Josette Brose-Eichar: How Do You Define Savvy?

Savvy sav’e, adjective. Well informed and perceptive; shrewd. Knowledgeable or proficient.

I read a letter to the editor in the newspaper the other day. The writer regretted voting for Donald Trump.  Yet she defended voting for him by stating that she thought he was a savvy businessman and therefore would know how to run the country.  But now she was not feeling so good about how Mr. Savvy was performing.

Our former District One supervisor, Susan Gorin, once stated that she was surprised by the bankruptcy of, and federal charges against, Ken Mattson, as she thought he was a savvy developer.

What is it about this word “savvy”? Are Trump or Mattson well informed, perceptive, knowledgeable or proficient? Or are they just shrewd and proficient at taking advantage of people and situations for their own benefit? What is it about these so-called savvy individuals that we trust them when we probably shouldn’t?

Trump and Mattson are not the only people we give power to, based on the idea that they are somehow savvy and so much smarter than the rest of us. I could give you a long list and they all have one thing in common – the perception that they are savvy and qualified to do whatever they want because of the vast amount of money they have, or appear to have.

Mattson’s little house of cards has collapsed. Will Trump’s massive one – our entire country – also collapse? And if so, will all of us, like those who invested with Mattson, have nothing left?

Pouring through the documentation provided by the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors (Committee) of KS Mattson Partners and LeFever Mattson, reveals some startling facts about just how “savvy” Mattson, and his business partner Tim LeFever, really are.

Just before bankruptcy, one of their acts involved selling an apartment building with a net profit of about $3 million, depositing that money into the bank account for their limited partnership, then, acting as the general managing partner, LeFever transferred funds into the LeFever Mattson account, thus placing the funds into the general pool of the bankruptcy, depriving the partners of specific rights to the funds as part of the limited partnership that they invested in.

Mattson paid a defense attorney $500,000 from the KS Mattson Partners’ bank account for his own upcoming criminal defense, knowing the indictment was coming. The victim Committee’s legal team must now attempt to get this money back from the attorney as it rightfully belongs in the pool for the defrauded investors.

The long and convoluted documents contain much more than these two “savvy” moves. Reading them is a dense, tedious and painful chore. I am sure the almost-300 investors, many of whom have lost their life savings, feel even more pain. And let us not forget LeFever’s part in all of this. The documents show him donating money that rightfully belongs in the bankruptcy pool for the investors, to The Laurel Wreath Foundation, a so-called “Christian” charity in Dixon, for which he is listed as the executive officer and his wife Amy as the secretary.

Trump, Mattson and LeFever all get the words “savvy” applied to them. The only part of the definition of savvy that seems to apply to these people is “proficient” and “shrewd.” Proficient and shrewd at taking from others to enrich themselves.  Mattson may or may not receive justice in court, LeFever and Trump will most likely never be held accountable for being so “savvy”.