Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Public Records on Vanguard Group Investments Reveal That CEO Ted Rollins Is No Horatio Alger

Ted Rollins (right) at an event
for the Horatio Alger Association

Ted Rollins, CEO of Campus Crest Communities, is an active member in the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, a non-profit organization that extols the virtues of perseverance and hard work. The association is named for the 19th century author of dime novels about "rags to riches" stories, of people who pulled themselves up from nothing to become successful.

Rollins' support of the association is ironic because he is anything but a Horatio Alger story. In fact, he is mostly a "riches to riches" story. Given what we know about his leading role in the Rollins v. Rollins divorce case here in Alabama, Ted Rollins also does not embody the kind of honesty and integrity that often is associated with Horatio Alger.

How do we know that Ted Rollins hardly fits the Horatio Alger mold? Well, public records related to investments from the Philadelphia-based Vanguard Group tell the story. In fact, those records remind us of an unforgettable quote from the late Ann Richards about George H. W. Bush:

"George was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple."

Given the massive wealth of the Rollins family--the folks behind Orkin Pest Control and other profitable enterprises--Ted Rollins was born somewhere between third base and home plate. But he still touts the virtues of self-reliance--even though Rollins himself has relied mostly on his family connections to get ahead.

How do we know that? Well, the No. 1 investor in Campus Crest Communities is the Vanguard Group, the nation's largest mutual-fund company. Vanguard played a prominent role in helping Ted Rollins' company secure a $380-million IPO on Wall Street in late 2010.

We've already shown that Ted Rollins has a documented history as a child abuser. He was convicted for assaulting his 16-year-old stepson in 1995. And two years before that, he was the target of a social-services investigation for child sexual abuse of the same stepson, based on a citizen complaint.

Why would Vanguard financially support a CEO with so much ugliness in his background? Is it because Ted Rollins has demonstrated extraordinary abilities as a businessman? Well, given that he helped take American Textile Services, of Louisburg, North Carolina, into bankruptcy in the 1990s, that seems unlikely.

Nope, it appears that Ted Rollins "earned" the support of Vanguard's millions the old-fashioned way--by relying on his family's connections.

Does Vanguard Group support the various Rollins family businesses? Was it deeply invested in RollinsWorld, long before Ted Rollins and Campus Crest Communities came along? You might say that. Here is a brief summary:

Rollins Inc. (stock symbol ROL)

Vanguard is the No. 4 institutional investor (No. 6 overall) in Atlanta-based Rollins Inc., which is the umbrella company for Orkin Pest Control. According to rocketfinancial.com, Vanguard holds almost 3.5 million shares of ROL stock, with a value of almost $81 million.


RPC Inc. (RES)

RPC Inc. used to be known as Rollins Energy Services, hence the RES stock symbol, and encompasses a number of oil- and energy-related businesses. Vanguard is the No. 3 institutional investor (No. 5 overall) in RPC, with almost $3.5 million shares worth more than $41 million.


Dover Downs Gaming and Entertainment (DDE)

This Delaware-based firm is a major player in the hotel, casino and horse-racing industries along the East Coast. Vanguard is the No. 9 institutional investor (No. 15 overall), with more than 663,000 shares worth more than $1.6 million.


The bottom line? Vanguard Group has at least a $120-million stake in various Rollins family businesses. Did that help Ted Rollins gain Vanguard's support when it came time to take Campus Crest public? Did it cause Vanguard to overlook any "indiscretions" in Ted Rollins' background? The answer to both questions appears to be yes.

Speaking of irony, consider this press release from the Horatio Alger Association about its annual State of Our Nation's Youth Survey. It includes this quote from association director Terrence J. Giroux:

“It’s the mission of the association to continually invest in our nation’s youth. This survey supports our goal to better understand today’s young people and the most influential changes affecting them."

How has Ted Rollins help further that mission? Let's count the ways:

(1) In 1993, he was investigated for child sexual abuse of his stepson, based on a citizen complaint in Franklin County, North Carolina.

(2) In 1995, he was convicted for assaulting his stepson in Franklin County, North Carolina. The beating was so vicious that emergency-medical personnel administered oxygen because the boy's blood loss put him at risk of going into shock.

(3) In 2005, Rollins filed a false child-support affidavit in his Alabama divorce case. (A case, by the way, that he had unlawfully transferred from South Carolina, where it had been initiated by his wife, Sherry Carroll Rollins, and litigated for three years.) The false affidavit allowed Rollins to cheat his daughters, Birmingham residents Sarah and Emma Rollins, out of hundreds of thousands of dollars of child support.

Ted Rollins representing the virtues of Horatio Alger? Jokes don't get more ugly or cruel than that.

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

No doubt that the only Horatio Alger winners were O. Wayne and brother John Rollins who came from the mountains of North Georgia and were the 2 men who literally went from nothing to building a lasting multi faceted highly successful series of enterprise. There however seem to be few in their lineage capable of doing anything at all like they did. The were some of the first true job creators!

Anonymous said...

