Bush Is No Good TradePosted on 01/19/2002 10:44:54 PM PST by Uncle Bill
Bush Is No Good Trade
By Tom Flocco
© 2000 WorldNetDaily.com
FEBRUARY 18, 2000
According to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission records, on four separate occasions Gov. George W. Bush disregarded federal statutes by failing to file insider stock trade reports on a timely basis, back-dating one trade by some four months. Moreover, one key trade just a few weeks before Iraq invaded Kuwait -- but reported some eight months late after the Gulf War was over -- netted Bush close to $1 million in profit as he sold stock in Harken Energy, an oil company doing business in the Middle East wherein some of his father's largest contributors also maintained substantial positions.
The SEC under President Bush carried out an incomplete investigation of the younger Bush's pre-Gulf War trade in 1991 after key presidential advisor George Jr. claimed that he filed a report, but that the SEC had most likely lost it. (No one has really asked whether the governor bothered to use registered mail to verify receipt of the documents.)
According to an Oct. 28, 1991, Time Magazine report, SEC spokesman John Heine said, "as far as I know, nobody ever found the 'lost' filing." And, strangely, Bush refused comment to Time regarding either the incident or his involvement with Harken.
The governor also did not reveal the blatant conflicts of interest involved, since the chairman of the SEC was Richard Breedon, former lawyer with Houston firm Baker and Botts and deputy counsel to Bush's father when he was vice president. Breedon received his SEC appointment after the elder Bush became president.
The SEC investigation of George W. was led by general counsel James R. Doty who, according to a UPI report, mysteriously neglected to interview any of the Harken directors. Moreover, Doty had previously served as George W. Bush's personal lawyer in the deal involving his Texas Rangers purchase. So, in the end, the younger Bush was cleared of insider trade wrongdoing by his personal attorney and by his father's vice-presidential counsel, a virtual impossibility for the average U.S. citizen.
That the mainstream media has refused to question Bush regarding what voters might consider a mockery of the criminal investigative process is a story in and of itself -- especially considering it concerns how a possible future president might enforce U.S. laws if he had also broken those statutes.
Consider that Americans who currently hold stocks or mutual funds would never -- by virtually no stretch of the imagination -- be able to obtain access to corporate insider information that could turn a million dollars profit. But reporters following Bush have not broached the subject during the campaign.
Stocking Up
Most reports involving Bush's insider oil stock trades refer only to his highly controversial June 22, 1990, million dollar trade made six weeks before Gulf War hostilities broke out in Kuwait -- a trade which was reported eight months later. However, SEC documents between 1986 and 1993 show that Bush acquired 212,152 shares of Harken stock on Nov. 1, 1986, at the time he merged his Spectrum 7 company with Harken. But the future governor did not report the transaction until April 7, 1987 -- more than five months later.
When Bush filed late on April 7,1987, SEC filings show he had purchased another 80,000 shares on March 10, 1987. But strangely, two weeks later, an April 22 filing noted that the 80,000-share purchase was backdated to Dec. 10, 1986. When questioned by the media, Bush's attorney said it was the same 80,000 shares but he could not explain the discrepancy regarding the purchase dates or why Bush even reported the trade two times.
Another SEC filing, this from June 6, 1989, showed that Bush purchased another 25,000 shares of Harken but again waited more than four months to report the transaction.
The Houston Post, recognizing Bush's late SEC filings, noted that he "took eight months to notify the government of his sale of stock in a company on whose board he served" and "also missed the filing deadline for reporting other insider trades involving Harken Energy."
Documents obtained by the Post showed "additional instances in which Bush ... ran afoul of the SEC rule requiring notification." And George W. described himself as a "small, insignificant" Harken stockholder; but news reports examining SEC documents identified Bush as the third largest non-institutional investor.
Bush in Bahrain
In October 1991, Time Magazine questioned why the tiny country of Bahrain would stake so much of its financial future on Harken Energy, which it labeled an "obscure, money-losing company with no refineries and no experience in offshore oil exploration." But the magazine also noted that oil-insiders speculated that Bahrain's rulers saw the arrangement as a way to gain influence with the Bush administration.
Mysteriously, primary reporters have also ignored what could point to a nexus regarding foreign policy and personal financial interests. Interestingly, the Village Voice in January 1991 reported that in 1990 the Bush administration signed an agreement with Bahrain that chose the small country as the permanent principal allied base in the Middle East, although it was some 200 miles away from the hostilities in Iraq and Kuwait.
The military-base deal came after Harken announced its Jan. 30, 1990, joint oil-drilling venture with Bahrain. So President Bush's key contributors and his son George W. were carrying on personal financial business with Bahrain at the same time decisions were being made regarding the possibility of a war in the Gulf.
And neither the president nor his adviser, George Jr., let the press know that Bahrain had been permitted to infuse $7.7 million in foreign cash to hire U.S. public relations firm Hill & Knowlton to lobby Congress and the American people; a stunning variety of opinion-forming devices and techniques were employed to inflame U.S. patriotic passions of war while personal financial interests were on the line.
Jumping Ship
On May 21, 1990, less than ten weeks before Saddam Hussein's troops invaded Kuwait to initiate the Middle East hostilities -- but just four weeks before Bush unloaded the bulk of his Harken stock -- a renegotiated corporate loan agreement featured an unusually high interest rate of 12 percent, less credit for acquisitions, a $750,000 debt fee and even requirements by some of Harken's major stockholders to guarantee $22.5 million in debt, according to Associated Press.
Did Bush know of impending losses when he sold his stock on June 22, 1990, since Federal securities law prohibits corporate insiders from trading "on the basis of" material information that is not publicly known? Bush denied the charge in spite of his positions on the Harken Energy board of directors, audit committee and stock restructuring panel. He added that he had no idea Harken was going to get an audit report full of red ink until weeks after he had made his stock sale.
But U.S. News & World Report said, "there is substantial evidence to suggest that Bush knew Harken was in dire straits. ... Harken's SEC filings make it clear that the company's directors knew radical steps were necessary." The magazine added that "one informed source says Harken's creditors had threatened to foreclose on the company if substantial debt payments were not made." Shortly thereafter, Bush cashed out of Harken.
The April 4, 1991,Wall Street Journal added that "Mr. Bush didn't return their phone calls seeking comment, and the Bush White House said 'it doesn't comment on the activities of the president's children.'"
According to the Washington Post, Harken's audit committee, of which Bush was a member, met with Mikel Faulkner and 
auditors from Arthur Andersen & Co., Harken's accountants, on June 11, 1990 -- just 11 days before Bush sold his stock on June 22. When asked for a copy of the June 11 minutes or permission to inspect them, the company declined to make the records available.
Bush's insider transaction yielding a profit of $848,560 -- some 250 percent profit on the stock's original value -- came a week prior to the end of a quarter in which the company lost $23 million. The quarterly report was released just a few days after Iraq invaded Kuwait and the Harken stock plummeted. However, as reported in a 1992 Mother Jones report, Bush attended a meeting regarding a revised stock offering in May 1990 working with Smith Barney's financial consultants concerning corporate restructuring.
In an Oct. 11, 1994, UPI report, Bush also claimed that he was not aware of Harken's poor financial condition when he sold the stock, but UPI said that the Dallas Morning News reported on the same day that a corporate official who served with Bush on the audit committee at Harken felt otherwise; Stuart Watson told the Dallas paper that he and Bush were constantly made aware of the company's finances. "You bet we were," said Watson. "We were both trying to keep that company on the straight and narrow."
On March 16, 1992, U.S. News echoed Watson's statement, reporting that "according to documents on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, his position on the Harken (restructuring) committee gave Bush detailed knowledge of the company's deteriorating financial condition."
Firewalls Or Stonewalls?
