Yogi, Tulsa (7/23/2008 6:57:41 AM)

What were they thinking? Signing up to spend $7.5 million on the new ballpark when there is no money in the bank? Now hundreds of people are going to be dumped out on the street. I don't get it. Despite all the community giving it still boils down to old fashioned money grubbing.

tulsa.voice, (7/23/2008 7:30:50 AM)

Ok, first I was in denile, then I was worried, then mad. Now I am just accepting what happened. Look, Semgroup has done alot for this community. We should be hoping that they come out of this. The potential is there, they have (some) new management and a plan for restructuring which would, to be frank, not be a bad idea anyway.

tulsa citizen for now, (7/23/2008 8:11:07 AM)

Cone on you people...SemGroup gave to Tulsa because they got back more than they gave! Look at their loans from BOK - for what? To gamble in the market on options - it is pure and simple - it was gambling. The same thing that tipped Enron.

Bluebird48, Sand Springs (7/23/2008 8:33:07 AM)

Folks..as an old investment person..I've seen this over and over again Indiana, Illinois, N. Carolina, Whatever...It's all smoke and mirrors.

Companies love to competed especially when majority of them come from a company that went down. In this case WILLIAMS. They (egos) wanted to show to WILLIAMS and TULSA that a new BOY was in town. (By the way, you have the same poop with university benefactors)

They (egos) NEVER see numbers on balance sheet weekly. They just focus on their little TULSA project. Which by the way..we little folks benefit from too.

For those who don't know what 'margin trading' or options are. In a nutshell. It's where you make a deal to get a product at a certain price on a certain date. As the date gets closer, you can sell the your price to someone OR you can CALL it in to the Person who orginally made the offer. MARGIN CALL. Now, when this happens, and the person doesn't come through...well then.. you see what happens. HIS CREDIT goes to pot..then the rest in market say forget him..I'm getting rid of investment of him too. And the guy is left holding nothing but debts with EVERYONE hating him except his dog.

tulsa.voice, (7/23/2008 9:25:07 AM)

First, Semgroup did not participate in the same corruption as Enron. Two different situations.

Second, Options are the Right, not obligation to buy at a certain price. Futures are the obligation to buy at a certain price at a specified date. Futures is what SG dealt in. They just made a bad guess at what prices would be.. and got screwed.

Third, do you really think that they gave to the community just to get loans from BOK? Really?

Fourth, It is not a totally new group of leaders. The new CEO was the VP and as of yet, noone else has been replaced. As soon as they get back on their feet, and they will, the community giving will continue. Probably not on the same level as before, hopefully they learned their lesson.

Laura, (7/23/2008 10:01:49 AM)

You're dumb if you deal in futures and you don't hedge.

Laura, (7/23/2008 10:03:31 AM)

You don't know that the community giving will continue since the guy who drove the giving is now on the street corner with a sign "will sell futures for food"

Bluebird48, Sand Springs (7/23/2008 10:41:51 AM)

Laura, (7/23/2008 10:01:49 AM)
You're dumb if you deal in futures and you don't hedge.
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I agree with you on that one. If you don't you will get always get nipped in the butt.

See this is why the 'good ole boy' system doesn't work.

I don't know where they got these mega buck salaried traders from..but they must be morons. First thing they teach you at least at Chi-town's LaSalle Street of hard knocks is to ALWAYS try to limit your RISK. they call it HEDGE today. Covering your trade just in case.

These Idiots must of gotten too much sun golfing or somthing.

TTownTruth, Jenks (7/23/2008 11:14:25 AM)

Laura, don't kid yourself. TK and the others will never be "on the street corner with a sign "will sell futures for food"". More likely they'll be living the high-life in some foreign country that won't send them back to the US for prosecution. Their acts are selfish, manipulative, and materialistic. In pursuit of the all mighty dollar, and 'celebrity', they didn't care who they screwed [LITERALLY].

They deserve no sympathy. Under the guise of enriching Tulsa, they simply enriched themselves. TK left 'his' company owing it over 200 MILLION dollars? Give me a break. He was not 'giving to Tulsa' HIS funds. He's like the greedy character portrayed by Danny DeVito in "Other People's Money". And, he would take that as a compliment.

I find it interesting that TK resigned the BOK board the DAY BEFORE THIS NEWS BROKE! It made me wonder how BOK stock was faring. BOKF shows (as did Sem's SGLP) pretty level stock values, up until JULY 2008. Then, as did the Sem stock, it fell DRAMATICALLY. Coincidence? I completely doubt it. You just have to wonder, did he resign from the BOK board by choice, or was he asked to resign?

And, Two Men and a Big Truck arrived at the Sem building on Friday after dark Thursday and began removing expensive, overpriced art? That brings up two questions. When did the movers get hired, and why with so much security in the Sem building, were they allowed to remove art?

Having said all of that, there are a lot of people involved that need our prayers. You can read in the SGLP SEC filings, 3 out of four of the big boys have minority children. With school about to start, how do you think their lives are going to be? Kids can be ruthless and the questions, comments and jokes that these CHILDREN may be subject to, could be heartbreaking. I don't know about the rest of you, but when I pray for all of the innocent employees and their families, I will be praying for these children and the wives.

