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Politics : Moderate Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: cosmicforce who wrote (4732)	11/29/2003 10:01:29 AM
From: epicure	Respond to of 20773

House of Fools fye.com

To: cosmicforce who wrote (4732)	11/29/2003 10:25:33 AM
From: epicure	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 20773

More graft: 27Nov03-Consultant on Iraq contracts employed president's brother By Stephen Fidler and Thomas Catán in London Published: November 27 2003 21:41 \| Last Updated: November 27 2003 21:41 Neil Bush, a younger brother of US President George W. Bush, has had a $60,000-a-year employment contract with a top adviser to a Washington-based consulting firm set up this year to help companies secure contracts in Iraq. Neil Bush disclosed the payments during divorce proceedings in March from his now ex-wife, Sharon. The divorce was finalised in April and the court papers were disclosed by the Houston Chronicle this week. Mr Bush said he was co-chairman of Crest Investment Corporation, a company based in Houston, Texas, that invests in energy and other ventures. For this he received $15,000 every three months for working an average three or four hours a week. The other co-chairman and principal of Crest is Jamal Daniel, a Syrian-American who is an advisory board member of New Bridge Strategies, a company set up this year by a group of businessmen with close links to the Bush family or administrations. Its chairman is Joe Allbaugh, George W. Bush's campaign director in the 2000 presidential elections. Other figures at New Bridge include Ed Rogers, its vice-chairman and a senior official in the Reagan and first Bush administrations, and Lanny Griffith, with whom he works in the lobby firm Barbour Griffith & Rogers. Lord Charles Powell, adviser to former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, is listed as an advisory board member. On its website, New Bridge describes itself as being created to "take advantage of business opportunities in the Middle East following the conclusion of the US-led war in Iraq". In his deposition, Neil Bush said he provided Crest "miscellaneous consulting services". This included "answering phone calls when Jamail [sic] Daniel, the other co-chairman, called and asked for advice". There is evidence that the relationship between Mr Bush and Mr Daniel goes further. Joseph Peacock, Crest's company secretary, is one of the original investors in Ignite, Neil Bush's educational software company based in Austin, Texas. In 1996, Mr Daniel and his wife hosted a $1,000-a-plate fund-raising dinner at their Houston mansion for the Texas Alliance Against Alcohol Abuse. The event was chaired by Sharon Bush, while George H. W. Bush, the former president, and his wife Barbara were to be present, according to the Houston Chronicle in 1996. Other investors in Ignite, which was founded last year, include George H. W. and Barbara Bush, and Winston Wong, a Taiwan businessman who started the Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. The court papers further show Mr Bush benefits from a contract with Grace, a company also backed by Jiang Miangheng, son of Jiang Zemin, the former president of China. Under the deal, signed on August 15 2002, Grace would pay Mr Bush $2m in shares over five years, issued in annual $400,000 increments. In return, according to the Los Angeles Times, Mr Bush agreed to "provide GSMC from time to time with business strategies and policies; latest information and trends of the related industry, and other advice", according to the contract. A call to New Bridge in Houston went unanswered yesterday, a holiday in the US. Previous attempts to contact Mr Daniel through the office were unsuccessful. news.ft.com.

To: cosmicforce who wrote (4732)	11/29/2003 10:35:30 AM
From: epicure	Respond to of 20773

Don't miss this. It's one of the funniest articles I've read in quite a while: Bush Brother Business Deals Detailed in Divorce By REUTERS November 25, 2003 Filed at 8:29 p.m. ET nytimes.com. HOUSTON (Reuters) - Neil Bush, younger brother of President Bush, detailed lucrative business deals and admitted to engaging in sex romps with women in Asia in a deposition taken in March as part of his divorce from now ex-wife Sharon Bush. According to legal documents disclosed on Tuesday, Sharon Bush's lawyers questioned Neil Bush closely about the deals, especially a contract with Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., a firm backed by Jiang Mianheng, the son of former Chinese President Jiang Zemin, that would pay him $2 million in stock over five years. Marshall Davis Brown, lawyer for Sharon Bush, expressed bewilderment at why Grace would want Bush and at such a high price since he knew little about the semiconductor business. ``You have absolutely no educational background in semiconductors do you?'' asked Brown. ``That's correct,'' Bush, 48, responded in the March 4 deposition, a transcript of which was read by Reuters after the Houston Chronicle first reported on the documents. ``And you have absolutely over the last 10, 15, 20 years not a lot of demonstrable business experience that would bring about a company investing $2 million in you?''.... ...Brown questioned Bush about numerous other business ventures that paid him well to be a consultant and fundraiser, and, in at least one case, for little work. Bush said he was co-chairman of Crest Investment Corporation, but worked only an average of three to four hours a week. For that, he received $15,000 every three months. Bush said he provided Crest ``miscellaneous consulting services.'' ``Such as?'' asked Brown. ``Such as answering phone calls when Jamail Daniel, the other co-chairman, called and asked for advice,'' Bush said. ...He was involved in a business controversy in the late 1980s when he was director of Denver, Colorado-based Silverado Savings & Loan, which collapsed at a cost to taxpayers of $1 billion. He denied any wrongdoing, but was sanctioned by the federal government for his part in the failure. The Bush divorce, completed in April after 23 years of marriage, was prompted in part by Bush's relationship with another woman. He admitted in the deposition that he previously had sex with several other women while on trips to Thailand and Hong Kong at least five years ago. The women, he said, simply knocked on the door of his hotel room, entered and had sex with him. He said he did not know if they were prostitutes because they never asked for money and he did not pay them. ``Mr Bush, you have to admit it's a pretty remarkable thing for a man just to go to a hotel room door and open it and have a woman standing there and have sex with her,'' Brown said. ``It was very unusual,'' Bush said.