Chuck McDonald, spokesman for Texas Gov. Ann Richards' campaign, said that SEC chief counsel in the Bush investigation -- James Doty, George W.'s former attorney -- never talked to George W., Watson or other Harken officials in its 1991 probe. He said, "Was this a real investigation, or was it a whitewash of an insider stock sale by the son of the sitting president?" UPI, which reported McDonald's statement, went on to note that "while Bush claims the SEC investigation absolved him of illegal insider trading, he has refused to release the investigation files."
Harken founder, Phil Kendrick, noted that the company's "annual reports and press releases get me totally befuddled. There's been so much promotion, manipulation and inside deal making." And even Harken chief executive Mikel Faulkner, an accountant, offered advice for those trying to decipher the financial statements: "Good luck. They're a mess."
Press accounts note that Bush requested a letter from the SEC, issued in October 1993, The letter, signed by SEC Associate Director Bruce A. Hiler, said that "the investigation has been terminated as to the conduct of Mr. Bush and that, at this time, no enforcement is contemplated with respect to him." But the letter also stated that "it must in no way be construed as indicating that the party has been exonerated or that no action may ultimately result."
On Oct. 18, 1993, the Bush administration SEC said it would not bring a case against George W. Bush.
To The Manner Born: A Princeling Legacy?
Gov. Bush speaks about his outstanding business record on the campaign stump; however, in 1989, U.S. News & World Report said, "Harken Energy lost over $12 million against revenues of $1 billion." Harken President Mikel Faulkner said that in addition to Bush's position as a director at $2,000 per meeting, stock options worth $131,250, 5 percent loans and 40 percent discounts on stock purchases, he was also a consultant to Harken for "investor relations and equity placement" at a salary of $80,000 per year from 1986 until 1989, when his salary jumped to $120,000.
The board was equally generous to Bush in 1990 as "the company lost another $40 million and shareholder equity plunged to $3 million -- down from more than $70 million in 1988." Faulkner declined to say what services George W. has performed as a consultant.
In March 1992, U.S. News said that "Despite repeated requests for interviews, George W. declined to discuss Harken or the reason for his stock sale, saying through an assistant that he 'does not want to read about himself.'" But some might ask whether American voters have a right to know whether a possible president would strictly enforce federal statutes or appoint lenient attorneys with suspect ethical standards leading to fixed politically sensitive investigations.
Moreover, should Bush -- a director of the corporation -- be accountable when huge losses are reported over a period of time, especially as a presidential candidate purporting to have an outstanding entrepreneurial business record at every presidential campaign stop? The answers have real implications regarding presidential character, morality and personal ethics.
Author and commentator Kevin Phillips offered a perceptive look at the Texas governor in the February 2000 issue of Harpers magazine when he said, "We can fairly ask whether George W. Bush is anything more than another scion who has made a decent governor during a period of prosperity and easy growth, and whether the United States can afford nominees who are to presidential politics what legacies are to college fraternities."
Attorney General John Ashcroft Picks Arthur Andersen For FBI Review
Enron Probe Crosses Many Political Borders
Federal Government and Congress To Lower Boom On Enron - Criminal, Fraud, Waste, Accounting Methods
Item 4. Changes in Registrant's Certifying Accountant
(a) On August 28, 2001, Harken Energy Corporation (the "Company") dismissed Arthur Andersen LLP ("Arthur Andersen") as the Company's independent accountants. The Company has engaged Ernst and Young LLP ("Ernst & Young") as its new independent accountants effective immediately. The decision to change the Company's independent accountants was made by the Company's Audit Committee of the Board of Directors.
(b) Arthur Andersen's reports on the Company's consolidated financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2000 and 1999 did not contain an adverse opinion or disclaimer of opinion, nor were such reports qualified or modified as to uncertainty, audit scope, or accounting principles.
(c) During the two years ended December 31, 2000 and the subsequent interim period preceding the decision to change independent accountants, there were no disagreements with Arthur Andersen on any matters of accounting principles or practices, financial statement disclosure, or auditing scope or procedure, which disagreement(s), if not resolved to the satisfaction of Arthur Andersen, would have caused the former accountant to make a reference to the subject matter of the disagreement(s) in connection with its reports covering such periods.
(d) During the two years ended December 31, 2000 and the subsequent interim period preceding the decision to change independent accountants, there were no "reportable events" (hereinafter defined) requiring disclosure pursuant to Item 304 (a) (1) (v) of Regulation S-K. As used herein, the term "reportable events" means any of the items listed in paragraphs (a) (1) (v) (A) - (D) of Item 304 of Regulation S-K.
(e) Effective September 5, 2001, the Company engaged Ernst & Young as its independent accountants. During the two years ended December 31, 2000 and the subsequent interim period preceding the decision to change independent accountants, neither the Company nor anyone on its behalf consulted Ernst & Young regarding either the application of accounting principles to a specified transaction, either completed or proposed, or the type of audit opinion that might be rendered on the Company's consolidated financial statements, nor has Ernst & Young provided to the Company a written report or oral advice regarding such principles or audit opinion.
(f) The Company has requested that Arthur Andersen furnish it with a letter addressed to the Securities and Exchange Commission stating whether or not it agrees with the above statements. A copy of the letter from Arthur Andersen dated August 31, 2001 is filed as Exhibit 16.1 to this Form 8-K.
HARKEN ENERGY CORP.
HARKEN ENERGY CORP's SEC filings By Name
Neil Bush
Silverado Savings and Loan Executive:
O, Brother! Where Art Thou?
"In 1990, Bush paid a $50,000 fine and was banned from banking activities for his role in taking down Silverado, which actually cost taxpayers $1.3 billion. A Resolution Trust Corporation Suit against Bush and other officers of Silverado was settled in 1991 for $26.5 million. And the fine wasn't exactly paid by Neil Bush. A Republican fundraiser set up a fund to help defer costs Neil incurred in his S&L dealings. Friends and relatives contributed -- but not then-President and Barbara Bush, which would have been unseemly.
...Bush wasn't just an average S&L exec drawing a big salary and recklessly pushing a federally insured institution beyond its lending limits. As a director of a failing thrift in Denver, Bush voted to approve $100 million in what were ultimately bad loans to two of his business partners. And in voting for the loans, he failed to inform fellow board members at Silverado Savings & Loan that the loan applicants were his business partners. Federal banking regulators later followed the trail of defaulted loans to Neil Bush oil ventures, in particular JNB International, an oil and gas exploration company awarded drilling concessions in Argentina -- despite its complete lack of experience in international oil and gas drilling. It probably helped that the Bush family had cultivated close ties with the fabulously corrupt Carlos Menem, former president of Argentina.
When JNB's rights and obligations were assumed by other investors, Neil tried to persuade another American oil and gas exploration company, Plains Resources, to invest in Argentina. Plains wasn't buying. But it was hiring, and picked up Neil as a consultant for its Argentine market -- because, as Plains executive Carlos Garibaldi told The New York Times' Jeff Gerth in 1992, Neil had "traveled [in Argentina] and played tennis with President Menem." Plains President J. Patrick Collins told Gerth at the time that Neil Bush "bent over backwards not to trade on his name."
That claim was hard to make in 1993, when Neil, Marvin, James Baker III, John Sununu, and Thomas Kelly (who had served as director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf War) joined President Bush on a trip to Kuwait. Three months out of office, the elder Bush was traveling on a Kuwait Airlines flight to accept an honorary degree from the country's university and its highest honor from its leader: Emir Sheikh Jabir al-Ahmad al-Sabah. The rest of the Bush entourage was following along to exploit the market in a country that considered the ex-president its savior. Former Secretary of State Baker was doing deals for Enron (the Houston-based energy-related company and contributor to Bush the Elder and later a $525,000 donor to George W. Bush's two gubernatorial races in Texas). Marvin was representing U.S. defense firms selling electronic fences to the Kuwaiti Defense Ministry. And Neil was selling anti-pollution equipment to Kuwaiti oil contractors.
