The Other Center Cinema 13 in North Little Rock was part of Tony Rand’s crumbling business empire back in 1989
A version of this article first appeared in Arkansas Business on Aug. 29, 2011. It is being republished as part of Arkansas Business’ 30th anniversary issue. You can access the digital edition for free here.
Before he began a oil fraud with his sons that culminated with a 2009 indictment, Tony Rand churned $17 million through his Rand Theatres operation to feed his family’s taste for the good life.
January 1986: In a case he ultimately loses, Tony Rand is sued for not paying minimum wages to 36 Rand Theatres employees since May 14, 1982.
February 1989: Ten major film distribution companies sue Rand Theatres, claiming Rand short-changed them on their share of ticket sales.
March 1989: As part of a shareholder battle for control of North Little Rock’s National Bank of Arkansas, financial investigator Edmund Pankau reveals that Rand and his businesses are named in 57 lawsuits plus tax liens totaling $60,000.
Rand, who held an 18 percent stake in NBA’s holding company, says the litigation and liens result from the normal course of doing business.
June 1989: Jeff Rand, 25-year-old executive vice president and director of real estate for Rand Theatres, reports the company’s expansion plan is working perfectly. At the time, Rand Theatres has 126 screens in operation in Arkansas, Texas and Tennessee. The Rands announce plans for a $200 million expansion that will boost the chain to 400 screens.
September 1989: Reports of Rand employees receiving late paychecks on bank accounts with insufficient funds draw media coverage. The payroll checks are drawn on an account at National Bank of Arkansas, where Rand is a shareholder and director.
Rand attributes the bookkeeping problems to a new payroll clerk. By the end of the month, he is gone as a shareholder after selling his stock to Bob Osborne, who also takes his place as a director at the bank.
December 1989: Rand Theatres is out of business and covered in a string of lawsuits and judgments by unpaid creditors and allegations of fraud. The Arkansas Department of Finance & Administration padlocks Rand’s office for failing to pay $390,000 in delinquent sales taxes collected between 1979 and 1986.
January 1990: Barbara/Jean Ltd. sues Rand’s wife, Mary Ann, to collect $18,666 for shoes, jewelry, belts and accessories bought on credit. A $401,929 judgment from federal court in Nebraska is entered in Pulaski County Circuit Court. The award is held by Ballantyne of Omaha Inc., a movie theater equipment firm. Rand battles another supplier, Cargill Leasing Corp. of Minnetonka, Minn., over access to his personal and corporate bank records in its federal fraud case that ended in April 1991 with a $900,000 judgment against Rand.
June 1990: Tony Rand is arrested for passing hot checks at two Maumelle grocery stores.
August 1990: Tony and Mary Ann Rand are found in contempt of court and sent to jail by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Robin Mays for disregarding Mays’ order that the couple and their 24-year-old son, Mark, deposit $93,727 into the court registry in June. Bank records indicate the Rands, with the help of some of their six children, tried to hide proceeds from the $165,000 sale of the family’s second home at Eden Isle in Cleburne County.
Tony Rand, sporting a gold-plated Mickey Mouse watch, testifies that some of the money was paid to former employees, including his son, Jeff, then 27. Mary Ann Rand claims she can’t remember what happened to the rest of the money. “They are not believable witnesses,” Mays says.
On the second day of the contempt hearing, Mary Ann Rand remembers spending $1,800 to throw her parents a 50th wedding anniversary party, giving her eldest son, 28-year-old Wayne, $2,000 for living expenses and spending an unspecified sum on living expenses.
Tony Rand testifies that most of the money was spent to hire a criminal lawyer to defend him from whatever charges might arise from an alleged federal investigation. Other money was spent on college tuition for their only daughter, Antoinette.
After two nights in jail, the Rands come up with enough money to gain their release, the same day the Arkansas Supreme Court refuses to order their release.
December 1990: Tony Rand is sentenced in Pulaski County Circuit Court to three years of probation on a felony charge related to the hot checks and ordered to pay restitution of $3,303.
March 1991: A Little Rock grand jury indicts Rand on 26 counts of fraud and money laundering in a $17 million scheme to deceive lenders and suppliers. The indictment outlines his use of false financial statements, false tax returns and false collateral to obtain funds from seven equipment-leasing companies, a bank, a credit union and two savings and loans. The scheme is facilitated by his undisclosed ownership and control of Mid-Ark Theatre Supply Co.
August 1991: After a weeklong trial and four hours of jury deliberation, Tony Rand is convicted on all charges: 13 counts of interstate transportation of money taken by fraud, nine counts of money laundering and four counts of bank fraud.
Rand shows no emotion as the verdict is pronounced in contrast to his sobbing family members.
Rand takes the stand in his own defense and also addresses the jury during closing arguments. He blames others for the financial problems that destroyed the business his family began in 1974 and asks jurors for another chance.
“We have lost everything,” Rand says. “I mean everything we have worked so hard to accumulate. However, we have not lost our courage, and we have not lost our faith in God, and we have not lost our faith in this country.”
“Stealing is stealing,” says federal prosecutor Sandra Cherry. “Federal law and the Ten Commandments don’t make a distinction.”
February 1992: Rand is sentenced to seven years in federal prison. After serving his time, he moves to Texas to start a new life with his family and a new career in the oil and gas business.
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