Why Bush Should Be Impeached, #84

  In 1986, Harken Energy, run by a group of well-heeled Reagan/Bush supporters,
  absorbed George W. Bush's failing Spectrum 7 oil company. Bush gets $600,000
  in Harken stock.

  Bush was paid $80,000 a year as a "consultant," until 1989 when he got a raise
  to $120,000.

  Bush was also allowed to borrow from Harken's dwindling treasury - loans that,
  according to SEC filings, were later "forgiven."

  Bush was also granted liberal executive stock option rights allowing him to
  purchase additional Harken stock at 40 percent below market value.

  In 1990, when Harken ran into financial trouble, Bush held a seat on the
  company's restructuring committee. The committee hired consultants from Smith
  Barney to look over Harken's books and prepare a report for the board.

  Harken's outside accounting firm was Arthur Andersen.

  Smith Barney uncovered several "irregularities" in Harken's accounting. In one
  case Harken had anticipated Enron by a decade.  Faced with the unsettling
  prospect of reporting a $10 million loss for 1989,the company masked the loss
  by manufacturing a profit - selling one of its subsidiaries to a group of
  Harken insiders who paid with money borrowed from the company itself.

  The Securities and Exchange Commission later ruled the transaction phony and
  forced Harken to restate its 1989 earnings.  Harken was now also reportedly
  $150 million in debt.

  After Smith Barney submitted its critical report to Harken's board, but before
  the general public learned of Harken's dire condition, Bush unloaded the bulk
  of his Harken stock in June 1990. He sold 212,140 shares -- pocketing
  $848,560.

  The money, friends of Bush said later, was used to pay off his Texas home
  which under Texas law became automatically protected from creditor
  claims. (Just like Enron's Ken Lay, Jeffrey Skilling and Andy Fastow.)

  Even though the sale was an unambiguous insider stock deal, neither Bush nor
  Harken reported the trade to the SEC as required by law. (Shortly thereafter
  Harken stock fell 25%. Had Bush hung onto his stock just 60 days longer he
  would have received over $200,000 less for it.)

  The SEC investigated G. W. Bush for insider trading during his father's term
  as President and decided to take no action. Career SEC officials, clearly
  miffed by their inability to charge the son of a sitting President, made their
  feelings clear in a 1993 letter to Bush's attorney. In the letter, the SEC
  emphasized that the decision not to charge Bush "must in no way be construed
  as indicating that (Bush) has been exonerated."

  For more re: Bush's Harken insider trading
  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16302-2002Jul2.html
  http://www.motherjones.com/news_wire/bushboys.html )