As a Harken director, he received memos in spring 1990 that referred in stark terms to the company's cash-strapped condition as banks demanded it pay down its debts. One document said the company was in the midst of a "liquidity crisis" and another told Bush the company was "in a state of noncompliance" with its lenders.
Bush also was informed that a company plan to make a public stock offering to generate cash was being abandoned because one of its lenders objected.
"On the eve of filing this offering, the Bank of Boston refused to grant waivers and consents necessary to allow the offering to proceed," Harken said in a letter to the SEC in 1991. "Bank of Boston refused to alter its position and instead made demands that it be removed from the company's credit." The company solved the crisis when two of its biggest stockholders loaned it the $43 million it needed.
Bush served on three committees inside the company and also was paid as a consultant.
Even after his stock sale, Bush remained on the company's board of directors until 1993.
The SEC investigators never interviewed Bush about what else he might have known about the company's financial situation before selling the stock."