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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: puborectalis who wrote (274656)	7/13/2002 7:30:37 PM
From: calgal	Respond to of 769670

Bush Corporate Task Force Head Served Troubled Firm WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of President George W. Bush's new corporate-crime task force served as a director at a credit-card company that paid more than $400 million to settle allegations of unfair and deceptive business practices, officials said on Saturday. But they said Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson was unaware of problems at Providian Financial Corp. until they were unearthed by U.S. regulators, and he then played a lead role in pushing the company to recompense consumers. Thompson chaired the Providian board's audit and compliance committee until he took up his Justice Department post in May 2001. The previous year, the San Francisco-based company, under pressure from federal and state regulators, agreed to pay a total of $405 million to customers it allegedly bilked through hidden charges and deceptive sales practices. "As an outside director of Providian, he only became aware of the problems when the regulators began to make inquiries," Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo told Reuters. "And as soon as he was aware of the issues, he personally took the lead in making the company do the right thing." The White House has likened the task force headed by Thompson to a SWAT team -- a type of special unit used by police forces to address acute threats. A recent slew of financial scandals in the United States has hurt investor confidence in publicly traded stocks and rocked markets around the world. The scandals also threaten to become a political liability for President George W. Bush as Democrats try to turn the issue against him and his fellow Republicans ahead of November's high-stakes congressional elections. ADMINISTRATION UNDER FIRE Bush himself has been criticized for taking a low-interest loan more than a decade ago from an oil company where he served as a director. And a legal watchdog group on Wednesday sued Vice President Dick Cheney and the oil services company he once ran, Halliburton Co., alleging they overstated revenues. The Washington Post reported on Saturday that Thompson sold nearly $5 million worth of Providian stock, his entire holding, when he entered the Bush administration to comply with federal ethics rules. A few months later, warnings of mounting defaults in its portfolio of credit-card loans to less-credit-worthy borrowers started the company's stock on a long downward slide from around $60 a share to less than $5 a share currently. Corallo said Thompson never sold a single share of the company's stock in the time he served on its board. "He felt that it was proper and necessary to own shares of the company's stock," he said. "He did not want to serve on a board and make decisions about other people's money without having a stake in the company himself." Thompson also fully disclosed his employment and financial histories to Congress when it was considering his nomination, Corallo said. Both the Senate Judiciary Committee and the full Senate later unanimously supported him. channels.netscape.com

To: puborectalis who wrote (274656)	7/14/2002 12:49:20 AM
From: puborectalis	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 769670

ImClone Links With Stewart Also Include Venture Fund By ANDREW POLLACK (NYT) 844 words Late Edition - Final, Section C, Page 3, Column 6 ABSTRACT - Martha Stewart is not only involved with Dr Samuel D Waksal in ImClone Systems but is also investor, along with Waksal's friends, business associates and relatives, in Scientia Health Group, fund Waksal founded in 2001 to invest in and support health care and biotechnology companies; investors include Softbank, Carl C Icahn, Leon Black and Nelson Peltz; James W Neal Jr, former Scientia executive, alleges in lawsuit that he was fired because Waksal felt hampered in his ability to engage in 'illegal, unethical and fradulent conduct' with Neal present; Scientia's future is uncertain (M)