97silverlsc
Dedicated LVC Member
The Bushes and the Saudis
FACT: The Saudis have invested tens of millions in Bush business ventures:
"Union Bank of Switzerland, which ordinarily didn't invest in small U.S. firms, would make an exception, giving Harken $25 million in exchange for a stock interest? [subsequently] a real-estate magnate from Jedda, Saudi Arabia? bought most of Union Bank's Harken shares. He was Abdullah Bakhsh."
[Source: Wall Street Journal, 12/6/91]
"In 1987, a Swiss bank linked to BCCI and a Saudi investor bailed out Harken Energy, where George W. Bush was a director, with $25 million in financing."
[Source: Craig Unger, "House of Bush, House of Saud," excerpted in Salon.com, 3/12/04]
"? according to founding partner David Rubenstein, the Saudis invested at least $80 million in the Carlyle group. With the exception of the bin Laden family, who extricated themselves from Carlyle not long after 9/11, Carlyle declined to disclose who the investors were. But other sources say that Prince Bandar, several other Saudi royals, and Abdulrahman and Sultan bin Mahfouz were prominent investors and that it was an explicit policy of the House of Saud to encourage Saudi investment in Carlyle."
[Source: "House of Bush, House of Saud," by Craig Unger, p. 296. A footnote attributed to the above excerpt cites an interview with Carlyle partner David Rubenstein as the source.]
George H.W. Bush was a consultant to Carlyle from 1993 through 2003, and was a board member from 1998 through 2003:
"George Bush senior? [occupied] a position as consultant to Carlyle for the ten years ending October 2003."
[Source: Le Monde, 4/29/04]
"Most important of all, the long, lucrative Bush-Baker relationship with the Carlyle Group began in 1990, and started to flourish in 1993?."
[Source: Craig Unger letter to Newsweek, 7/1/04]
According to Carlyle, Bush joined the board in 1998: "former president Bush didn't join the Carlyle advisory board until April, 1998?"
[Source: Newsweek, 6/30/04] Bush left the position in October 2003.
"How much money has flowed from the House of Saud to the Bush family and its friends and allies over the years? No one will ever know -- but the number is at least $1.477 billion."
[Source: Salon.com, http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2004/03/12/unger_2/index_np.html ]
FACT: Bush Sr. visited the Bin Ladens in Saudi Arabia:
"The family's high-level connections were longstanding and well-known: The former president visited the Binladen family in Saudi Arabia in 1998 and 2000."
[Source: Austin American Statesman, 11/9/01]
FACT: Prince Bandar threw George Bush Sr. a party.
In 1985, Bandar threw a lavish party for Bush, who never forgot the courtesy, and always had time for the Saudi Ambassador.
[Source: The New Yorker, 3/24/03]
FACT: The Saudis and Bush daughter Dorothy shared Thanksgiving - bringing the families together as family.
"But a smaller moment may have cemented the bond between the elder Bush and Bandar. When George and Barbara Bush visited the troops in Saudi Arabia during the Thanksgiving holiday in 1990, Bush called Bandar, who was in Saudi Arabia at the time. Bandar went to the private quarters in the royal palace where the Bushes were staying. Bush had tears in his eyes, and Bandar, worried, asked what had happened. Bush explained that Dorothy, their recently divorced daughter, was alone at the White House with her children. They had called her from the airplane and learned that Bandar's wife, Haifa, had invited Doro and her children to spend Thanksgiving with her. ("I don't have parents now," Haifa told me. "The Bushes are like my mother and father. I know if ever I needed anything I could go to them.")"
[Source: The New Yorker, 3/24/03]
FACT: Rich Saudis bailed out George W when his oil company went bust? "?in the 1980s, when oil prices were dropping, investors with close ties to the Saudi royal family bailed out a tiny Texas oil company, Harken Energy, when one of its directors was George W. Bush, now the president."
[Source: Atlanta Journal Constitution/Cox Newspapers, 5/2/04]
See more on this in the timeline of Bush in the oil business.
