Larry Silverstein's 9/11 Lease Controversy
It gets stranger.
This is, this man is named Larry Silverstein,
and he is both the
dumbest and the luckiest businessman
in the world.
He's the stupidest businessman in the world because
six weeks before 9/11, he buys the lease to
the World Trade Center.
Okay? Why is that stupid? Because
the World Trade Center has asbestos and...
Like, a dangerous chemical, so they had to
clean or remove the asbestos. The problem is the
cost of remov- re- removing all that asbestos would have been more than
the
value of the Twin Towers.
That's kind of stupid, okay? Why would you lease the Twin Towers
knowing that you
have, you have to put all this money into re-
renovation, which would bankrupt you?
Also, what's stupid is
to have the lease, you're required to have
insurance.
Okay?
And so the insurance company says, "We value the World Trade Center at $1.5
billion," okay?
And Larry Silverstein says, "No, it's not $1.5 billion.
They are worth
$3.5 billion." So he is asking to pay
more insurance than he needed to. That's kind of
stupid.
But again, he's the luckiest man in the world because
9/11 happened,
and guess what?
He can now claim that two towers
were struck, and therefore, he should get twice as much as 3.55
million. He should get 7 billion.
And he sued. They went to court, and he got 4.55 billion.
Okay? He's also lucky because he's, he's a workaholic. He never misses work.
But that day, because of a dermatology appointment,
he had to miss work.
He wasn't there when 9/11 happened.
The luckiest man in the world.
End of transcript · 277 words