Interesting read...my nephew-in-law was a big wig with with them in New York in the early years and I helped with one of their famous traveling 'parties' back in the day. He is now on the West Coast living the life at Venice Beach and is still working the contacts made during those years and is making mad money without really earning it (one of those 'who you know, not what you know' situations). If I interact with him anytime soon I will ask his opinion on all of this and post what he says/said.