Vanguard's investments are mostly index funds, meaning they buy all stocks in an index to model performance of that index. The purchases and amount are nondiscretionary -- amd set by index weighting. This, your complaints should be aimed to S&P or Russell (the companies that decide the indexes) not vanguard.

Anonymous said...

Looked up the Rollins boy on google. In his bio he tells a pitiful little story about how he and his friend Mike Hartnett got together after graduating from MBA school at Duke's Fuqua School of Business and pooled their resources by selling an old red car to get the cash to start Campus Crest, their now publicly traded company. He apparently wants people to think he started a company with proceeds from the sale of an old car and wants us to forget that his education at Duke Business school probably cost more than 100,000 dollars and that he had a trust fund at the time. After reading your blog I would venture to say that he started CCG with the money he stole from his ex wife and children. It also seems that he took money from St. James Capital, another company he owned with Randall Rollins and added that in to start CCG. If he owned St. James Capital while he was still married to Mrs. Rollins , doesn't that mean that she and her children own part of Campus Crest? Just askin. Seems that Mrs. Rollins should be back in court in Alabama and S.C. facing off with his bevy of hired guns, his lawyers, his judges, his senators and all should be held accountable for this HEIST of small children and a defenseless woman.

legalschnauzer said...

Anon at 6:09--

I feel certain you are right, that John Rollins (Ted's father) and O. Wayne were genuine Horatio Alger types, who brought themselves up from tough circumstances in Georgia. Perhaps Ted Rollins belongs to the association mainly to keep the family name involved.

Anonymous said...

I doubt that anyone in Vanguard Group knows a thing about Ted Rollins' background. They just hear the family name, know they are invested to the hilt in Rollins enterprises, and sign up for Ted's company.

TLR said...

Can't say I've read a lot of Horatio Alger books, but don't they say something about having respect for the rights of others and the rule of law? Don't they say something about the importance of integrity? Did Ted Rollins just skip those chapters? Did most everyone on Wall Street skip those chapters.

Anonymous said...

@6:29,

Is that you, John Bogle?

legalschnauzer said...

Anon at 6:29--

I'm not making a complaint; I don't have any money invested with Vanguard, so I have nothing to complain about. I'm reporting a story, and that's what journalists do. I've already reported Jack Bogle's recent comments about Vanguard and index funds, and I will be reporting on that subject again. The bottom line is that Vanguard is heavily invested in certain companies, as reported. That's a fact, not a complaint. Being involved with index funds, in my view, does not place Vanguard above scrutiny.

Anonymous said...

Horatio Alger was gay. Here is an academic paper on the subject . . .


http://www.academia.edu/241416/Horatio_Alger_and_the_Closeting_of_the_Self-Made_Man

Anonymous said...

I've heard the Horatio Alger gay stories for many years. I have a few of his books, and in retrospect, you can see the subtle gay themes throughout. I think this is pretty much established as historical fact now.

legalschnauzer said...

Anon at 7:50--

Wow, you've educated me. Had never heard that. Thanks for the academic link. Will do some more research.

Anonymous said...

You say that, but vanguard is invested proportionally in every single company in every single index. Why don't you list their investments in IBM, Google, Apple, Exxon, chevron, and the rest of those indexes?

Without that context, you are presenting a misleading story. Vanguard doesn't offer investors index funds excluding companies with contemptible CEOs...it only offers index funds

Anonymous said...

Gee, Ted Rollins really is into the Horatio Alger myth. Here is a story from his "Ted Rollins Truth" page. LS, didn't he start that Web site because of your reporting?

http://tedrollinstruth.com/tag/horatio-alger-association/

legalschnauzer said...

Yes, I guess I have to take "credit" for tedrollinstruth.com. One of my prouder moments.

Anonymous said...

Check out page 8 of this propaganda piece from the Horatio Alger Association.


http://www.horatioalger.org/pdfs/HALegacyofAchievementSP08.pdf

legalschnauzer said...

I've written a piece that included an explanation from a Vanguard spokesman about index funds, and I ran a link to a Jack Bogle radio interview where he discusses index funds in the wake of the Newtown shooting. I don't see how it's misleading to say that Vanguard is invested in certain companies when it is, in fact, invested in certain companies.


http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2013/01/vanguard-deflects-attention-from-smith.html

Anonymous said...

" Did that help Ted Rollins gain Vanguard's support when it came time to take Campus Crest public? Did it cause Vanguard to overlook any "indiscretions" in Ted Rollins' background? The answer to both questions appears to be yes."

These lines are misleading. You suggest they invested in CCC to protect other investments. Their investments are nondiscretionary.

legalschnauzer said...

I suggest Ted Rollins was helped by the fact that Vanguard already was invested in Rollins-family enterprises. If Vanguard invests in 3-4 Rollins businesses, then invests in another, I think that's relevant. You are free to disagree, but I don't see how that is misleading. You have yet to point out a single inaccuracy in my story, so it's hard to see why you have a problem. If someone wants to learn about the intricacies of index funds, they are free to do that. I'm sure other reporters have covered that ground, so I'm not interested in going over it again.

Anonymous said...

