purchase it between January 16, 1971, and January 15, 1972.^[87] The contract limited the highest purchase price to $3 million, the same amount AVC had loaned to Overmyer; the loan was secured by second mortgages on twenty-three of Overmyer's warehouse properties and his 20 percent interest in the TV stations.^[88] U.S. never executed its option to buy the stock^[89] and Overmyer repaid the $3 million loan.^[90]

Four of the five stations signed on between 1968 and 1969:

Overmyer's method of calculating out-of-pocket expenses proved essential in the hearings as half of the amount was based on opinion instead of documented evidence.[105] The FCC received copies of letters from banks willing to talk about loans to help fund construction of the television stations, which was regarded as "partial evidence" of "financial capability" by Overmyer but was found by the Subcommittee not to be actual commitments. Overmyer executives testified that they were not "firm commitments" but showed willingness by the banks to negotiate "...when the time was right".^[104] The hearings were characterized in Broadcasting magazine as "fishing for evidence ... [b]ut it has portrayed the commission as having acted in a casual, perhaps even inept, manner."^[106] One observer to the hearings noted that the harsh criticism by the Subcommittee left "blood all over the floor".^[107]

The FCC was criticized in the Subcommittee's report for awarding the permits to Overmyer based on "unsubstantiated representations" and refused to provide any scrutiny,^[108] particularly with his failure to provide necessary financial information.^[109] Overmyer's applications also failed a financial standard placed by the commission in 1965 to determine the fiscal health within the first year of a station;^{[110][111][112]} the Broadcast Bureau made estimates of station income to justify the financing.^[113][114] Overmyer also omitted information about the warehouse company,^[115] which the Subcommittee found to be have operated at significant losses in 1964 and 1965.^[116] The report further stated the FCC acted "carelessly and in disregard of the law" by allowing the permits to be approved and subsequently sold to U.S.^[117] and called the sale to U.S. a "sham" guaranteeing Overmyer a profit violating the FCC's out-of-pocket expense policy^[118] by effectively disguising a $3 million stock payment as a loan.^[119] The Subcommittee recommended the FCC rescind their approval and conduct individual hearings along with further legislation and policy changes.^[120]

Following the report, the FCC announced on August 26, 1970, a hearing for the Overmyer–U.S. sale to examine out-of-pocket expenses involved and determine if fraud was committed;^[121] concurrently, WDHO-TV's license renewal was deferred.^[42][122][c] WDHO had become Toledo's ABC affiliate on June 15, 1969, after operating as an independent^[125][126] but did not launch local newscasts until 1972; the news department was initially housed in a garage adjacent to—but not connected with—the studio building, a repurposed warehouse.^[127] Overmyer pledged the stock of WDHO's license subsidiary to the First National Bank of Boston (FNBB) as security for a $6 million loan in 1971.^[37] Because of poor advertising revenue, WATL-TV and KEMO-TV left the air on March 31, 1971, with WPGH-TV following suit on August 16, 1971;^[128] WPGH entered bankruptcy after going dark.^[129] WXIX-TV, however, remained on-air,^[130][131] and was sold to Metromedia in 1972 for the assumption of that station's $3 million debt.^[132][133]

In the initial decision issued on April 20, 1973, administrative law judge Herbert Sharfman determined Overmyer overstated his total out-of-pocket expenses by $227,000, but found no evidence of maliciousness or fraud. Due to U.S. divesting the acquired station prior to the ruling and their option to purchase Overmyer's 20 percent stock having long since expired, the ruling only affected the deferred renewal of WDHO's license.^[134][90] The Broadcast Bureau disagreed with the ruling as Overmyer still owned WDHO and regarded the financial misrepresentation as a possible character qualification issue; after Overmyer filed to have the case dismissed or remanded, the FCC review board remanded the case in January 1974, sending it back to Sharfman.^[135][136] Judge Sharfman cleared Overmyer of the misrepresentation charges in his May 13, 1974, supplemental initial decision, stating there was "a complete failure of the record to inculpate Mr. Overmyer personally, directly or by implication."^{[137][138][139]} The FCC Review Board affirmed Sharfman's ruling on August 21, 1975.^[140][141]

Bankruptcy

The sale of Overmyer's television permits for loan payments, along with his tactic of borrowing against one subsidiary to pay for another, did little to alleviate his financial position, as by November 1973, Overmyer held more than $25 million in debt.

A warehouse adjacent to the WDHO studios on South Byrne Road in Toledo was sold to Canadian investors the following month, the last asset among the D. H. Overmyer Company's 41 subsidiaries to be auctioned off.[176] The company was wound down in an office on 260 Fifth Avenue, having been forced from their prior offices on 3 Park Avenue; among the items left behind were memoirs by Overmyer dictated to a tape recorder.^[175] Despite the bankruptcies, Overmyer was rumored in 1983 as a potential white knight investor for Columbia Pacific Bank & Trust before it folded; by 1985, he began working as a consultant for Vancouver–based Crossland Industries Corp., controlled by Sean Deneney, Elizabeth Overmyer's husband.^[166]

Federal indictments

In his September 1982 ruling, Cleveland bankruptcy court judge John Ray, Jr. compared the fraud committed by Overmyer against FNBB to Twyne's Case, saying, "fraud and deceit have come a long way since 1601... this court has never encountered such a systematic distortion of truth and the legal system. However, as clever as Mr. Overmyer's system was, it still left numerous "badges of fraud".^[37][177] Cited specifically were both Overmyer and attorney Edmund M. Connery, who provided legal assistance for Overmyer off and on through the 1970s and early 1980s despite billing himself as an "independent" attorney.^[37] The Hadar Leasing Company, which operated as an Overmyer subsidiary from the Park Avenue offices, filed a proof of claim of $859,481.80 in the WDHO bankruptcy proceedings on August 7, 1981, after they also entered Chapter 11.^[1][178] Hadar purchased broadcast equipment and leased it back to the WDHO subsidiary; aspects of the leases were found out to be falsified to the bankruptcy court, inflating the Hadar claim and unjustly enriching Overmyer.^[37] Following Ray's judgement, the FBI and Internal Revenue Service^[2] began their own investigations.^[166]

In June 1984, Overmyer was indicted on one charge of fraud in the U. S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky.^[179] The charge alleged that, in 1977, Overmyer purchased the Peerless Manufacturing Corp. from Dover Corporation,^[180] placed the company under a trust run by a daughter,^[181] and transferred $1 million of the company's money between October 1977 and August 1979 to pay off existing personal and business debts. Peerless went out of business in 1980.^[179] The charge was dismissed in October 1984 by federal judge Charles M. Allen, who interpreted the findings of Judge Ray (who regarded the trust as a sham controlled by Overmyer^[37]) as Overmyer effectively moving money "from one pocket to the other".^[181]

Overmyer and Connery were indicted on January 28, 1986, in the

On May 15, 1991, Overmyer was released from the Federal Correctional Institute (FCI) Englewood in Littleton, Colorado.[189]

Later years

After being evicted from the Weathervane Farm, Overmyer and Shirley lived in various places, including

Overmyer died on July 24, 2012, at the Providence Tarzana Medical Center in Tarzana, at the age of 87. He was buried in Sylvania, Ohio.^[3]

Notes