FACT: Even Republican operatives say the Bush relationship with the House of Saud is "unprecedented."
"[The] Bush dynasty's many decades of entanglement and money-hunting in the Middle East have created a major conflict of interest that deserves to be part of the 2004 political debate. No previous presidency has had anything remotely similar. Not one."
[Source: former Republican strategist Kevin Phillips in Los Angeles Times, 1/11/04]
FACT: The White House briefed Saudi Arabia's Prince Bandar on plans to attack Iraq even before briefing Colin Powell.
Powell was informed of the decision to go to war after Prince Bandar, in a 12 minute meeting with President Bush: "He told Condi Rice initially, and then he told Rumsfeld, and then he told Karl Rove. Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador, learned on a Saturday.
They then called Powell in on Monday, two days later, this Jan. 13, 2003 , two months before the war started -- 12-minute meeting, one of the most fascinating meetings in the Oval Office in a long time. And Powell said... the president said, "I've decided it looks like war."
And Powell said, "are you sure?" Questioned him a little bit: "You will be owning this place; are you fully aware of the consequences?" And then the president said, "I want you with me. Will you be with me?"
And Powell, who had resisted war, but felt also that this was a decision to be made by the commander in chief, said, "I'll be with you." And then the president said, "time to put your war uniform on." Powell left that meeting saying to himself, "he's going to do it." It was a momentous meeting for Powell.
[Source: PBS, Bob Woodward, 4/21/04, http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/jan-june04/woodward_4-21.html ]
FACT: Saudi Prince Bandar was briefed on the classified war plan for Iraq
"Sitting on the edge of the table, [Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Richard] Myers took out a large map labeled TOP SECRET NOFORN. The NOFORN meant NO FOREIGN ? classified material not to be seen by any foreign national. ?"
"Staring intently at the 2-by-3 foot Top Secret map, Bandar, a former Saudi fighter pilot, asked a few questions about air operations. Could he have a copy of the large map so that he could brief the crown prince? he asked.
"Above my pay grade," Myers said.
"We?ll give you all the information you want," Rumsfeld said. As for the map he added, "I?d rather not give it to you, but you can take notes if you want."
[Plan of Attack, 264-265]
FACT: Sen. John McCain has called this briefing "unusual" and said he'd like to know more.
Republican Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) says Bandar Briefing was unusual. "The only one I'm curious about is a briefing to Bandar. I don't understand that and I'd like to know a little more about it ... because I've never heard of foreigners being given privileged intelligence information, no matter how close an ally they were, before other members of the administration were. And so I`d just like to know a little more about it. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it. I just think it's unusual"
["Hardball," MSNBC, 4/20/04]
A Timeline of Bush's foray in the Oil Business
1977: Bush founds Arbusto Energy.
1979: Arbusto Energy begins operations.
"Bush organized his first company, Arbusto Energy Inc. ("Ar-boo-stow" is Spanish for Bush) in 1977 on the eve of a run for Congress and quickly put it to use as a credential for the political contest. But according to records on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Arbusto didn't start active operations until March 1979, months after Bush lost the race to Democrat Kent Hance. Bush opened a small office in Midland's aging Petroleum Building, the same structure where his father started out in 1950."
[Source: Washington Post, 7/30/99]
1980 - 1984: Arbusto performance is mediocre. Most investors lose money
"Bush's performance was about average, at best. By 1985, Arbusto had drilled, or had taken part in drilling, 99 wells, hitting oil or gas about 50 percent of the time. 'There's a lot of luck and a lot of science to oil drilling,' Rea said. 'Drilling is hit or miss. He didn't have the luck.' Most who invested lost money. By the end of 1984, securities filings show, Bush's limited partners had invested $4.66 million in Bush's various drilling programs but they had received cash distributions of only $1.54 million."
