rationalrevolution.net/war/bush_family_and_the_s.htm Between 1981 and 1989, when George Bush finally announced that there was a Savings and Loan Crisis to the world, the Reagan/Bush administration worked to cover up Savings and Loan problems by reducing the number and depth of examinations required of S&Ls as well as attacking political opponents who were sounding early alarms about the S&L industry. Industry insiders were aware of significant S&L problems as early 1986 that they felt would require a bailout. This information was kept from the media until after Bush had won the 1988 elections. Jeb Bush defaulted on a $4.56 million loan from Broward Federal Savings in Sunrise, Florida. After federal regulators closed the S&L, the office building that Jeb used the $4.56 million to finance was reappraised by the regulators at $500,000, which Bush and his partners paid. The taxpayers had to pay back the remaining 4 million plus dollars. Neil Bush was the most widely targeted member of the Bush family by the press in the S&L scandal. Neil became director of Silverado Savings and Loan at the age of 30 in 1985. Three years later the institution was belly up at a cost of $1.6 billion to tax payers to bail out. The basic actions of Neil Bush in the S&L scandal are as follows: Neil received a $100,000 loan from Ken Good, of Good International, with no obligation to pay any of the money back. Good was a large shareholder in JNB Explorations, Neil Bushs oil-exploration company. Neil failed to disclose this conflict-of-interest when loans were given to Good from Silverado, because the money was to be used in joint venture with his own JNB. This was in essence giving himself a loan from Silverado through a third party. Neil then helped Silverado S&L approve Good International for a $900,000 line of credit. Good defaulted on a total $32 million in loans from Silverado. During this time Neil Bush did not disclose that $3 million of the $32 million that Good was defaulting on was actually for investment in JNB, his own company. Good subsequently raised Bushs JNB salary from $75,000 to $125,000 and granted him a $22,500 bonus. Neil Bush maintained that he did not see how this constituted a conflict of interest. Neil approved $106 million in Silverado loans to another JNB investor, Bill Walters. Neil also never formally disclosed his relationship with Walters and Walters also defaulted on his loans, all $106 million of them. Neil Bush was charged with criminal wrongdoing in the case and ended up paying $50,000 to settle out of court. The chief of Silverado S&L was sentenced to 3.5 years in jail for pleading guilty to $8.7 million in theft. (Keep in mind that you can get more jail time for holding up a gas station for $50.) Today Neil Bush is working on closing a deal in Florida, where his brother Jeb is governor, to sell a software package to schools with his startup company Ignite. Update 11/28/2003: Some of Neil Bushs business deals have been exposed in his recent divorce case. For more on this see:
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 10:01:39 +0000
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