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Mix-Ansicht- Do as I say - not as I do! Bush Ausreden zu Harken Energy - Popeye, 05.07.2002, 09:07
- Re: Harken Energy bald im Ch. 11? Und was passiert bei steigenden Ã-lpreisen? - Ecki1, 05.07.2002, 09:45
Do as I say - not as I do! Bush Ausreden zu Harken Energy
Bush says a 'mix-up' led to filing
delay
Dana Milbank The Washington Post
Friday, July 5, 2002
WASHINGTON The White House has changed
President George W. Bush's account of his failure
to file timely disclosures to the Securities and
Exchange Commission about a 1990 stock trade,
as Bush aides seek to distance the president from a
wave of corporate accounting scandals.
A decade ago, Bush blamed the 34-week delay in
his filing on the SEC, which he said lost the
disclosure document. But facing new inquiries
sparked by the leaking of a 1991 SEC report,
Bush's spokesman Wednesday laid the blame on a
"mix-up" by the company's lawyers.
The delayed filing was related to Bush's sale of
$848,560 in shares of Harken Energy Corp., of
which Bush was a director, two months before the
company announced a large loss and its stock
price declined steeply.
The change in the explanation comes as Bush's
trades of Harken shares - and a subsequent SEC
insider-trading investigation - are under new
scrutiny because of Bush's recent call for more
corporate responsibility after scandals at Enron
Corp., WorldCom Inc. and other companies.
Bush's delayed Harken filing is at odds with his
proposal that such trades be disclosed within two
days to prevent executives from profiting from
information that shareholders do not have.
Bush is scheduled to deliver a speech Tuesday on
Wall Street calling for tougher restrictions on
corporate officers, including criminal penalties for
those who file intentionally misleading SEC
reports. But the increased scrutiny of Harken is
forcing the White House to address Bush's own
actions as a corporate executive, when he dealt
with associates who would become part of his or
his father's administrations.
The general counsel of the SEC during the
investigation of Bush's Harken trades was James
Doty, who earlier represented Bush in his
purchase of the Texas Rangers, made with the
proceeds of his sale of Harken shares.
During the SEC investigation, which occurred
while his father was president, Bush was
represented by Robert Jordan, who had been a
law partner of Doty at the Baker Botts firm.
Bush named Jordan ambassador to Saudi Arabia
last year.
In an interview, Doty, who has returned to Baker
Botts, said he recused himself during the SEC's
investigation of Bush, which ended without
penalties or charges."This investigation was
handled in the regular way," Doty said.
When Bush was a director of Harken, the energy
company was involved in some of the same kind
of bookkeeping activities that have caused trouble
for corporations recently.
In January 1991, the company announced that after
"discussions" with the SEC, it would add more
than $9 million to its net loss for the year, nearly
quadrupling the loss.
The company had counted as income gains from
the sale of a subsidiary, Aloha Petroleum, that
should have been deferred to future years - thus
inflating its short-term earnings.
Democrats pounced on the change in Bush's
account of the disclosures, known as Form 4s.
They said it contradicting the president's oft-stated
promise to introduce a"responsibility era" rather
than a culture that Bush characterized as"If you've
got a problem, blame somebody else," an implicit
reference to President Bill Clinton.
The chairman of the Democratic National
Committee, Terence McAuliffe, said,"President
Bush, Vice President Cheney and SEC
Commissioner Harvey Pitt like to preach CEO
responsibility, but when it comes to their own
records, their motto is 'The buck stops over
there.'" Democrats in Congress are seeking to
outdo Bush in their crackdown on corporate
behavior.According to an internal SEC memo
from 1991, which was obtained and released by
the Center for Public Integrity, Bush filed reports
up to eight months late for four stock transactions
totaling $1 million.
Bush did not address the subject but said Tuesday
that the matter had been"fully vetted."
Doty said Bush had filed his forms as required.
"They were late, but they fully disclosed what he'd
done," Doty said."Half of corporate America was
filing those forms late at that time."
Bush, who was on the Harken board's audit
committee, sold his stock in June 1990 for $4 a
share.
By the end of that year, the value of a share had
dropped to a dollar.
Bush had received the stock several years earlier
when he sold his struggling oil company to
Harken.
Quelle: International Herlad Tribune von heute, Frontpage
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