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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (148016)	7/9/2002 3:29:25 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573223

[continued from prior post] ____________________________________________________________ Bush Defends Sale of Stock and Vows to Enhance S.E.C. Mr. Levin plans to offer an amendment that would empower the S.E.C., without first going to court, to ban "unfit" officers and directors from publicly traded companies; fine accountants, lawyers, companies, executives and directors who violate securities laws; and obtain records for financial investigations without disclosing the subpoenas. Even with all the new political momentum, the Democrats have to be careful, as whatever they pass still faces a showdown in conference committee with a much different legislative package approved in April by the Republican-controlled House. If the Democrats put too many new items on their bill, that could undermine its support among some members and reduce the legislation's momentum. It is unclear whether Mr. Bush's news conference will put the questions behind him, particularly because he offered less of an explanation today than he and his advisers have in the past for why he was eight months late disclosing his 1990 sale of Harken stock on a document called a Form 4. In his 1994 race for governor of Texas, Mr. Bush said that he thought he had filed on time but that the S.E.C. had misplaced the proper disclosure forms. Last week, Ari Fleischer, the White House press secretary, attributed the late filing to a "mix-up" with Harken's lawyers. Mr. Bush said today, "As to why the Form 4 was late, I still haven't figured it out completely." Mr. Bush repeatedly said that his stock sale and late filing were old news, and that it had been used against him by his political opponents for years. "People love to play politics," Mr. Bush said. Then he added: "That's nothing new. That happened in 1994. I can't remember if it happened in 1998 or not. It happened in 2000. I mean, this is recycled stuff." At issue are 212,140 shares of Harken stock that Mr. Bush sold on June 30, 1990, for $4 a share, or $848,560, eight days before Harken finished its second quarter with a loss of $23.2 million. By August, the share price had fallen to $2.37. The S.E.C. investigated on suspicions that the transaction was conducted on the basis of insider information, a potential crime, but dropped the investigation in 1993, saying that "at this time no enforcement action is contemplated." Today Mr. Bush said that by his accounting, he had actually lost money on the sale. "I sold the stock at 4, and 14 months later — you know, the holding period for capital gains I think was 12 months in those days — the person who bought my stock could have sold it for 8, could have doubled his or her money." Aides to Senate leaders said they hoped that widening the scope of their bill would illuminate what they believe is a sharp contrast with a weaker plan by the Bush administration. "I'm afraid he's going to try to blur the difference and get away with something without real teeth in it," said a senior aide to the Democratic leadership. "I think he's going to stand up there, with a great deal of hoopla, and deliver what sounds like a responsible position, but do nothing to support a responsible bill."