There is "no conflict of interest. ... We're just capitalizing on whatever good feelings exist," an executive from the company Neil Bush represented later told Seymour Hersh, who laid out the embarrassing story on the pages of The New Yorker in September 1993. Neil, according to Hersh, later returned to Kuwait and set up shop in the International Hotel in Kuwait City, where he tried to secure a management contract with Kuwait's Ministry of Electricity and Water. Neil's deal included foreign and Kuwaiti members of the Enron consortium, and would have had the Kuwaiti government paying a management fee to a Kuwaiti company that was owned in part by a private company set up in the Caribbean or some other tax haven. "The offshore firm would have various owners, in Europe and elsewhere, one of which would be a company in which Neil Bush had an interest," The New Yorker reported. The scheme was ingenious, a financial analyst told Hersh."If you looked at one of the contracts, how in the hell would you know that Bush was in it?" The whole deal was as unsavory and unpardonable as a round of golf with Hillary Clinton sibling Huey Rodham.
Jeb missed that junket, but the current governor of Florida isn't above taking the family name abroad to make a buck. In 1989, Bush and his wife traveled to Nigeria with a executives of M&W Pump, a Florida-based company that had been selling agricultural pumps to Nigeria. Jeb and Columba Bush were received by Nigerian President Ibrahim Babangida and celebrated by tens of thousands of Nigerians who turned out to see the son of the U.S. president. President Babangida expressed his interest in visiting the White House -- a request Jeb promised to pass along to his father -- and by 1992 the Florida pump company had secured $74 million in financing from the Export-Import Bank of the United States. It was by far the largest Ex-Im deal M&W had ever done in Nigeria -- a country Ex-Im loan officers considered a bad risk. "I didn't get paid for the Nigeria business," Bush told The Palm Beach Post in 1994. "I have not made a dime on business with Nigeria." Yet the Post found tax records that revealed Bush had earned at least $300,000 through his association with the owner of the same company for which he had done a pro-bono sales trip to Nigeria. Bush-El, a 50-50 partnership with the owner of M&W, paid Bush at least $300,000 for his participation in a separate venture, marketing agricultural hand pumps. Why would Bush suddenly find himself involved with a company selling agricultural hand pumps around the world? the Post asked. "I know how to sell things," responded Bush. "I know international sales. I know how to get people to put together tenders because I financed a lot of them when I was working at Texas Commerce Bank."
Jeb Bush
Ideon Corporation
Jeb Bush - Board of Directors
"Kahn in early 1995 even wrote the former president: "First let me tell you how happy we are to have your son, Jeb, on our board of directors. . . . He is a great asset to the team."
Then there was the paycheck. Ideon paid directors a whopping $50,000 a year, plus $2,000 per meeting and $500 per telephone conference. That was the largest sum paid to directors of any major public company in Jacksonville, and possibly in all of Florida.
What's not to like? Everything, it turns out. Ideon already was in trouble when Bush joined the board in January 1995.
By 1996, Kahn was out. Ideon was then sold to CUC International. Ideon's directors faced lawsuits claiming stock manipulation. Now, more than two years later, Cendant -- the successor company to CUC -- is struggling to recover after discovering years of accounting fraud attributed, in part, to CUC's purchase of Ideon.
Politically, the Ideon aftermath worries the Bush campaign. In fact, Bush assembled a 15-page Ideon statement and visited major Florida newspapers to defend his role.
Kahn at first had grandiose plans for a quirky array of new services -- selling credit card perks for golfers, a "Family Protection Network" membership club to help find missing children and a line of Vatican-approved art objects. The services were never fully tested. They flopped and Ideon began gushing red ink.
Some of Kahn's ideas were a stretch. He wanted the pope's blessing to introduce a Catholic credit card. He also wasted a lot of company funds. Kahn once bought $10,000 place mats for the company jet. He hired consultants like convicted Wall Street felon Martin Siegel.
Bush said he was angry when he heard about Siegel. "I couldn't believe it," he said.
Despite a second-quarter 1995 loss of $46.7-million, Bush said Ideon's board initially accepted Kahn's free-spending ways. The directors counted on revenue growth. They did demand Siegel be fired. Bush said he pushed to dismiss Kahn and sell the company.
But lawsuits against Ideon directors, as well as the company's own regulatory filings, paint a different picture. As directors, Bush and his Republican fund-raiser friend Thomas Petway sat on Ideon's audit committee, the watchdog of financial and management integrity. Many of Bush's fellow outside directors -- who were supposed to represent shareholder interests -- had cut cozy business deals with Ideon. In some cases, they got six-figure consulting fees on top of their directors pay.
..By August 1996, Ideon was sold for $375-million to CUC. The sale included indemnification for directors against lawsuits. Good news, considering the lawsuits charge Ideon and its directors with stock manipulation. The cases were settled early this year for $15-million. Bush and the other directors paid nothing.
Kahn denied that board members were in the dark about company spending. "I was not alone," he told Business Week magazine last year. "The board knew about everything. . . . They set me up for being the fall guy, not that I'm without sin. I was hung out to dry."
[end of partial transcript]
A Pathological Probe of A Pool of Pervasive Perversion - By Abraham J. Briloff, Ph.D., CPA - Emanuel Saxe Distinugished Professor Emeritus - Baruch College, New York.
"On August 28, 1998, Arthur Andersen & Co. (“AA”) rendered its “Report to the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors of Cendant Corporation” reporting on its forensic audit of CUC International, Inc., in the wake of disclosures in mid-April that accounting irregularities had been discovered at CUC (which merged in December 1997, with HFS to form Cendant)."
Let's roll.
The Washington Post
By Susan Schmidt
November 24, 1992
Ernst & Young, one of the nation's largest accounting firms, yesterday paid the federal government $400 million to settle po- tential claims arising out of its audits of more than 300 failed savings and loans, including some of the country's most notorious institutions.
The firm's settlement was second in size only to the $500 mil- lion paid earlier this year by the investment banking firm of Drexel Burnham Lambert Group Inc. and its junk bond king, Michael Milken, and underscored the government's efforts to pursue claims against lawyers, accountants and other professionals involved with failed S&Ls.
Included in yesterday's settlement were claims arising out of the failure of four of the nation's biggest and most profligate S&Ls: Charles Keating's Lincoln Savings and Loan Association of California; Western Savings Association of Phoenix; Vernon Sav- ings and Loan Association of Dallas; and Silverado Banking Savings and Loan of Denver, where President Bush's son Neil served as a director. "It's a very important step forward toward the cleanup of the thrift industry," said Harris Weinstein, general counsel of the Office of Thrift Supervision, one of the three federal banking agencies to agree to the settlement. "It estab- lishes standards for audit work that should be done at financial institutions now and in the future."
...The accounting industry has been mounting a counterattack against federal officials, seeking to place limits on damages in liability awards. Lawrence Weinbach, chairman of Arthur Andersen & Co., has said that the nation's biggest firms - the so-called Big Six - spent 9 percent of their revenue last year on litiga- tion.
S&L audits that were covered by yesterday's settlement were con- ducted over a seven-year period by Arthur Young and Ernst & Whin- ney, which merged in 1989 to form Ernst & Young.
In addition to the financial settlement, one current Ernst & Young partner and two former partners have been permanently barred from auditing financial institutions, and seven others must take further training before doing such audits.
...One former partner barred for life is Jack D. Atchison, who did audit work for Lincoln Savings. Within days of a 1987 audit by the accounting firm, Atchison took a job with Keating, according to testimony in an Arizona civil trial.
...According to the government, Ernst & Young's audits were inade- quate in reviewing real estate appraisals, transactions with in- siders and improper recognition of income. An example of the latter cited in the charges was the firm's alleged failure to challenge Lincoln's fictitious sale of real estate, in which the thrift would provide all the financing.
Ernst & Young initiated settlement talks with the government eight months ago, around the time a federal judge here ordered the firm to comply with an OTS subpoena and produce more than 1 million pages of documents from 20 failed S&Ls.
