WSJ WRITES ON COUPON CASE FIGURE

The Wall Street Journal of Saturday, February 16^th, 2008 featured a front page story about “The Coupon King,” namely Thomas “Chris” Balsiger, former head of International Outsourcing Services LLC, and one of 11 individuals charged in federal court in Milwaukee nearly a year ago in the nation’s largest case of coupon fraud. (Read the indictment.) Charges against IOS were dropped last year, but the charges against Balsiger and his codefendants were upped in December, 2007, when a superseding indictment charged them with interfering with the government’s investigation into the case as late as October, 2007.

Journal reporter David Kesmodel interviewed Balsiger in his El Paso, Texas office, where he now is a business consultant. Although Balsiger was removed from office at IOS last year, he remains on the company’s board and remains a part-owner of the 6,000 employee firm. The character study points to yet another driven corporate executive who made great accomplishments in his field and followed his passions with the same intensity he brought to his job.

In Balsiger’s case, the primary passion is mountain climbing, an affliction encouraged by his father, one of those intense corporate dudes who seem to breed intense corporate children or, alternatively, their exact opposites.

According to the article:

“From an early age, Thomas Christian Balsiger was steered toward a life in business. His late father, Roy Balsiger, ran a distributorship in Memphis, Tenn., for diesel-engine maker Cummins Inc. When Chris was just 6, his father bought him a blue suit and red tie and began taking him to business meetings.

On weekends, the family hunted, fished and hiked. Because Chris was born in 1953, the year men first topped Mount Everest, his father thought the boy was destined for the same. ‘He said, “You are the Mount Everest Kid,”’ Mr. Balsiger recalls. ‘It was business and Everest, business and Everest. That's all we talked about.’ His father was tough and direct, Mr. Balsiger says. ‘If you didn't like it, grow up.’”

Balsiger has since climbed the tallest mountain on six of the seven continents, messing up only on Everest, where he got pretty far before having to turn back. He says he’ll try again when the trial is over. Apparently he feels he’ll have a lot of free time then, although the judge might find differently.

As of this date, the charges against Balsiger and his co-defendants are only about a year old, and only include 156 docket entries. The government and the defendants are busy doing their discoveries and writing replies and responses to each other. Things should start shaping up around April, when the next court activity is expected in the case. --Michael Horne
[Use the Google box to find earlier milwaukeeworld posts on this case.]