Why doesn't the Securities Exchange Commission look into this

[liberal N proud]

Look at the last sentence in this wekipedia entry:

Arbusto Energy (Arbusto Oil) was a petroleum and energy corporation formed in Midland, Texas, in 1977, by George W. Bush. The word arbusto is Spanish for "bush".

Investors in the company included Dorothy Bush, Lewis Lehrman, William Henry Draper III, Bill Gammell, and James R. Bath. At the time that Bath made an investment of $50,000 he was representing Salem bin Laden's interests in Texas. When Salem bin Laden died in 1988, his interest in Arbusto (along with other bin Laden 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 Oil and Gas, 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 who would later be involved in the Bank of Credit and Commerce International scandal.

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 most shares in Harken to a Los Angeles broker named Ralph D. Smith. One week later Harken announced an overall loss of $23.2 million triggering an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission into the sale.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbusto_Energy

[babylonsister]

1. VERY good question! nt

[FloridaPat]

2. They looked into * using insider trading. It was while his dad was

when his dad was VP. Rather than whitewash the findings, they said basically they had nothing to say at the time, but if need be the investigation could be reopened.

[napi21]

3. I think the answer to your question is very simple.

The "insider trading" problem happened in 1990! GH Bush was Pres then, and the Pres is the guy who appoints the head of the SEC! I'm positive Poppy contacted the SEC and said, there's REALLY no reason to investigate this sale! After all, "W" is my SON!

[stillcool]

4. Ghaith R. Pharaon...

I didn't realize he had invested in Jr's company. He made an unusual amount of "bad investment's" with BCCI funds. These guys sure know how to play the game.

[spindrifter]

5. If this had been you or me, we'd be penniless and in the pen...

Secrecy Surrounds Bush Stock Deal

<snip>
Bush's oil industry career is a history of being bailed out of money-losing ventures.
<snip>
The 1990 sale triggered an insider trading probe of Bush because he was eight months late in disclosing it to the Securities and Exchange Commission. White House press secretary Ari Fleischer defended the sale by saying Bush had notified the SEC in a timely manner that he intended to sell his shares. However, Bush failed to notify the SEC once the stock actually was sold, as required by law.
<snip>
SEC investigators interviewed Smith in the probe, but, according to Smith, they never asked the broker who bought Bush's stock.
<snip>
Despite financial losses in 1990 and 1991, Harken's stock price was propped up by the company's highly publicized deal to drill for oil off the coast of Bahrain. The project, which came together while Bush's father was president, never struck any oil. Little Harken beat out major oil companies, including Amoco, for what at the time was thought might be an extremely valuable concession.
<snip>
Bush's $600,000 stake in the Rangers in 1998 brought him $14.9 million when the team was sold.


http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.13C.bush.stock.htm
+++
There is a ton'o stuff to check out--I'll do some more looking when I get back from the dog park!

[Buns_of_Fire]

6. I'm still waiting for the investigation as to who profited...

on those put options on American and United Airlines right after 9-11. I'm sure no one will ever know anything, though. Can't tell you -- "National Security" and all that...
(see story on What Really Happened dot com...)

[spindrifter]

7. So let's whirl up a pile of

investment money--things "go sour" -- where does the money go? For example, you are Harken--where did you get a $23.2 million dollar loss? Obviously, you have no experience drilling for oil outside the U.S., but are you buying lots of equipment? Are you paying a lot of money to your employees? Or are you laundering the millions for something else?
The boys that Bushco play with are well-heeled "businessmen" who are always on the dollar with their foundations, company directorships, etc. How could so many of them take big losses for BFEE? I would say to myself, look around you, spindrifter, you need to cut and run.