George W. Bush had an SEC problem too

[grasswire]

....and yet it was ignored by MSM.

In 1983, Bush was rescued from bankruptcy when Arbusto Energy was bailed out by a wealthy friend who owned Spectrum 7 Energy Corporation. Bush was named CEO and was given an annual salary of $75,000. He also received 1.6 million shares of Spectrum 7 for the 4,000 outstanding shares of Bush Exploration. However, two years later, the world oil market plummeted. Spectrum 7 posted losses of $400,000 just six months before Bush left, and the company’s debt hit $3 million. Spectrum 7 was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.

Bush created Harken Energy by absorbing Spectrum 7’s $3 million worth of debt. He received $600,000 worth of Harken Energy stock in return for his 14.9 percent stake in Spectrum 7. When Harken Energy began to sputter in 1990, Bush sold two-thirds of his company stock, which he had acquired in the Spectrum 7 deal at $4 per share. He netted $848,560 -- $318,430 more than it was worth when he got it. Two months later, Iraq invaded Kuwait and Harken’s stock dropped to $3 a share. It later fell to $2.37.

Bush failed to file a disclosure with the SEC in a timely fashion. He maintained that he had filed the missing disclosure form. He waited eight months before notifying the SEC of the sale of Harken Energy, missing the filing deadline for reporting insider trades. He claimed that the SEC had fully investigated his stock transaction in October 1994, and he boasted that he was exonerated. However, the SEC never determined who purchased Bush’s stock.

Bush changed his story on July 4, 2002. This time, he claimed the 34-week delay in his filing on the SEC was a result of a “mix-up” by Harken Energy’s lawyers. Bush said there was a “clerical mistake” by his lawyers for failing to disclose an $848,560 stock sale in a timely manner. New York Times, July 11, 2002)

this info from http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/jphuck/Book10Ch.2.html

[snot]

1. This is the problem. As long as they own the media,

it almost doesn't matter what the facts are.

[leveymg]

2. Harken was financed by Bin Mahfouz, BCCI and some other nice people who bankrolled 9/11.

Harken Wiki:

It was later revealed that Bath made an investment of $50,000 while representing Salem bin Laden of the Saudi Binladin Group. This fact became controversial after the September 11, 2001 attacks due to Salem bin Laden being an older, half-brother of Osama bin Laden, who is alleged to have planned and financed the attacks. Upon Salem bin Laden's death in a 1988 airplane crash, in Texas, his interest in Arbusto (along with other Binladin Group assets), passed to Khalid bin Mahfouz.

In 1982, Arbusto became known as Bush Exploration, a year after George H. W. Bush became Vice President. A friend of the Bush family, Philip Uzielli, invested $1 million in 1982 in exchange for a 10% stake in the company, at a time when the whole company was valued at less than $400,000. As it neared financial collapse again in September 1984, Bush Exploration merged with Spectrum 7 Energy Corp., a company owned by William DeWitt and Mercer Reynolds. Bush became Chairman and CEO of Spectrum 7.

In 1985 Spectrum 7 reported a net loss of $1.5 million and was bought in 1986 for $2.2 million by Harken Energy, with Bush joining the Harken board of directors and finance audit committee.

In 1987 the Saudi investor Abdullah Taha Bakhsh bought most of Union Bank of Switzerland's shares in Harken becoming its third largest investor owning 17% of the company. He was represented on the board by Talat M. Othman. Another investor was Ghaith R. Pharaon, a partner of Bakhsh's, who would later be involved in the Bank of Credit and Commerce International scandal, and is currently the target of an international dragnet.

In January 1990 with the company in the same state as its previous incarnations, it was awarded a contract to drill for crude oil off the coast of Bahrain, a move that shocked industry insiders as Harken had no previous experience outside of the US or of drilling offshore.

In June 1990 Bush sold more than half of his shares in Harken to a Los Angeles broker named Ralph D. Smith. One week after the sale Harken announced an overall loss of $23.2 million triggering an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission into the sale.
Further reading

Beaty, Jonathan & Gwynne, S.C. (1993). The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI. Random House Inc. ISBN 0-679-41384-7.
Hatfield, J. H. (2002). Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President (3rd ed.). Soft Skull Press. ISBN 1-887128-84-0.
Ian Rutledge. Addicted to Oil: America's Relentless Drive for Energy Security. I. B. Tauris. 2006. ISBN 1845113195

[grasswire]

5. who was this Ralph D. Smith?