Mar, Tulsa (7/23/2008 11:32:05 AM)

I never heard of Semgroup until the past year. I thought they were an up and coming company. Though I shouldn't be surprised, it's amazing more companies don't file bankruptcy with the way they are run. I know doing temp work at some companies and law firms around Tulsa, I'm surprised how poorly run they are, it takes forever for decisions to be made, small or large decisions. Not to mention all the waste of money.

Warden, (7/23/2008 12:36:36 PM)

As usual, have no fear that the "leaders" of Semgroup will be well taken care of. According to this morning's TW, the top five current executives will enjoy a possible $3.05 million in severance packages- ostensibly for the fine job they have done managing the company. The 276 employees who might be laid off will share in an estimated $1.1 million of severance payments.

Fair? You be the judge.

jdfcommodities, Tulsa (7/23/2008 2:52:18 PM)

These people were nuts! They were completely over leveraged and could of been protected through options positions. This is nothing but gambling, this is not what people would consider a hedge. Funny thing about it, is the executives get $3.05 Millions after they destroyed a good company and its reputation. SAD! SAD! SAD!

jdfcommodities, Tulsa (7/23/2008 3:22:59 PM)

It is obvious that "tulsa.voice" knows nothing about commodities or hedging. Hedging is used to secure a certain price level in the commodities your buying or selling. The futures position is supposed to be secured by the cash commodity itself. Which they didn't do! They were just gambling! They might as well of gone to Vegas and put the 2.8 Billion on one hand of Black Jack. These guys need to go to sued for Malpractice by the employees and share holders. This is crap!

Ralph, (7/23/2008 3:35:17 PM)

I hope the top exec's don't run to the bank real fast with those severance checks. Manchester Securities and Alerian Capital have already filed for the court to stop the payments. They contend that the money in the checking account is part of the assets and are therefore frozen by the bankruptcy filing. Also there are 30 plus creditors that are owed in excess of 1 billion dollars. This is not even counting the people that personally invested in this scam. Did all of these clowns go to the Bernie Ebbers school of business?

Forgetful, (7/23/2008 6:16:19 PM)

Hey Tulsa,
Read the Wall Street Journal. The plan is to sell all the entities. What about truck drivers that can't pay their rent or the small production owners that have to pay the royalities owners? All Manchester and Alerian are planning is to break it apart and sell it. The sum of the parts are worth more that the total. Tulsa hasn't seen the hard times that are going to result. Forget the real estate market and the job market. All of it will collapse. I have lived through Enron and saw what it did to a bigger city than Tulsa. There are people in Houston who are stilling working at Dillards and Macys because they can't find a job in the oil business.

Bluebird48, Sand Springs (7/23/2008 8:30:02 PM)

Ralph, (7/23/2008 3:35:17 PM)
I hope the top exec's don't run to the bank real fast with those severance checks. Manchester Securities and Alerian Capital have already filed for the court to stop the payments. They contend that the money in the checking account is part of the assets and are therefore frozen by the bankruptcy filing. Also there are 30 plus creditors that are owed in excess of 1 billion dollars. This is not even counting the people that personally invested in this scam. Did all of these clowns go to the Bernie Ebbers school of business?
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Ralph, I may be wrong here..but when a company is a LIMITED PARTNERSHIP...you can't sue them for "everything" they have (the partners). ONLY what they have invested in company. If they all knew what was going on weeks ahead of announcement then the investments they each put in are probably substantially NOTHING .

Bluebird48, Sand Springs (7/23/2008 8:32:08 PM)

Forgetful, (7/23/2008 6:16:19 PM)
Hey Tulsa,
Read the Wall Street Journal. The plan is to sell all the entities. What about truck drivers that can't pay their rent or the small production owners that have to pay the royalities owners? All Manchester and Alerian are planning is to break it apart and sell it. The sum of the parts are worth more that the total. Tulsa hasn't seen the hard times that are going to result. Forget the real estate market and the job market. All of it will collapse. I have lived through Enron and saw what it did to a bigger city than Tulsa. There are people in Houston who are stilling working at Dillards and Macys because they can't find a job in the oil business.
________
YES..You are right! I just surfed from marketwatch and read article. It is going to get really UGLY.

zzx375, (7/24/2008 9:42:57 AM)

"They might as well of gone to Vegas and put the 2.8 Billion on one hand of Black Jack."

I am curious how futures trading is the same thing as Black Jack.

James McDowell, Tulsa (7/27/2008 7:32:08 PM)

I would like to offer this quote from President Theodore Roosevelt: "It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause: who at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." It is a true coward that hides behind a computer screen and screen name. Thanks Tom Kivisto and SemGroup for stepping up and filling a civic and corporate leadership void, your efforts have been greatly appreciated and the quality of life in Tulsa has definiteley benefited.

Mad leasee, Bryan (7/28/2008 6:21:47 AM)

The people that gambled on the future of their employess and the trickle effect that this is making on the royalty owners, will talk away with a windfall of money. You can't tell me that they don't have money hidden away. As a leasee and the other little employees that depend on the money from this company we are out in the cold. It's a shame that we have to trust our futures and our families well being on these greedy people. With the high cost of fuel, we depend on every penny. But thats nothing that the companies execs worry about! They will be alright. I just wish that during the congressional hearings that will come out of this will show that these people were greedy and will have to pay for their wrong doings. My heart goes out to the laid off employees of this company, you are in my prayers.