[Source: Washington Post, 7/30/99]
1982: Bush receives $1 million bailout from James Baker friend
"In 1982, [Bush] decided to raise more money by going public. But first, in January 1982, he got a generous $1 million transfusion from Philip A. Uzielli, a New York investor who paid that much for 10 percent of Arbusto's far less valuable stock. It was a badly needed boost. Arbusto's balance sheets showed that at the end of 1981, it had little more than $48,000 in the bank and more than half of all its assets consisted of 'accounts receivable,' money owed to it by others. At the same time, the company owed almost $300,000 in bank loans and close to $120,000 to other creditors? Bush said he didn't know at first that Uzielli was also a Princeton classmate and friend of Baker, the manager of George H.W. Bush's 1980 presidential primary campaign."
[Source: Washington Post, 7/30/99]
1982: Bush brings Arbusto public, renames company "Bush Exploration."
"Bush's public drilling partnership made its debut in April 1982 under the name of Arbusto, but the 'Bust; label the company had taken on may have hampered it. In what he has described as a "marketing" move, the vice president's son changed the name to Bush Exploration and in June issued a new prospectus. The offering was still a flop."
[Source: Washington Post, 7/30/99]
1984: With Bush Exploration failing, Spectrum 7 steps in
By 1984, the outlook was bleak. "We didn't find much oil and gas," said Michael Conaway, Bush's chief financial officer. "We weren't raising any money." Then, as Bush's father was headed for reelection as Ronald Reagan's vice president, two investors from Cincinnati, William O. DeWitt Jr. (Yale '63) and Mercer Reynolds III, stepped in. Heads of an oil exploration company called Spectrum 7, they'd met Bush earlier?.DeWitt said they stayed in touch with Bush in the months that followed and eventually decided a merger would be a good idea. They joined up on Feb. 29, 1984, in a stock exchange that left DeWitt and Reynolds with 20.1 percent each of Spectrum 7 and Bush with 16.3 percent (1,166,400 shares). Bush was named Spectrum 7's chairman and CEO with a $75,000-a-year salary and Rea was named president with $85,000.
[Source: Washington Post, 7/30/99]
1986: Spectrum 7 fails. Harken steps in
"Mr. Bush's company merged with another concern, becoming Spectrum 7 Energy Corp. But its fortunes didn't improve. 'We lost a lot of money in the oil business,' says Philip Uzielli, a director of Spectrum 7 and friend of Mr. Bush . 'We had a lot of dry wells. . . . Things were terrible. It was dreadful.'"
[Source: Wall Street Journal, 12/6/91]
"The merger with Spectrum carried Bush only another two years. Then, the stunning price collapse in 1986 "just dried up all exploration money." ? The only hope seemed to be finding another angel. Bush, Rea and Conaway started looking for small or medium-sized companies they might approach. Rea remembers they contacted at least one, in Pennsylvania, and were turned down. Harken ended the search for them. The company had been taken over in 1983 by a group headed by a New York lawyer and management expert, Alan G. Quasha, who seems to have had a penchant for stars on his board?. Representatives of Harvard University's endowment fund and a wealthy Saudi real estate magnate were given seats on the board in 1987?. The merger became final in September 1986, with Harken handing over one share of its publicly traded stock in return for roughly five shares of Spectrum."
[Source: Washington Post, 7/30/99]
1987: When Harken, too, begins to fail, Bush is bailed out by Saudi money
"In 1987, a Swiss bank linked to BCCI and a Saudi investor bailed out Harken Energy, where George W. Bush was a director, with $25 million in financing."
[Source: Craig Unger, "House of Bush, House of Saud," excerpted in Salon.com, 3/12/04]
"On that spring day in Little Rock, cash for Harken was the topic. Ultimately, Stephens put a rescue plan in motion: Union Bank of Switzerland, which ordinarily didn't invest in small U.S. firms, would make an exception, giving Harken $25 million in exchange for a stock interest. At the time, UBS was a joint-venture partner with BCCI in a Geneva-based bank. And although Harken officials, including Messrs. Bush and Quasha, say they were unaware of it, Mr. Stephens was also well acquainted with BCCI?. Stephens brought in a new patron: a real-estate magnate from Jedda, Saudi Arabia, who bought most of Union Bank's Harken shares. He was Abdullah Bakhsh."
