Posted on 01/11/2002 11:56:44 AM PST by Utah Girl
From the latest MOJO ----
"After the sale of Harken Energy in 1983, Alan Quasha became a director and chairman of the board. Under Quasha, Harken suddenly absorbed Junior's struggling Spectrum 7 in 1986. The merger immediately opened a financial horn of plenty and reversed Junior's fortunes. But like his brother Jeb, Junior seemed unconcerned about the characters who were becoming his benefactors. Harken's $25 million stock offering in 1987, for example, was underwritten by a Little Rock, Arkansas, brokerage house, Stephens, Inc., which placed the Harken stock offering with the London subsidiary of Union Bank -- a bank that had surfaced in the scandal that resulted in the downfall of the Australian Labor government in 1976 and, later, in the Nugan Hand Bank scandal. (It was also Union Bank, according to congressional hearings on international money laundering, that helped the now-notorious Bank of Credit and Commerce International skirt Panamanian money-laundering laws by flying cash out of the country in private jets, and that was used by Ferdinand Marcos to stash 325 tons of Philippine gold around the world.)
Stephens, Inc., also helped introduce the BCCI virus into US banking in 1978 when it arranged the sale of Bert Lance's National Bank of Georgia to BCCI front man Ghaith Pharoan. (The head of Stephens, Inc., Jackson Stephens, is a member of President Bush's exclusive "Team 100," a group of 249 wealthy individuals who have contributed at least $100,000 each to the GOP's presidential-campaign committee.)
If any of these associations raised questions in the mind of George Bush, Jr., he had little incentive to voice them. Besides getting Harken stock through the deal, Junior was paid $80,000 a year as a consultant (until 1989, when his wages were increased to $120,000; recently they were reduced to $45,000). He was also allowed to borrow $180,375 from the company at very low interest rates. In 1989 and 1990, according to the company's Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Harken's board "forgave" $341,000 in loans to its executives. In addition, Junior took advantage of the company's ultraliberal executive stock purchase plan, which allowed him to buy Harken stock at 40 percent below market value.
Such lavish executive compensation would suggest a company doing quite well indeed. But in reality, Harken had little going for itself. One Wall Street analyst called Harken's web of insider stock deals and mounting debt "a lot of jiggery-pokery." Harken was not making money and could not have continued into 1990 without at least some means of convincing lenders and investors that the company would soon find a lot of oil.
Suddenly, in January 1990, Harken Energy became the talk of the Texas oil industry. The company with no offshore-oil-drilling experience beat out a more-established international conglomerate, Amoco, in bagging the exclusive contract to drill in a promising new offshore oil field for the Persian Gulf nation of Bahrain. The deal had been arranged for Harken by two former Stephens, Inc., brokers. A company insider claims the president's son did not initiate the deal -- but feels that his presence in the firm helped with the Bahrainis. "Hell, that's why he's on the damn board," the insider says. "...You say, 'By the way, the president's son sits on our board.' You use that. There's nothing wrong with that."
See, No Laws Broken! Just bent a little. That's why we have Classes of Citizens, so Deals can be done for all of our benefit, right?
LOL! Imagine being a sibling to her!!
We tried to get hold of energy policy nightmare scenarios going on all over the west, we called in experts, some of whom were crooks... expert sources for information none-the-less. Talking to them. Them donating money to campaigns. Meaningless.
Members of the RENO family business calling Bush's kettle black, PRICELESS.
If davis and company had not tried to create an energy crisis policy platform to run on for dems in the west, this would not have ever happened in my view.
Dirty pool is going on.
I appreciate the time and research that went into your response and the questions you tried to raise. But, to cut to the bottom line...you speak nonsense.
If you want to go for President Bush's jugular, find a direct route, or at least stay with the democrat's current talking points.
Regarding Enron, my points are simple. There is no logical, ethical or legal claim of malfeasance to lay at the feet of our president, George W. Bush.
Enron did themselves in. I will leave it to the SEC and the Justice Department to uncover how they accomplished this.
I am not (at this point) interested in exposing the profound and certifiable influence of the former Govenor of Texas, Ann Richards, and the Clinton/Gore administration on Enron's meteoric rise.
I am not here to debate the potential value of a cooperative alliance between business & govenment.
I am simply stating that inspite of their contribution to the Bush presidential campaign, Enron did not receive a quid pro quo.
George W. Bush did not comprosmise his ethics or principles to bail out a financial contributor. As foreign as not bailing out a contributor may be to most democrats, it is, I assure you, an ethical position....and one that will return this government to the position of respect and trust that our founding fathers had in mind.
History is wonderful. Don't lose sight of it. But, please, join us in the present.
That's the same we heard from the previous slime in the WH.
Would you pass laws to make this type of thing illegal?
I hope you ask for complete financial disclosure from everyone you do business with. What makes you think W even thought about where Harken's money was?
It's fairly sleazy to take a well paying job that exists in name only. We elected him President, not Saint.
Yes, of course. But, my friend, here is our chance to learn the difference between "spin" and "truth".
This learning curve may be steep...but, please hang in there with us....shake off the Clinton years and give the light of truth a chance.
Yep the meetings..... Gosh you'd have thought they were like the coffees and Lincoln Bedroom things...... But the following is waltzing in and out of the Whitehouse.......
Details Cheney-Enron Meetings. Yep them meetings were very productive for Enron... drove them right into bankruptcy....Matalin disputed claims that the administration had tried to hide its meetings with Enron executives, explaining, "Dick Cheney said in May on PBS that he had met with (Enron CEO) Ken Lay and had a 20-minute meeting with him."
"I remember that meeting very well," the senior White House advisor told Imus. "(Lay) got into the specifics of electricity competition and Cheney's not an expert on that and (Lay) was deferred to the staff. The subsequent meetings were not with the (Energy) Task Force or any Cabinet members - (it was) Enron staff guys with our staff guys.".....
One of the "so-called meetings," said Matalin, "was our head staff guy was giving a presentation to 25 companies and an Enron representative was there. Another so-called meeting was two guys came to talk to the staff about the progress of the energy report and the Enron guy never said anything.
Matalin said Cheney himself had only met with Mr. Lay twice. "He met with him, as he said on PBS, once on April 17 for 20 minutes. And then in June, he and I and the chief of staff, Scooter Libby.... went to an American Enterprise Institute world forum in Beaver Creek. It was one of these think tank things and there were 600 people there and Ken Lay was there.
"So we put that down as a meeting, which I think hardly qualifies," Matalin said. "I think we over-disclosed here."
On the question on whether contacts between Enron and Bush officials in the end benefited the energy giant, Matalin noted that the Bush-Cheney energy plan contained 178 recommendations to improve U.S. energy production and "not one - nada, zip, zero - was in there for Enron or Ken Lay."
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