Bush is no different from the corporate crooks

[ProSense]

EDITORIAL: Sleaze: Corporate scandals: Corporate scandals

(Charleston Gazette, The (WV) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Dec. 30--Corruption has tainted a sickening number of U.S. corporations in recent years. Last week, Joseph Nacchio, former CEO of Qwest Communications International, was charged with insider trading -- dumping more than $100 million worth of his Qwest stock just before bad news about Qwest's earnings sent share prices tumbling.

snip...

Similar suspicions have shadowed President Bush, once a Harken Energy executive, who unloaded his Harken stock just before it sank -- and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., who joined relatives in dumping stock in their family's hospital chain before it tanked.

Currently, the mother of all crooked firms, Enron, is in the news. Former Chairman Kenneth Lay -- affectionately dubbed "Kenny Boy" by President Bush -- and CEO Jeffrey Skilling are to stand trial Jan. 17 on charges of fraudulent manipulations that cheated millions of Americans in their power bills and destroyed the pensions of Enron employees. Several other top Enron executives already have agreed to guilty pleas, and one committed suicide.

Other recent boardroom sleaze:

Jamie Olis of Dynergy, a firm linked to Enron, got a 24-year prison sentence.

Arthur Anderson, the accounting firm that helped hide Enron debts, was convicted of obstructing justice, and mostly disintegrated.

Citigroup Inc., the financial services giant that aided the Enron fraud, paid $135 million in fines and a $2 billion lawsuit settlement to victims -- and also paid $2.6 billion for its role in the WorldCom collapse, and other settlements.

WorldCom chief Bernard Ebbers got 25 years in prison for faking $7.3 billion in imaginary corporate earnings, and was ordered to forfeit his $40 million wealth.

Cendant Vice Chairman Kirk Shelton drew 10 years in prison and was ordered to pay $3.3 billion to fleeced stockholders.

Adelphia Communications founder John Rigas drew 15 years in prison, and his son got 20 years, for looting their cable TV conglomerate.

Tyco International CEO Dennis Kozlowski and chief financial officer Mark Schwartz were convicted of pilfering $600 million from their firm.

more...

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2005/dec/1248719.htm

(*Editors Note | Both of the following stories appeared on the front page of the Boston Globe, above the fold. As we absorb the daily news on Iraq, Wellstone and snipers, let us not forget the coming midterm congressional elections, slated for November 5th. The stories below are but an accent in the symphony of scandal and mismanagement that surrounds the Bush administration. The stories below detail a business venture of a younger George W. Bush, well before any Presidential aspirations manifested themselves. The story of Harken Energy, and the actions of Harken executive Bush, are almost completely identical to the circumstances surrounding the collapse of Enron. Note well, also, the fact that tiny, domestic Harken energy got an incredible drilling contract in Bahrain, a move that did not salvage the stock value of the company. Who was sitting in the Oval Office in January of 1990? Hm. -- wrp)

Go To Original

Harken Board Was Told of Risks Before Bush Stock Sale
Harken memo went to SEC after probe
By Michael Kranish and Beth Healy,
The Boston Globe

October 30, 2002

One week before George W. Bush's now-famous sale of stock in Harken Energy Corp. in 1990, Harken was warned by its lawyers that Bush and other members of the troubled oil company's board faced possible insider trading risks if they unloaded their shares.

The warning from Harken's lawyers came in a legal memorandum whose existence has been little noted until now, despite the many years of scrutiny of the Bush transaction. The memo was not received by the Securities and Exchange Commission until the day after the agency decided not to bring insider-trading charges against Bush, documents show.


snip...

The SEC nevertheless cleared Bush on Aug. 21, 1991. One day later Bush's lawyer - Robert Jordan, now the US ambassador to Saudi Arabia - turned over the legal memorandum outlining concerns about insider trading. The nine-page memo, dated June 15, 1990, was titled ''Liability for Insider Trading and Short-Term Swing Profits'' and addressed the possibility that Harken board members might know more about the spinoff plan, which included a stock rights offering, than the general public did.

The memo, did not instruct the board members whether to sell. One week after the memo was written, Bush sold his stock. In the following six months, the stock price dropped from $4 per share to $1.25 per share, although the price later recovered.

more...

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/11.01A.harken.harvard.htm

[FloridaPat]

1. There are big differences. * has unlimited access to the US treasury.

* can invade real countries with real armies and kill real people. * lets all these other creeps get away with their crimes.

[snowbear]

2. I still think the Bush Adminstration has the missing 9 billion dollars..

from Iraq..

You know, the nine million bucks that no one talks about anymore..

[Ready4Change]

3. Big difference: Bush can't run a corporation.

From what I understand he has been a dismal failure each time he has tried.

It's only been his fathers money and connections that have saved him.

[ProSense]

4. More on Bush and Harken

This article can be found on the web at
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20020722/leopold20020718


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bush and Harken
by JASON LEOPOLD



Last week, while Bush spoke to Wall Street about corporate malfeasance, he was beset by questions about the timing of his sale of stock twelve years ago while he served as a director of Harken Energy. Bush sold the Harken stock about two months before the company reported huge losses and shortly before Iraq invaded Kuwait, leaving many asking whether the President had benefited from inside information. In addition, Bush was tardy in filing the appropriate sale-related forms with the SEC. Bush has said he filed the proper documents with the SEC on time--even though it arrived thirty-four weeks late--and suggested the agency must have lost the file. Last week, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said there had been a "mix-up" by the Bush lawyers who handled the paperwork.

While SEC reporting requirements may seem like a minor issue, it's crucial information for the average investor because it allows them to determine whether insiders have received undisclosed information about the company's financial condition. The Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 requires company insiders to disclose publicly, in a report called a Form 4, all stock purchases and sales by the tenth day of the month following the transaction.

This week, as President Bush's own business acumen is being called into question, additional SEC documents show that Bush violated federal securities laws on three other occasions during his tenure at Harken by missing the deadline for filing documents about his stock transactions with the SEC.

Bush purchased stock in Harken three times between 1986 and 1989, and was several months late in reporting those transactions to the SEC, according to documents from the agency. One transaction, in which Bush purchased 25,000 shares of Harken stock on June 16, 1989, took place three days before Harken started selling its shares on the New York Stock Exchange, where the stock traded as high as $50. The stock had previously been sold in the over-the-counter market. Bush did not report the transaction to the SEC until September 7, 1989, more than four weeks after the deadline, according to SEC documents, and he reaped a windfall in profits by purchasing the additional shares before they were sold on the NYSE.