FDIC General Counsel Alfred J.T. Byrne said that pursuing Ernst & Young in court on substantial claims that have arisen from a dozen thrifts would have cost at least $150 million.
The FDIC's share of the recovery is $271.7 million, and the RTC's share $128.2 million."
[End of Partial Transcript>
Everybody gets their piece. The taxpayers get the bill. Isn't it just beautiful. And the taxpayers love this family. Hehehehehe. What a deal.
The United States of Enron
"Harvey Pitt, the Bush administration's chief at the S.E.C., was actually an Arthur Andersen lawyer. After this week's revelation that top Andersen executives knew of funny business at Enron as early as February 2001, you have to wonder whether Mr. Pitt should be a witness in an S.E.C. investigation rather than its overlord. Was he representing Andersen at the time it first detected Enron's misbehavior? Was he in the loop? The stonewalling may have already begun, since neither the S.E.C. nor Andersen, when queried late this week, could say just when Mr. Pitt was in the accounting firm's employ.
Whom can the country turn to for an honest investigation? Democrats and Republicans alike are so beholden to accounting-industry money that they scuttled an attempt by Arthur Levitt, the former S.E.C. head, to regulate conflicts of interest in companies like Andersen two years ago."
Hi, I'm Harvey L. Pitt, George Bush's S.E.C. chairman, and I'm a recovering Andersen lawyer.
George W. Bush - Seated on Harken's Board of Directors and audit committee, and large shareholder.
Harken Accountants: Arthur Andersen
Bush Violated Security Laws Four Times, SEC Report Says
According to the Washington Post, Harken's audit committee, of which Bush was a member, met with Mikel Faulkner and auditors from Arthur Andersen & Co., Harken's accountants, on June 11, 1990 -- just 11 days before Bush sold his stock on June 22. When asked for a copy of the June 11 minutes or permission to inspect them, the company declined to make the records available.
Insider Trading and George W. Bush
A U S T I N, July 1-- The Securities and Exchange Commission defines insider trading as "Corporate officers, directors, and employees who traded the corporation's securities after learning of significant, confidential corporate developments". Bush sold $848,560 worth of Harken Energy stock on June 22, 1990, just one week before the company posted spectacular losses and the stock plunged sharply. When the losses were reported to the public on August 20, 1990, the stock plummeted.
According to documents from a two year investigation by the SEC, Bush served on the board of directors of Harken Energy Corporation and his position on a special Harken committee gave him detailed knowledge of the company's deteriorating financial condition. The SEC received word of Bush's trade ten months late.
The SEC states, "Because insider trading undermines investor confidence in the fairness and integrity of the securities markets, the Commission has treated the detection and prosecution of insider trading violations as one of its enforcement priorities".
Bush supporters point out that the stock's value went back up, eventually, and if Bush had held the stock, it would have made him more money. But, knowing when to sell is the golden goose of stock trading and using inside information is insider trading. The SEC investigated but decided not to punish Bush. After all, his dad was President and all five SEC Commissioners are appointed by the President. Furthermore, the SEC's general counsel had actually represented George W. in the Texas Rangers negotiation. Any doubts?
Neil Bush
Silverado Savings and Loan Executive:
SIGNS POINT TO MOB INVOLVEMENT IN SAVINGS-AND-LOAN MESS
Neil Bush - Silverado Savings and Loan
"A failed Colorado savings and loan whose board of directors included a son of President Bush was part of an intricate web of federally insured financial institutions that had business links to organized crime figures and CIA operatives, The Houston Post has learned.
Four of the largest borrowers at Silverado Savings and Loan, a Denver thrift that collapsed in December 1988 at an estimated cost to the federal government of $1 billion, had connections to convicted Louisiana mob associate Herman K. Beebe Sr., or to Robert L. Corson, a Houston developer and alleged CIA operative.
Three of the four also had independent business relationships with Neil Bush, who was a member of the Silverado board from 1985 until he resigned in August 1988, a week after his father won the Republican presidential nomination.
The U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision in January issued orders barring five former Silverado officials from any future association with federally insured financial institutions.
Neil Bush was questioned by the OTS and was asked to sign a consent order by which he would agree to avoid conflicts of interest in any future relationships he might have with federally insured financial institutions.
Bush declined to sign the order, saying he had done nothing wrong.
Several sources close to Silverado and the federal investigation into its demise say Bush, because of his family connections, was used by his more sophisticated business associates to protect them from prosecution.
Other sources, however, said Bush fully understood what he was doing when he became involved in business deals with Silverado borrowers.
Reached at his Denver office Friday, Bush declined to answer questions. "I've talked about all that I want to talk about right now," he said."
O, Brother! Where Art Thou?
"In 1990, Bush paid a $50,000 fine and was banned from banking activities for his role in taking down Silverado, which actually cost taxpayers $1.3 billion. A Resolution Trust Corporation Suit against Bush and other officers of Silverado was settled in 1991 for $26.5 million. And the fine wasn't exactly paid by Neil Bush. A Republican fundraiser set up a fund to help defer costs Neil incurred in his S&L dealings. Friends and relatives contributed -- but not then-President and Barbara Bush, which would have been unseemly.
...Bush wasn't just an average S&L exec drawing a big salary and recklessly pushing a federally insured institution beyond its lending limits. As a director of a failing thrift in Denver, Bush voted to approve $100 million in what were ultimately bad loans to two of his business partners. And in voting for the loans, he failed to inform fellow board members at Silverado Savings & Loan that the loan applicants were his business partners. Federal banking regulators later followed the trail of defaulted loans to Neil Bush oil ventures, in particular JNB International, an oil and gas exploration company awarded drilling concessions in Argentina -- despite its complete lack of experience in international oil and gas drilling. It probably helped that the Bush family had cultivated close ties with the fabulously corrupt Carlos Menem, former president of Argentina.
When JNB's rights and obligations were assumed by other investors, Neil tried to persuade another American oil and gas exploration company, Plains Resources, to invest in Argentina. Plains wasn't buying. But it was hiring, and picked up Neil as a consultant for its Argentine market -- because, as Plains executive Carlos Garibaldi told The New York Times' Jeff Gerth in 1992, Neil had "traveled [in Argentina] and played tennis with President Menem." Plains President J. Patrick Collins told Gerth at the time that Neil Bush "bent over backwards not to trade on his name."
That claim was hard to make in 1993, when Neil, Marvin, James Baker III, John Sununu, and Thomas Kelly (who had served as director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf War) joined President Bush on a trip to Kuwait. Three months out of office, the elder Bush was traveling on a Kuwait Airlines flight to accept an honorary degree from the country's university and its highest honor from its leader: Emir Sheikh Jabir al-Ahmad al-Sabah. The rest of the Bush entourage was following along to exploit the market in a country that considered the ex-president its savior. Former Secretary of State Baker was doing deals for Enron (the Houston-based energy-related company and contributor to Bush the Elder and later a $525,000 donor to George W. Bush's two gubernatorial races in Texas). Marvin was representing U.S. defense firms selling electronic fences to the Kuwaiti Defense Ministry. And Neil was selling anti-pollution equipment to Kuwaiti oil contractors.
There is "no conflict of interest. ... We're just capitalizing on whatever good feelings exist," an executive from the company Neil Bush represented later told Seymour Hersh, who laid out the embarrassing story on the pages of The New Yorker in September 1993. Neil, according to Hersh, later returned to Kuwait and set up shop in the International Hotel in Kuwait City, where he tried to secure a management contract with Kuwait's Ministry of Electricity and Water. Neil's deal included foreign and Kuwaiti members of the Enron consortium, and would have had the Kuwaiti government paying a management fee to a Kuwaiti company that was owned in part by a private company set up in the Caribbean or some other tax haven. "The offshore firm would have various owners, in Europe and elsewhere, one of which would be a company in which Neil Bush had an interest," The New Yorker reported. The scheme was ingenious, a financial analyst told Hersh."If you looked at one of the contracts, how in the hell would you know that Bush was in it?" The whole deal was as unsavory and unpardonable as a round of golf with Hillary Clinton sibling Huey Rodham.
