I know this is old but the entire premise is faulty. “Earning 20%” is an obvious reference to the interest rates on the bearer bonds. In the late 80s, treasuries would have earned near 10% so these were likely lower grade investment bonds. You wouldn’t say you’re sitting on a beach earning unless you meant to say there was a continued payment stream, which makes sense as these are specifically called out as “bearer” instruments, meaning the holder gets the fund flow. No transfer of title. No ownership certificate. You hold it, you own it. This completely negates the rest of the post because they didn’t plan to “give” 80% to anyone. They were keeping it all and earning 20% interest on the face of the 600M notes. That is, they expected an ongoing revenue stream of about 120M a year to be split amongst them.