The Bush Family Hustle

The following was written by Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis: "The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.”

According to the Republican strategist Kevin Philips writing in the Washington Post, (7/4/1992), “What you’ve got with Bush (George senior) is absolutely the largest number of siblings and children involved in what looks like a never-ending hustle. Lets take a closer look at what Kevin Philips is talking about.

On June 20, 1990, George W. Bush, a director of Harken Energy, sold the bulk of his Harken stock for $848,000. A week later, the stock plummeted in value on news of a large quarterly loss. Time Magazine reported, it was widely assumed that insider knowledge prompted the sale. George Jr. took his Harken profits and on a $600,000 investment in the Texas Rangers arranged by President George Senior, George Jr. made 15 million dollars!

In 1985, Jeb Bush lobbied the federal government on behalf of International Medical Centers (an HMO) owned by Miguel Recarey to increase Recarey’s Medicare business ultimately to a total of $1 billion. The following year, Jeb received $75,000 from Recarey. Recarey later fled the U.S. under indictment, suspected of up to $100 million in Medicare fraud. In 1988 Jeb defaulted on a $4.5 million loan from Broward Federal Savings and Loan. The default helped trigger the S&L’s collapse, which cost taxpayers $222 million. Bush repaid only ten percent of the irregular loan and, contrary to Federal law, got to keep the building in the Miami financial district that collateralized the loan.

In 1991, George senior’s brother Jonathan Bush was fined $30,000 in Massachusetts and $4,000 in Connecticut for violating registration laws governing securities sales. Jonathan was barred from securities brokerage with the general public in Massachusetts for one year

In 1989, when Japanese organized crime elements were seeking to extend their financial interests into the U.S., Prescott Bush arranged investments by a Japanese Mob front company, West Tsusho, in two U.S. businesses, Assets Management and the software firm Quantum Access. The Japanese company was identified by Japanese police as a front company for one of Japan’s largest organized crime syndicates. Bush was paid $500,000 for help in arranging the company’s purchase. Shortly thereafter both U.S. companies filed for bankruptcy, looted dry.

In 1990, federal regulators filed a $200-million lawsuit against Neil Bush, an officer of Silverado Savings and Loan, accusing him of gross negligence contributing to its $1 billion collapse. Neil got off paying only $50,000 in a settlement of the $200 million federal suit against him. He didn't have to worry about his $250,000 legal bill, as Thomas Ashley, a friend of President George Bush senior and the head of a banking association that was lobbying the federal government for bank deregulation, formed a legal defense fund to pay Neil’s legal bills. On the other hand, the tax payers got stuck with the billion dollar bailout.

P.S. December 2009: I recently became aware of the following website: http://www.oldamericancentury.org/bushco/bush_crime_family.htm

February 2001