Ernst & Young Pays $400 Million To Settle Thrift Regulators
The Washington Post
By Susan Schmidt
November 24, 1992
Ernst & Young, one of the nation's largest accounting firms, yesterday paid the federal government $400 million to settle po- tential claims arising out of its audits of more than 300 failed savings and loans, including some of the country's most notorious institutions.
The firm's settlement was second in size only to the $500 mil- lion paid earlier this year by the investment banking firm of Drexel Burnham Lambert Group Inc. and its junk bond king, Michael Milken, and underscored the government's efforts to pursue claims against lawyers, accountants and other professionals involved with failed S&Ls.
Included in yesterday's settlement were claims arising out of the failure of four of the nation's biggest and most profligate S&Ls: Charles Keating's Lincoln Savings and Loan Association of California; Western Savings Association of Phoenix; Vernon Sav- ings and Loan Association of Dallas; and Silverado Banking Savings and Loan of Denver, where President Bush's son Neil served as a director. "It's a very important step forward toward the cleanup of the thrift industry," said Harris Weinstein, general counsel of the Office of Thrift Supervision, one of the three federal banking agencies to agree to the settlement. "It estab- lishes standards for audit work that should be done at financial institutions now and in the future."
...The accounting industry has been mounting a counterattack against federal officials, seeking to place limits on damages in liability awards. Lawrence Weinbach, chairman of Arthur Andersen & Co., has said that the nation's biggest firms - the so-called Big Six - spent 9 percent of their revenue last year on litiga- tion.
S&L audits that were covered by yesterday's settlement were con- ducted over a seven-year period by Arthur Young and Ernst & Whin- ney, which merged in 1989 to form Ernst & Young.
In addition to the financial settlement, one current Ernst & Young partner and two former partners have been permanently barred from auditing financial institutions, and seven others must take further training before doing such audits.
...One former partner barred for life is Jack D. Atchison, who did audit work for Lincoln Savings. Within days of a 1987 audit by the accounting firm, Atchison took a job with Keating, according to testimony in an Arizona civil trial.
...According to the government, Ernst & Young's audits were inade- quate in reviewing real estate appraisals, transactions with in- siders and improper recognition of income. An example of the latter cited in the charges was the firm's alleged failure to challenge Lincoln's fictitious sale of real estate, in which the thrift would provide all the financing.
Ernst & Young initiated settlement talks with the government eight months ago, around the time a federal judge here ordered the firm to comply with an OTS subpoena and produce more than 1 million pages of documents from 20 failed S&Ls.
FDIC General Counsel Alfred J.T. Byrne said that pursuing Ernst & Young in court on substantial claims that have arisen from a dozen thrifts would have cost at least $150 million.
The FDIC's share of the recovery is $271.7 million, and the RTC's share $128.2 million."
[End of Partial Transcript>
BUSH AND CO.
JONATHAN BUSH
President & Chief Executive Officer
STATE FINES BUSH'S BROTHER IN STOCK CASE
"Massachusetts securities regulators have fined the stock brokerage firm owned by President Bush's brother Jonathan $30,000 and barred it from trading with the general public for one year because the company and Bush violated state registration laws."
Jonathan Bush is the President and Chief Executive Officer of RIMCO. He also is the founder and current Chairman of J. Bush & Co., a subsidiary of Riggs Bank. He is a graduate of Yale University (BA) and New York University School (MBA).
Mr. Bush is a member of the Executive Committee and former Board Chairman of the United Negro College Fund. He chaired the capital campaign, which raised $280 million dollars for the 39 colleges and universities that comprise the UNCF. He holds honorary degrees from Bethune-Cookman College, St. Augustine's College and Stillman College.
Mr. Bush currently serves as a Director of Russell Reynolds Associates and is a board member of the Yale New Haven Hospital; Vista of Westbrook, Inc.; and the Emmannuel Church in Killingworth, Connecticut. He formerly served on theboards of Inwood House (home for unwed mothers), The Eye Bank for Sight Restoration, the Yale Alumni Fund, the Boys Club of New York and Miss Porters' School.
He is a former Chairman of the New York Republican State Finance Committee and member of the New York Republican Executive Committee.
He was an active fundraiser in all four of President George Bush's campaigns for national office.
He has served on the investment committee of the Hotchkiss School for the past 27 years.
Jeb Bush
Ideon Corporation
Jeb Bush - Board of Directors - Bush sat on Ideon's audit committee, the watchdog of financial and management integrity.
Cendant Employees Awake to Discover A 15% Average Loss On Their 401k Stake
Cendant - Jackson Hewitt Inc. And Arthur Andersen To Develop New Tax Software System
"Arthur Andersen will help us enhance our current core tax engine and upgrade our ProFiler system to be faster and much more efficient," said Jackson Hewitt Inc. President and COO, Dan Tarantin. "The new system will provide numerous benefits to our franchisees, including the option of preparing returns in either a forms-based method or via our traditional decision-tree interview."
"Given their extensive tax industry expertise, we’re excited to have Arthur Andersen’s assistance in the upgrading of our technology," said Tarantin. "Due to our tremendous growth over the last few years our customer base has doubled, and the newly enhanced ProFiler system will help to support our growing franchise base."
[end of partial transcript]
Jeb Bush joined board of company mired in trouble
"Kahn in early 1995 even wrote the former president: "First let me tell you how happy we are to have your son, Jeb, on our board of directors. . . . He is a great asset to the team."
Then there was the paycheck. Ideon paid directors a whopping $50,000 a year, plus $2,000 per meeting and $500 per telephone conference. That was the largest sum paid to directors of any major public company in Jacksonville, and possibly in all of Florida.
What's not to like? Everything, it turns out. Ideon already was in trouble when Bush joined the board in January 1995.
By 1996, Kahn was out. Ideon was then sold to CUC International. Ideon's directors faced lawsuits claiming stock manipulation. Now, more than two years later, Cendant -- the successor company to CUC -- is struggling to recover after discovering years of accounting fraud attributed, in part, to CUC's purchase of Ideon.
Politically, the Ideon aftermath worries the Bush campaign. In fact, Bush assembled a 15-page Ideon statement and visited major Florida newspapers to defend his role.
Kahn at first had grandiose plans for a quirky array of new services -- selling credit card perks for golfers, a "Family Protection Network" membership club to help find missing children and a line of Vatican-approved art objects. The services were never fully tested. They flopped and Ideon began gushing red ink.
Some of Kahn's ideas were a stretch. He wanted the pope's blessing to introduce a Catholic credit card. He also wasted a lot of company funds. Kahn once bought $10,000 place mats for the company jet. He hired consultants like convicted Wall Street felon Martin Siegel.
Bush said he was angry when he heard about Siegel. "I couldn't believe it," he said.
Despite a second-quarter 1995 loss of $46.7-million, Bush said Ideon's board initially accepted Kahn's free-spending ways. The directors counted on revenue growth. They did demand Siegel be fired. Bush said he pushed to dismiss Kahn and sell the company.
But lawsuits against Ideon directors, as well as the company's own regulatory filings, paint a different picture. As directors, Bush and his Republican fund-raiser friend Thomas Petway sat on Ideon's audit committee, the watchdog of financial and management integrity. Many of Bush's fellow outside directors -- who were supposed to represent shareholder interests -- had cut cozy business deals with Ideon. In some cases, they got six-figure consulting fees on top of their directors pay.
..By August 1996, Ideon was sold for $375-million to CUC. The sale included indemnification for directors against lawsuits. Good news, considering the lawsuits charge Ideon and its directors with stock manipulation. The cases were settled early this year for $15-million. Bush and the other directors paid nothing.
Kahn denied that board members were in the dark about company spending. "I was not alone," he told Business Week magazine last year. "The board knew about everything. . . . They set me up for being the fall guy, not that I'm without sin. I was hung out to dry."
