Clark’s possible link to Tyco questioned

This story will resonate - Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark vows to close the corporate tax loophole that allowed Tyco International Inc. of Exeter to move its headquarters to Bermuda and avoid paying millions in federal taxes.

But last fall, Clark was managing director of merchant banking for the Stephens Group Inc. of Little Rock, Ark., when the company bought more than 50,000 shares of Tyco stock.

Stephens then increased its investment by another 25,000 shares during the first three months of this year.

Stephens officials have said Clark’s job was to seek out investments in the aerospace and defense industries.

Stephens has been on the periphery of several Washington political scandals in the past three decades, from the resignation of President Carter’s budget director in 1977 to the campaign fund-raising investigations of the mid-1990s.

Clark’s Democratic rivals have criticized him for his involvement in helping Acxiom get homeland security contracts from the federal government.

Acxiom paid Stephens $300,000 in December 2001 for Clark’s services.

After Clark left to head up his own company last spring, Acxiom signed a contract to pay Clark $150,000 a year, the same salary he earned as NATO supreme allied commander.

Clark suspended the contract when he entered the presidential race last fall but remains a paid member of the board of directors.

Acxiom and JetBlue Airways of Forest Hills, N.Y., are the subject of a Federal Trade Commission complaint by a privacy group that charges both improperly leaked personal information about 5 million passengers to a defense department contractor.