 In 1997, Simmons made a $5 million investment in T. Boone Pickens, Jr.'s first fund "BP Capital Energy Commodity Fund"; by 2005 this had grown to $150 million.In August 1997, President Bill Clinton used a line-item veto to draw attention to the type of "special benefits" that investors such as Simmons employ to avoid paying capital gains taxes since the early 1980s.Simmons had formed the "Snake River Sugar Cooperative" of 2,000 beet farmers and classified it as a joint-venture, shared ownership co-op, to purchase his Amalgamated Sugar Company, for $260 million.