Garrison is currently soliciting investors to build tens of thousands of houses in South Africa with partner Reg Morrow, a local developer. Morrow recently traveled to South Africa and won a personal audience with Nelson Mandela. When Morrow asked Mandela what he could do to help, Mandela replied, "Houses, son, build me houses." Almost immediately, Morrow got on the phone to Garrison asking him to corral investors.
Recently, Garrison called on Shevardnadze, the former president of the Republic of Georgia, to help his friend Eric Wente, of Wente Bros. Wines, create a joint venture with Georgian vintners.
"Diomedes stil has some equity in that," Garrison says. "They make very good wine."
Acting ona request from Russia, Diomedes also helped a New York auto broker sell a fleet of cars. Other clients include Sun Microsystems Inc., the Sunnyvale computer company, which Garrison introduced to members of the Russian scientific community.
But Garrison's most dramatic deal involved a mining company in Bakersfield called Tri-Valley Corp. In February 1990, the Soviet geological ministry that goes by the acronym TSNIGRI called Tri-Valley out of the blue and asked for its assistance in arranging a visit to the United States so that TSNIGRI could demonstrate its technical skills.
Just so happened that Tri-Valley had an Alaskan gold claim but not a lot of expertise in subartic drilling. Just so happened that TSNIGRI were experts in boring past tundra and accessing precious metals.
Tri-Valley, a donor to Shevardnadze/Garrison's IFPA, needed someone to visit Russia with company president Lynn Blystone and see if TSNIGRI was on the level. Garrison gave the green light and his consulting fees, which Tri-Valley would not discuss, were money well-spent. Thanks to TSNIGRI's help, Tri-Valley hit the friggin' mother lode on its 120-square-mile claim near Fairbanks.
"We found 60 deposits along a 20-mile swath," Blystone says. "It's gigantic."
Tri-Valley begins drilling this summer and figures to net $380 million just off the first sites.
Blystone got to meet Gorbachev when he paid to attend a reception held by the Gorbachev Foundation in 1992. Along with CEOs from banks and oil companies - "mammouth corporations," Blystone says - the Bakersfield CEO was shephereded by Garrison to an audience with Gorbachev and his wife Raisa.
"He was meeting all these CEOs who were investing in the former Soviet Union, so when he found out that we were using Soviet expertise in our mining he grabbed my arm and said to the room, "See, there are some things we can contribute," Blystone says.
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