[end of partial transcript]
A Pathological Probe of A Pool of Pervasive Perversion - By Abraham J. Briloff, Ph.D., CPA - Emanuel Saxe Distinugished Professor Emeritus - Baruch College, New York.
"On August 28, 1998, Arthur Andersen & Co. (“AA”) rendered its “Report to the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors of Cendant Corporation” reporting on its forensic audit of CUC International, Inc., in the wake of disclosures in mid-April that accounting irregularities had been discovered at CUC (which merged in December 1997, with HFS to form Cendant)."
President George H. W. Bush
George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography
"The name chosen for the new concern was Zapata Petroleum. According to Hugh Liedtke, the new entrepreneurs were attracted to the name when they saw it on a movie marquee, where the new release Viva Zapata!, starring Marlon Brando as the Mexican revolutionary, was playing. Liedtke characteristically explains that part of the appeal of the name was the confusion as to whether Zapata had been a patriot or a bandit.
...An interim director that year had been Richard E. Fleming of Robert Fleming and Co., London, England. Counsel were listed as Baker, Botts, Andrews & Shepherd of Houston, Texas; auditors were Arthur Andersen in Houston, and transfer agents were J.P. Morgan & Co., Inc., of New York City and the First National Bank and Trust Company of Tulsa.
...The Liedtkes were also nailed for insider trading in buying 125,000 Pennzoil shares just before the stock went up as the news of the $100 million transfer became known on Wall Street; they had to cough up $108,125 in profits thus realized, and they were obliged to sign a consent decree that they would never repeat a caper of this sort.
...During the late 1970's, the Liedkte brothers would receive an entree into the People's Republic of China thanks to the personal connections acquired there by their former business partner and lifetime crony, George Bush.
...Bush nevertheless created a network of subsidiaries which was suspiciously complex. This topic is difficult to research because of the very convenient disappearance of the Zapata Offshore filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington for the year 1960-1966 which were "inadvertently" destroyed by a federal warehouse. This is the kind of convenient tampering with official records from which Bush has benefitted again and again over his career, from the combat report on the San Jacinto in 1944 to the disappearance of the Hashemi-Pottinger tapes and the shredding of Iran-contra documents more recently.
...Bush was clearly dishonest in that the annual reports of Zapata Offshore do not mention this deal with Permargo, which created a company that was in direct competition with Zapata Offshore itself, much to the detriment of that "shareholder value" which Bush professed to hold sacred whenever his clique of cronies was on the track of a new leveraged buyout. Bush may also have illegally concealed his dealings from the government. The Zapata Offshore filings with the SEC between 1955 and 1959 are cryptic, and the SEC files on Zapata Offshore between 1960 and 1966, when Bush had exclusive control of the company, were destroyed by the SEC either in 1981, when Bush had just become vice president, or somewhat later, in October, 1983, according to various SEC officials."
Accountants in BCCI
"That case was settled in September 1998, with £117 million being paid to Deloittes by Price, along with Ernst & Young (which audited part of BCCI until 1987) and the former majority shareholder of BCCI, the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi. With the case closed, the path is clear for the JDS to begin its investigation. JDS chief Chris Dickson is expected to ask the court to lift the injunction some time this month."
ARTHUR ANDERSEN - Crooks-R-us
There was no wall between auditing and consulting in this assignment, according to sealed court documents that were recently leaked. Andersen's auditors put together the DeLorean company's profit figures then audited their own work. In addition to that violation of SEC rules, Andersen effectively became a part of DeLorean's management, seeking investment capital and negotiating with Ireland and Northern Ireland over a new factory. Meanwhile, the firm's consultants won a contract to design and install a computerized accounting system.
The conflicts ran deeper. When the SEC raised objections to DeLorean's financial filings, Andersen drafted a detailed response to the agency on DeLorean's letterhead, the records show. And when a reporter from the London Sunday Telegraph started nosing around, Andersen and DeLorean tried to throw her off the trail by showing her sham paperwork for a shell company set up to perpetrate the fraud. Richard Measelle, a former Arthur Andersen managing partner, later opined in a confidential memo that "the great advantage of showing her [the reporter] the contract was that it kept her from going around" and doing more digging, the records say."
A federal grand jury in Los Angeles on Tuesday named Bakhit in a 21-count indictment that accuses him of conspiracy, securities fraud, making false statements in ADI’s registration statement, making false statements to ADI’s auditors, making false statements in ADI’s quarterly reports, falsifying the company’s books and records, and circumventing its internal accounting controls. Bakhit, a 51-year-old Mission Viejo resident who now acts as a consultant to the company, held 100 percent of ADI stock before the public offering. As a result of ADI’s sale of additional shares through its IPO, Bakhit’s ownership interest was diluted to approximately 55 percent of the common stock.
The indictment against Bakhit alleges that he orchestrated the scheme and that he directed Goulet and others to engage in a number of fraudulent accounting practices, including creating false invoices for submission to Far East National Bank in order to obtain cash under ADI's lines of credit. Many of the false and improper invoices were recorded in ADI's books and records.
Consequently, ADI filed with the SEC a registration statement and prospectus in connection with its IPO which misstated ADI’s revenues, net income, assets, and other financial data to the investing public. ADI also filed false and misleading quarterly reports for the first and second quarters of 1997.
As a result of the fraudulent practices, ADI overstated its net income for 1996 by more than $1 million.
The national accounting firm of Arthur Andersen LLP acted as ADI's independent public accountant."
Attorney General John Ashcroft Picks Arthur Andersen For FBI Review
"The Justice Department has selected Andersen to conduct a comprehensive review of the FBI, including its antiquated computer systems. This study by a firm of Andersen's caliber will provide valuable information to enhance the institutional integrity and performance of the FBI."
Administration Ties to Arthur Andersen Nearly as Tight as Those to Enron
Federal Government and Congress To Lower Boom On Enron - Criminal, Fraud, Waste, Accounting Methods
"The president thinks that it is vital for the Department of Justice to pursue this wherever it goes, to whoever it goes and to do whatever it takes to investigate any criminal wrongdoing,"
Ari Fleischer - White House spokesman - January 16, 2002.
"We’re going to go after all crime, and we’re going to make sure people get punished for the crime."
George W. Bush - Presidential Debate at Wake Forest University - Oct 11, 2000
"It is not possible to 'take care that the laws be faithfully executed' while deliberately violating the law.."
John Ashcroft - Aug. 1, 1998 (Washington Post).
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Posted on 9/30/01 8:10 AM Pacific by liberallarry
Presto, like magic, a couple phone calls later, and:
Click to scroll to commentary.
| TOPICS |
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Posted on 10/26/01 12:30 PM Pacific by Theresa
WASHINGTON (AP) - Osama bin Laden's wealthy family in Saudi Arabia is cutting its financial ties with the Carlyle Group, a politically-connected U.S. private investment firm, by mutual agreement, a source familiar with the relationship said Friday.
The bin Laden family decided to sell its investment worth $2.02 million back to the firm mainly because of public controversy over its stake in a Carlyle fund that invests in buyouts of military and aerospace companies, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The source was confirming a report in Friday's editions of The New York Times.
There had been criticism in Saudi Arabia after the Sept. 11 terror attacks that the family, which disowned exiled Islamic militant Osama bin Laden years ago, might profit from increased military spending in the U.S. war against terrorism.
The family, whose construction company is one of the largest in the Middle East, also has invested with a number of other investment funds and financial institutions around the world, reportedly including U.S. financial services giant Citigroup, Deutsche Bank of Germany and the Dutch bank ABN Amro.
Carlyle has some $14 billion in assets under management. Its chairman is Frank Carlucci, a former U.S. defense secretary. Former President George Bush, former secretary of state James Baker and Arthur Levitt, who had been chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission through most of the Clinton administration, are senior advisers to the firm.