The guy who bought Bush's shares? Was he simply a front man for someone else?

[leveymg]

8. He worked for Sutro & Co., a SF brokerage house founded in 1858. On 10/31/01, it was purchased

by RBC Dain Rauscher Corp., a private securities broker, which only months earlier had itself been acquired by the Royal Bank of Canada.

Company Overview

As of 10/31/2001, Sutro & Co., Inc. was acquired by RBC Dain Rauscher Corp. Sutro & Co., Inc. provides financial solutions for both individuals and corporate clients. The company operates as a security broker. Its corporate services include portfolio design, retirement plan, investment management services, and a freedom corporate account. Sutro & Co., Inc. was founded in 1858 and is based in San Francisco, California.

410 Montgomery Street

San Francisco, CA

United States

Founded in 1858
Key Executives for Sutro & Co., Inc.

Sutro & Co., Inc. does not have any Key Executives recorded.

Company Overview

As of January 10, 2001 RBC Dain Rauscher Corp. was acquired by Royal Bank of Canada. RBC Dain Rauscher provides investment advice and services to individual investors in the western United States and investment banking services to corporate and governmental clients nationwide through its principal subsidiary, Dain Rauscher Incorporated. It also clears and settles securities trade on a fully disclosed basis for 166 correspondent brokerage firms. Besides, the company, through its subsidiaries, serves as investment advisor and provides fixed income portfolio management services to a variety of private accounts. The company, formerly known as Dain Rauscher Corporation, was founded in 1909.

Dain Rauscher Plaza

60 South Sixth Street

Minneapolis, MN 55402-4422

United States

Founded in 1909

3,700 Employees

Phone:

612-371-2711

www.rbcdain.com
Key Executives for RBC Dain Rauscher Corp.

RBC Dain Rauscher Corp. does not have any Key Executives recorded.

Just a hunch, but I think its possible that the sale of Harken was actually a buyback of the interests originally put into the Bush venture through the Mahfouz holding company that had in the late 1970s, early 1980s acquired a number of Texas banks and real estate: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dain_Rauscher_Wessels

In 1981, Inter-Regional Financial Group acquired Rauscher Pierce Refsnes, which at the time was the largest brokerage firm in Texas.[2] Rauscher was established in 1933 as a spinout from the Mercantile National Bank, based in Dallas. After the acquisition of Rauscher Pierce, the business continued to operate under its own brand until the mid-1990s.

Mercantile National Bank's 1982 annual report (partial): http://designarchives.aiga.org/#/entries/%2Bid%3A6221/_/detail/relevance/asc/0/7/6221/mercantile-national-bank-at-dallas-annual-report-1982/1

Here's reference to it:

http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/Mahfouz.html White and Bath became partners; and predictably, they were successful in a number of land development deals. White was the affable front man, while George Junior's friend James Bath quietly found the investors -- including Saudi billionaires. "Bath told me that he was in the CIA. He told me he was recruited by George H. W. Bush himself in 1976," when the elder Bush was CIA Director, according to Beaty's interview with White.

White added further, "That made sense to me, especially in light of what I had seen once we went into business together. He [Bath] said that [CIA Director] Bush wanted him involved with the Arabs, and to get into the aviation business."

John Mecklin, investigative reporter for the Houston Post, independently verified Jim Bath's CIA connections -- and that he was also future president George Jr.'s Air National Guard friend -- as Beaty had corroborated in the White interview for The Outlaw Bank.

Moreover, White said the elder Bush recruited Bath to monitor the activities of his Saudi Arabian investors, as Beaty confirmed the elder's friendship with Bath for himself: "White said that one time in 1982 he and Bath were at the Ramada Club in Houston when Vice-President Bush walked in. Bush waved at Bath and said, `Hi, Jim,' according to White."

