CAMPAIGN ’88 : Bentsen Son Payments

The blind trust of Democratic vice presidential nominee Bentsen invested about $564,000--more than twice the amount previously disclosed--in a holding company that was formed by his son last year but has conducted little business since then, a published report said Wednesday.

The Houston Post also reported that the company has been paying the financially strapped Lan Bentsen nearly $10,000 a month for his services as president and board chairman, according to a record of his testimony in an Aug. 3 divorce hearing.

Bentsen, the Texas senator, denied Tuesday that he influenced the investment decision and said he saw nothing unusual about the transaction. He acknowledged, however, that trust administrators probably based their decision on what he would have done in the same circumstances.

“I don’t consider it unusual to consider how a father would feel about the investment in his son’s business,” Bentsen said in an interview with the Houston paper. “I consider it an investment in my son’s future.”

In Washington, spokesman Bill Maddox said Wednesday that Bentsen talked with the newspaper “and expressed his views, so I wouldn’t have any comment in addition to what Sen. Bentsen said to the Post yesterday.”

Bentsen, who is vacationing in Wyoming, was unavailable for comment.