
In 1988, Lord Larry docked his yacht, the Aphrodite, into Port Charles deeply in debt. The only way he believed that he could get his fortune back was to locate a long-lost Chinese civilization with the help of a key dubbed the Dragon Bone. However, to find the civilization, he needed the Bone, an emerald and a map. He was also being followed by the villainous Domino who wanted the Bone. Domino though wasn't the one that Larry should have worried about. The other person was Tracy Quartermaine, his ex-wife. Tracy also wanted to get rich and blackmailed Larry into giving her and their son Ned a share of the profits when the quest was completed. If Larry refused, then Tracy would reveal that Larry wasn't in fact the Ashton heir Lord Ashton, but instead an impostor! However, the Dragon Bone was buried by Robert Scorpio's dog Friday, and the quest fizzled. Still in debt, Larry left Port Charles with his wife Arielle. Larry soon after lost his title when a drifter, Charlie Prince, turned out to be the real Ashton heir.
In 1991, Larry returned alone to Port Charles and formed a cartel with Harlan Barrett, Leopold Taub and Cesar Faison in order to control global business with carbon disulfide, a toxic substance manufactured at a Port Charles cannery. To achieve their goals, the cartel forced ELQ CEO Paul Hornsby to marry Tracy Quartermaine and take control of her ELQ stock, killing her if he must. The cartel was soon busted up on Founder's Day by the PCPD and the substance was destroyed.