Rollins looks to be "that guy" that uses and abuses women (and children) to hide his homosexuality. What a freak this guy is!

Is Franklin Co NC where the Franklin Scandal originated?

James Greek said...

Someone like Ted Turner should join that group but Ted Rollins?! Puh-leeze

legalschnauzer said...

Anon at 10:26--

No, the Franklin scandal originated in Nebraska. My memory is sketchy on this, but I think the Franklin name came from a Nebraska credit union that somehow was connected to the scandal.

Anonymous said...

My children will certainly not be living in any Campus Crest Comunity and if I find out they've so much as visited anyone who lives there, they're coming home!

Anonymous said...

I'm confused...about the anonymous question regarding Franklin scandal and if it was referring to Franklin NC where the abuse took place.....LS answered no, it was Nebraska, a credit union there.

Regarding the Rollins abuse scandal wasn't it in Franklin County North Carolina?

Anonymous said...

It is rumored in one or two accounts on google that John Rollins was gay as well as Richard Nixon, Horatio Alger, J. Edgar Hoover.....just like present day Republicans who can't find their way out of the closet. Guys like Karl Rove and many many other republican leaders marry women and have children to hide their homsexuality. It would seem that Ted Rollins has done the same thing. He has so far married three women; two of them had young sons when he married them.

legalschnauzer said...

Yes, Ted Rollins was convicted of assault on his stepson in Franklin County, NC, and that's where he was investigated for child sexual abuse. The Anonymous question about The Franklin Scandal, I thought, was about the case back in the late 1980s and early 90s, where boys from orphanages in the Midwest reportedly were transported to DC area for the pleasure of various individuals connected to the Reagan and Bush I administrations. That's the scandal that, I believe, took its name from a credit union in Nebraska. The Ted Rollins incidents just happened to take place in an area called Franklin County. But they are not related to the Franklin Scandal, which reportedly took place earlier and was pretty much national in scope, even though it originated in Nebraska.

legalschnauzer said...

Anon at 12:31--

Never heard that about John Rollins Sr. But a 2011 book has some juicy tidbits about Nixon:


http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/nixon-darkest-secrets-new-biography-digs-rumors-richard-nixon-gay-affair-mafia-banker-article-1.997960

Anonymous said...

How do you know they aren't related? I doubt those children were only used for pleasuring Governemt officials. North Caroolina is a sex trafficking haven from what commenters and posts have explained in the past ie the Duke shrink arrested for pimping out his adopted son who I believe was 4 at the time.

legalschnauzer said...

Ted Rollins' issues involved his stepson, who I am certain has no ties to any Midwest orphanages. He was and is Sherry Rollins' biological son. Is it possible that someone in the Rollins family was connected to the Franklin Scandal? They have right-wing politics, so I guess anything is possible, but I don't think any of that would have involved Ted Rollins because of his age.

The questioner, as I understood it, asked if the Franklin Scandal (originating in Nebraska) and the Ted Rollins incidents in Franklin County, NC, were part of the same chain of events. And I know that they are not.

Based on my reporting here at LS, you probably can tell that I'm not an admirer of Ted Rollins. But I see no way that he has any connections to the Franklin Scandal.

If anyone has information that suggests otherwise, they are welcome to share it.

Ted Rollins is only about 50 years old, which would have put him in his mid 20s or so at the time of the Franklin Scandal. I think most of the adults involved in that scandal were much older than that.

jeffrey spruill said...

That Horatio Alger was a closeted homosexual is today a widely accepted fact; he was expelled from his initial career as a minister in Brewster, Massachusetts, for the “the abominable and revolting crime of unnatural familiarity with boys.”

*

Now I understand why why Ted Rollins is an active member in the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans.

The guy just can't help himself.

Anonymous said...

Interesting that both John Rollins and Ted Rollins have ties to Horatio Alger society. Both have been said to be bisexual also.

Unknown said...

Humans twisted in the mind-head to point of ~can't behave as a higher thinking "mammal" are exactly what any lower vertebra "animal" is.

Uncontrollable when the electromagnetic frequencies [which we all are, ENERGY FIRST], get "triggered."

Be afraid here, very-very afraid.

LS, once again you have now reached another proud moment, you opened a new level of what has happened and what is happening and what to expect in our future.

I believe this degradation of our species is intentional. In a word, duh. Look at the rampant homosexuality that is not about the more gentle of the men being in a feminine nurturing.

I know TRUE homosexual males and they are not predators.

Females are not the mean dangerous and filthy looking crazies, that this new breed of too many "lesbians." I also knew and know REAL lesbians and this EPIDEMIC is an intentional.

A sick society is very easy to control and get rid of.

We're in a concentration camp.

It is what has also happened to Palestine, AND why the ARAB world is revolting against "America spreading democracy."

Bush family are - I would be willing to bet a lot of money - homosexuals, pedophiles and of course we know they are mass murdering killers.

Tragically, homosexuality became a/the best method of control.

Control the innocent by way of predatory Bestiality - look at how Sherry Rollins' son obeys his "step father."

And now we see the fruits of our labor in camp USA.