Texas ties became a habit with Bath's future terrorist financier, author Peter Brewton implied, when in 1979 Mahfouz purchased the Houston River Oaks mansion of Chester Reed, father-in-law of John Ballis, who pled guilty to Savings and Loan fraud. Mahfouz paid $4.23 million through Houston's Baker & Botts -- a law firm traversing many Bush family business deals -- which handled the Saudi Sheikh's Houston land investments through James Bath. Wide reports say Mahfouz still owns the Texas mansion.

Time's Beaty and Gwynne chronicled the terrorist financier's alleged 1985 sweetheart purchase of the Texas Commerce Bank Tower for $200 million during the mid-1980s Texas oil-business crash. Bath's partner Bill White said Mahfouz's purchase greatly benefited the fortunes of President Bush 41's confidant and Secretary of State James Baker, Baker & Botts law firm, and Baker's family -- founders and principal holders of Texas Commerce stock.

Beaty said the Tower was built for $140 million at the apex of the oil boom; but Mahfouz paid the elder Bush's family friends $200 million at the bottom of the real estate crash, when commercial office space couldn't be given away. And interestingly, Mafouz's partner in that purchase, Saudi-based billionaire Rafik Hariri, also over-paid Florida Senator Bill Nelson $2 million more than the assessed value to buy his McLean, Virginia home in 1989 -- illustrating the penetration of Saudi financial corruption in Congress.

Texas Commerce Bank Tower
Texas Commerce Bank Tower, Dallas, USA

Mahfouz also bought into Houston's Main Bank as a partner with Bath and former Texas Governor John Connally in 1976. And in 1981 Mercantile Texas Corporation/Capital Bank -- soon to become MCorp -- bought Main Bank from Sheikh Mahfouz:

Strangely, The Outlaw Bank noted that "Houston's Main Bank made news when a bank examiner discovered that the small Texas bank was purchasing $100 million in hundred-dollar bills each month from the Federal Reserve Bank -- an amount that dwarfed its miniscule asset base. That was strange, but there was nothing illegal about it."

However, Bill White also told Jonathan Beaty that Bath had been investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) while the two were partners, adding "the DEA suspected Bath was using his planes to fly currency to the Cayman Islands, although they didn't know why, since drugs didn't seem to be involved." Curiously, the probe ended.

Useful information on Texas banking mergers here. http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/coi01 Note the relationship with the other banks of First International Bancshares, which employed CIA Director G.H.W. Bush in 1977 after Jimmy Carter fired him. See, G.H.W. Bush, All The Best, p. 272, ftn.

More, much more on this cabal, here: http://www.mail-archive.com/[e-mail]/msg01077.html

Happy connect-the-dots!

[grasswire]

10. tell me about that listserv archive

I've never seen it before.

[leveymg]

12. Just found it - fascinating, isn't it?

I'll look into it later - will post anything notable later - gotta get back to work-work.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

3. Bush's daddy was President when the SEC investigated the trade

and the SEC commissioners were comprised of a majority of Bush appointees. At the time of the investigation, the SEC was run by one of daddy Bush's biggest supporters, Richard Breeden, appointed by George H.W. Bush. The SECs then General Counsel was James R. Doty, another big Bush supporter who was Chimp Bush's private attorney when he bought a share of the Texas Rangers.

[Egalitarian Thug]

9. And let's not forget little Neil and his first big pay day.

He and his partners stole $60M (?) and got a tiny fine and kicked out of the financial industry. Not bad work if you can get it.

[librechik]

4. yup--there is always a backdoor for Republicans caught by the SEC

but hapless Democrats like Martha Stewart have no defense.

I will be very surprised if anyone can make this stick on Romney, not even with s duct tape.

BTW, I would LOVE a surprise!)

[elleng]

6. Especially hapless Democrats with big pockets

and lots of big pockets friends; THAT's what got Martha.

[librechik]

7. yes, of course--it's all about scalping donors to the Dems, not civil responsibilty. n/t

[just1voice]

11. Oh but this is big, it's huge, it's the end, it's baingate, it's....zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

You're absolutely right, repukes all have huge crimes in their backgrounds that never get prosecuted. It doesn't help that the U.S. can't even go after torture camp creators and WMD conspirators to commit war.