Now, try not to be shocked, ok?
Executive Biography
John F. Harris
Managing Director and CFO
Mr. Harris is a Partner and Managing Director of The Carlyle Group and is based in Washington, DC. He serves as Carlyle’s Chief Financial Officer with overall responsibility for the firm’s investor reporting, internal controls and financial management. Prior to joining Carlyle in April 1997, Mr. Harris was a Vice President with Golub Associates, a private equity firm, where he focused on middle market principal investment transactions. Previously, Mr. Harris was a Senior Manager with Arthur Andersen, LLP. Mr. Harris is a graduate of the University of Virginia and is a CPA.
Source: The Carlyle Group, 2001
Enron unleashes more US horror
The amount of gimmickry and outright fraud dwarfs any period since the early 1970s, when major accounting scams such as Equity Funding surfaced, and the 1920s, when rampant fraud helped cause the crash of 1929 and led to the creation of the SEC, he says.
Enron paid Andersen, its auditor, $US27 million in fees unrelated to auditing and $US52 million in total fees last year, according to Enron's proxy statement.
Last year, Arthur Levitt, then chairman of the commission, tried to restrict the consulting work that accounting firms could do, but he backed down in the face of strong opposition from the firms. Mr Levitt, now a senior adviser at the Carlyle Group, did not return calls for comment."
[end of partial transcript]
Just making a dishonest buck or two
"Last but not least, I must look at another company, this one prospering more than ever. Founded in 1987, it is called the Carlyle Group and is now thought to be worth around $12.5bn. It is run by Frank Carlucci, Ronald Reagan's defence secretary and a close chum of Donald Rumsfeld (they used to wrestle together at Princeton). It specialises in buying defence companies that are performing indifferently, and injecting them with new blood. One such typical company was United Defense Industries, a firm that manufactures the $20bn, 42-ton Crusader Advanced Field Artillery System - a system about to get the chop when Bill Clinton left office, but restored by Rumsfeld.
Carlyle's reach is staggering: until it speedily divested itself last October, its investors included the Binladin Group, the $5bn family business run by Osama's half-brother Bakr. And on its payroll you will find such luminaries as George Bush I, James Baker, the former secretary of state, and John Major: it helps, you see, if a chap trying to beef up the defence business has a little governmental star pulling power. Bush I and Major went to Saudi Arabia last year on behalf of Carlyle, I am told (when Bush II, lest we forget, was already US president); Bush I netted $17m in his first coup for Carlyle and has probably now accrued around $50m. The current President Bush, apparently, sees nothing wrong with what Dad is now doing.
The shenanigans of Enron, meanwhile, are now being investigated by six Congressional committees, the labour department, the justice department (from which Ashcroft has recused himself) and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Arthur Andersen, which destroyed key documents during its audit of Enron, is now the subject of a criminal investigation. But where was Arthur Levitt, chairman of the SEC and crusader against "greed and arrogance" while the Enron mayhem was unfolding? Er, we don't know. Where is he now? Working for Carlyle, that's where."
[end of partial transcript]
Apteka-Holding, established in late 1997, is ranked among the top five distributors of pharmaceutical products in Russia. In 1999 the international investment fund The Carlyle Group became a partner and shareholder of Apteka-Holding.
"At the request of The Carlyle Group the business processes of the company were surveyed at the first stage of the project by the specialists of Arthur Andersen, one of the Big Five consultancies."
[End of partial transcript]
The CIA's Role in the Anthrax Mailings
"The preceding year (September 1998), Bioport Corporation took over a failing anthrax vaccine business from state-owned Michigan Biologic Products Institute. Less than a month later, the company landed an exclusive $29 million contract with the Department of Defense to "manufacture, test, bottle and store the anthrax vaccine." Admiral William J. Crowe, Jr., a former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and close personal aid to President Clinton, with no financial investment of his own, received 22.5% of Bioport's stock to promote, secure, and manage military anthrax vaccine contracts.(14)
3. Bioport's principal investor was Saudi business man Fuad El-Hibri-a close friend of the bin Laden family, and a previous merger and acquisitions manager for the Rockefeller-linked Citigroup in New York.(14,15)
According to some investigators,(16) additional Bioport shares were believed to be held by The Carlyle Management Group-America's 11th leading defense contractor largely directed by past CIA director Frank Carlucci, James Baker III, George H.W. Bush, and former British Prime Minister John Major.
4. According to the Associated Press, Past President George H.W. Bush acts as a business agent for the Carlyle Group and wealthy Saudi families including the bin Ladens.(17)"
[end of partial transcript]
Papers on BioPort [Anthrax Vaccine Maker] found in office of terrorist suspects
Bin Laden Family Could Profit From a Jump In Defense Spending Due to Ties to U.S. Bank
"If the U.S. boosts defense spending in its quest to stop Osama bin Laden's alleged terrorist activities, there may be one unexpected beneficiary: Mr. bin Laden's family. Among its far-flung business interests, the well-heeled Saudi Arabian clan -- which says it is estranged from Osama -- is an investor in a fund established by Carlyle Group, a well-connected Washington merchant bank specializing in buyouts of defense and aerospace companies.
Through this investment and its ties to Saudi royalty, the bin Laden family has become acquainted with some of the biggest names in the Republican Party. In recent years, former President Bush, ex-Secretary of State James Baker and ex-Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci have made the pilgrimage to the bin Laden family's headquarters in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Mr. Bush makes speeches on behalf of Carlyle Group and is senior adviser to its Asian Partners fund, while Mr. Baker is its senior counselor. Mr. Carlucci is the group's chairman.
...A Carlyle executive said the bin Laden family committed $2 million through a London investment arm in 1995 in Carlyle Partners II Fund, which raised $1.3 billion overall. The fund has purchased several aerospace companies among 29 deals. So far, the family has received $1.3 million back in completed investments and should ultimately realize a 40% annualized rate of return, the Carlyle executive said.
But a foreign financier with ties to the bin Laden family says the family's overall investment with Carlyle is considerably larger. He called the $2 million merely an initial contribution. "It's like plowing a field," this person said. "You seed it once. You plow it, and then you reseed it again."
The Carlyle executive added that he would think twice before accepting any future investments by the bin Ladens.
[end of partial transcript]
Arbusto actually means "bush" in Spanish. Bath invested $50,000 in the limited partnerships, according to the documents. There is no available evidence to show whether the money came from Saudi interests.
But the financial links between the bin Laden family and Bush family get even more curious.
According to a 1976 trust agreement, drawn shortly after George Bush senior was appointed director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Saudi Sheik bin Laden appointed Bath as his business representative in Houston. Bin Laden, along with his brothers, owns Bin Laden Brothers Construction, one of the largest construction companies in the Middle East. According to White, Bath told him that he had assisted the CIA in a liaison role with Saudi Arabia since 1976.
[end of partial transcript]
Chinese oil giant buys into Iraq, stock market - Sinopec slips on New York Stock Exchange amid scandals, market jitters
"As the Dow Jones bottomed out below the 10,000 mark, Chinese oil giant Sinopec slipped on its initial public stock offer during trading on the New York Stock Exchange, just as news broke that the second largest Chinese state oil company had also signed an exclusive deal to drill oil in Iraq.
According to a Dow Jones report yesterday, Shengli Petroleum Corp, a unit of Sinopec, has been granted a contract from Iraq to drill 24 oil wells. Sinopec officials stated the contract wouldn't become effective until it is approved by the United Nations, which has imposed sanctions on Iraq for its invasion of Kuwait 10 years ago.
The news that Sinopec was in business with Iraq broke just after Sinopec subsidiary, Zhongyuan Petroleum Corp., had previously come under fire for business ties in war-torn Sudan. According to Sinopec officials, Zhongyuan invested $30 million in the Sudan 6 oilfield, conducting surveys and drilling four wells. In July, Sinopec elected to sell all Zhongyuan's investments in Sudan to the largest Chinese oil company PetroChina in order to clear the way for its stock offering in the United States.
