SHOP TALK: Love Them, Love Them Not
Top officials of AmeriTrust Corp. in a recent interview shrugged off a bid by investor Alfred Lerner's group to nearly triple its stake in the Cleveland bank holding company to 24.9% from 9.6%. "We can't argue with the investment he's made," said a smiling Jerry V. Jarrett, AmeriTrust's chairman and chief executive.</br></br>But only two days later, AmeriTrust objected to Mr. Lerner's pending application with the Federal Reserve Board and asked for a "thorough board inquiry" into so-called "illegal" actions of Mr. Lerner's group in purchasing AmeriTrust shares, including alleged violations of federal banking and securities laws.</br></br>An AmeriTrust spokesman said the officials in the interview weren't trying to be misleading. "We didn't want to take it to the public forum," he said.</br></br>But Federal Reserve filings are public, and last Wednesday the Fed made public the Lerner group's response. It maintained, in part, that it has "refrained from any attack on, or allegations regarding the performance of AmeriTrust and its management. We deeply regret that AmeriTrust has chosen the opposite approach and descended to baseless allegation and innuendo and attacks on the personal and professional integrity of the applicants."</br></br>Inside Source