Bernard D. Bergreen (with Barbara)
March 5, 2001 The Bergreens have made three appearances near the top of the Mother Jones 400: The long-time Democrats ranked 29th in 1997 and 86th in 1998. Like other major donors, they were rewarded for their contributions with invitations to the White House. In 1999, the Clintons asked the couple over for dinner twice. Not long after, the Bergreens each contributed $20,000 to Hillary Clinton through the New York Senate 2000 Committee, a controversial fundraising scheme that enabled donors to exceed campaign-finance limits. Barbara runs a New York boutique named Portantina. Bernard, an attorney, is executor for the estate of the late multimillionare Howard Gilman, who ran Georgia-based Gilman Paper, the largest privately-owned paper company in the United States. (As Mother Jones reported in connection with Bergreen's earlier contributions to Senator Joseph Lieberman, Gilman Paper also ranks among Georgia's top industrial polluters.) When Gilman died in 1998, Bergreen became acting CEO. He sold the firm to Mexico's Grupo Industrial Durango the following year, and the company is now called Durango-Georgia Paper Co. -- Suzanne Boothby | | |