...More recently, Texas-based Exxon, backer of yesterday's Sinopec offering, has made several large donations to George W. Bush. According to records compiled by the Federal Election Commission, Exxon Mobil Corp. donated over $1.5 million dollars directly to the Republican presidential candidate."
[end of partial transcript]
AUDITORS REPORT
"We have audited the accompanying balance sheets of Sinopec Beijing Yanhua Petrochemical Company Limited (the "Company") as of 31st December, 2000 and 1999, and the related statements of income, changes in equity and cash flows for the years then ended. These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company's management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based on our audits.
We conducted our audits in accordance with International Standards on Auditing issued by the International Federation of Accountants. Those Standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. An audit also includes assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.
In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of 31st December, 2000 and 1999, and of the results of its operations and its cash flows for the years then ended in accordance with International Accounting Standards issued by the International Accounting Standards Committee.
ARTHUR ANDERSEN & CO
Certified Public Accountants
Hong Kong, 12th April, 2001
Beijing produces videos glorifying terrorist attacks on 'arrogant' US
We have a breath of fresh air in the White House and should be grateful.
I am an ethical, moral businessman, and one more time, after eight years of unprinted, unreportable horrific time for our country with the slickmeister administration with one after another scandals.
WE HAVE A BREATH OF FRESH AIR IN THE WHITEHOUSE. ... and to you M1991...and the horse you rode in on.
---max
"Each of us is responsible for the decisions we make in life. The old juvenile justice code used to say if you commit a crime it is not your fault, it is our fault. The new code recognizes that discipline and love go hand in hand. Our new juvenile justice code says there will be bad consequences for bad behavior in the state of Texas. We want you to understand you are responsible for the decisions you make in life. It’s called tough love."
Geoege W. Bush - Source: (Cross-ref from Families & Children) Right Choices for Youth Jun 14, 1999.
"I want those young people who commit crimes to be held accountable for their actions."
George W. Bush - Source: www.governor.state.tx.us/divisions/faq_index.html - 12/31/98 Dec 31, 1998.
"I’m going to uphold the law of the land and let the political consequences be what they may. If it costs me politically, it costs me politically,"
George W. Bush - Source: Ian Christopher McCaleb, CNN.com Jun 22, 2000.
"I think the thing that discouraged me about the vice president was uttering those famous words, “no controlling legal authority.” I felt like that there needed to be a better sense of responsibility of what was going on in the White House. It’s time for a fresh start after a season of cynicism. And so, I don’t know the man well, but I’ve been disappointed about how and his administration has conducted the fund-raising affairs. You know, going to a Buddhist temple and then claiming it wasn’t a fund-raiser is just not my view of responsibility. We need to say that each of us need to be responsible for what we do. And people in the highest office of the land must be responsible for decisions they make in life. That’s the way I’ve conducted myself as governor of Texas. And that’s the way I’ll conduct myself as president of the United States."
George W. Bush - Source: Presidential debate, Boston MA Oct 3, 2000.
"To lead this nation to a responsibility era, a president himself must be responsible. And so, when I put my hand on the Bible, I will swear to not only uphold the laws of our land, I will swear to uphold the honor and dignity of the office to which I have been elected, so help me God. For me, gaining this office is not the ambition of a lifetime, but it IS the opportunity of a lifetime. And I will make the most of it."
George W. Bush - Source: Speech to Republican National Convention Aug 3, 2000.
Methinks the collateral damage for "upholding the law of the land" would be too heavy of a price to pay for justice !!!!
"I’m going to uphold the law of the land and let the political consequences be what they may. If it costs me politically, it costs me politically," George W. Bush - Source: Ian Christopher McCaleb, CNN.com Jun 22, 2000.
"I think the thing that discouraged me about the vice president was uttering those famous words, “no controlling legal authority.” I felt like that there needed to be a better sense of responsibility of what was going on in the White House. It’s time for a fresh start after a season of cynicism. And so, I don’t know the man well, but I’ve been disappointed about how and his administration has conducted the fund-raising affairs. You know, going to a Buddhist temple and then claiming it wasn’t a fund-raiser is just not my view of responsibility. We need to say that each of us need to be responsible for what we do. And people in the highest office of the land must be responsible for decisions they make in life. That’s the way I’ve conducted myself as governor of Texas. And that’s the way I’ll conduct myself as president of the United States." George W. Bush - Source: Presidential debate, Boston MA Oct 3, 2000.
Ironic two members of Reno's Attorney General's Advisory Committee of United States Attorneys are charged with alleged racketeering in late 1998, Lynne Battaglia (U.S. Attorney for MD.) and Thomas E. Scott. (U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida,Miami).
By June 2001 Lynne Battaglia and her Chief of White Collar Crime, Dale Kelberman are the focus of a DOJ investigation for alleged corruption along with the head of the Maryland State Police,David B. Mitchell.
In early 2001 after Louis Freeh abruptly left as Director of the FBI,Thomas E. Scott was being touted as a possible replacement for Freeh as Director of the FBI.
Prior to being named U.S. Attorney in Miami, Scott was a federal judge in Miami, Scott is now in private practice.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
EOUSA
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1999
(202) 514-2007
WWW.USDOJ.GOV
TDD (202) 514-1888
ATTORNEY GENERAL JANET RENO ANNOUNCES NEW ADVISORY COMMITTEE CHAIR
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Attorney General Janet Reno has appointed Mark T. Calloway, United States Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, as the new Chair of the Attorney General's Advisory Committee of United States Attorneys. The Advisory Committee, created in 1973, advises the Attorney General on law enforcement matters and gives the United States Attorneys a key voice in Department policy.
Calloway, who has served as Co-chair of the Advisory Committee's White Collar Crime Subcommittee, has been very active in the Department's white collar crime efforts and serves on the Department's White Collar Crime Council. He is also a member of the Advisory Committee's Investigation and Intelligence Subcommittee and Ethics In Government Subcommittee.
"Mark's extensive experience in combating white collar crime is very impressive," said Reno. "That experience, along with his impressive tenure as the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, makes him a perfect choice to lead the Advisory Committee into the next millennium." Calloway was appointed United States Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina in February 1994.
In June, 1996, Governor James B. Hunt, Jr., appointed Calloway to his "Task Force on Racial or Religious Violence and Intimidation." That Task Force dealt with the various issues facing North Carolina in the wake of a series of church burnings.
Calloway served in 1998-99 as Chair of the Criminal Justice Section Council of the North Carolina Bar Association, and currently serves as an Advisor to the Ethics Committee of the North Carolina State Bar. He is also a regular lecturer at the U.S. Justice Department National Advocacy Center's management seminars.
A list of the full Committee follows:
Mark T. Calloway, Chair, Western District of North Carolina
Paul E. Coggins, Jr., Vice Chair, Northern District of Texas
Lynne A. Battaglia, District of Maryland
Robert P. Crouch, Jr., Western District of Virginia
Saul A. Green, Eastern District of Michigan
Stephen L. Hill, Jr., Western District of Missouri
Faith S. Hochberg, District of New Jersey
P.K. Holmes, III, Western District of Arkansas
Walter C. Holton, Jr., Middle District of North Carolina
B. Todd Jones, District of Minnesota
Eddie J. Jordan, Jr., Eastern District of Louisiana
John J. Kelly, District of New Mexico
Beverly Baldwin Martin, Middle District of Georgia
Katrina C. Pflaumer, Western District of Washington
Thomas E. Scott, Southern District of Florida
Judith A. Stewart, Southern District of Indiana
Emily M. Sweeney, Northern District of Ohio
Charles R. Tetzlaff, District of Vermont
Donald K. Stern, Chair, District of Massachusetts, ex officio
Wilma A. Lewis, District of Columbia, ex officio
Janet Craig, Southern District of Texas, ad hoc
Has anyone ever commented that sometimes you are over the top?
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