[Source: Wall Street Journal, 12/6/91]
"Mr. Bakhsh has had business dealings with some of the most prominent people in Saudi Arabia, including, according to a friend, former Saudi oil minister Ahmed Zaki Yamani and current oil minister Hisham Nazer. One of his co-investors in the U.S. says he believes the sheik has also invested with members of the Saudi royal family."
[Source: Wall Street Journal, 12/6/91]
1990: Harken wins Bahrain deal despite lack of international experience
"Harken Energy Corp. -- though it had never drilled a single well overseas or in water -- recently won the rights to drill potentially lucrative offshore wildcat wells in a contract bestowed by the government of Bahrain. When the Harken deal was announced in January 1990, it attracted only perfunctory notice. More recently, a number of publications have written about the case, raising questions about whether Bahrain might have chosen Harken in part because a presidential son sat on its board."
[Source: Wall Street Journal, 12/6/91]
1990: Bush dumps Harken stock before share prices plummet
On June 22, 1990, Bush sold 2/3 of his Harken holdings: 212,140 shares of Harken, at $4 a share. Two months later, Harken announced a staggering $23 million 2nd quarter loss. The announcement immediately drove the share price down 20%. By year's end the stock, which Bush sold at $4 a share, fell to just $1 a share. By selling when he did, Bush saved $600,000
[Source: US News and World Report, 3/16/92; Washington Post, 7/14/02].
FACT: The Saudis have invested tens of millions in Bush business ventures:
"Union Bank of Switzerland, which ordinarily didn't invest in small U.S. firms, would make an exception, giving Harken $25 million in exchange for a stock interest? [subsequently] a real-estate magnate from Jedda, Saudi Arabia? bought most of Union Bank's Harken shares. He was Abdullah Bakhsh."
[Source: Wall Street Journal, 12/6/91]
"In 1987, a Swiss bank linked to BCCI and a Saudi investor bailed out Harken Energy, where George W. Bush was a director, with $25 million in financing."
[Source: Craig Unger, "House of Bush, House of Saud," excerpted in Salon.com, 3/12/04]
"? according to founding partner David Rubenstein, the Saudis invested at least $80 million in the Carlyle group. With the exception of the bin Laden family, who extricated themselves from Carlyle not long after 9/11, Carlyle declined to disclose who the investors were. But other sources say that Prince Bandar, several other Saudi royals, and Abdulrahman and Sultan bin Mahfouz were prominent investors and that it was an explicit policy of the House of Saud to encourage Saudi investment in Carlyle."
[Source: "House of Bush, House of Saud," by Craig Unger, p. 296. A footnote attributed to the above excerpt cites an interview with Carlyle partner David Rubenstein as the source.]
George H.W. Bush was a consultant to Carlyle from 1993 through 2003, and was a board member from 1998 through 2003:
"George Bush senior? [occupied] a position as consultant to Carlyle for the ten years ending October 2003."
[Source: Le Monde, 4/29/04]
"Most important of all, the long, lucrative Bush-Baker relationship with the Carlyle Group began in 1990, and started to flourish in 1993?."
[Source: Craig Unger letter to Newsweek, 7/1/04]
According to Carlyle, Bush joined the board in 1998: "former president Bush didn't join the Carlyle advisory board until April, 1998?"
[Source: Newsweek, 6/30/04] Bush left the position in October 2003.
"How much money has flowed from the House of Saud to the Bush family and its friends and allies over the years? No one will ever know -- but the number is at least $1.477 billion."
[Source: Salon.com, http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2004/03/12/unger_2/index_np.html ]
FACT: Bush Sr. visited the Bin Ladens in Saudi Arabia:
"The family's high-level connections were longstanding and well-known: The former president visited the Binladen family in Saudi Arabia in 1998 and 2000."
[Source: Austin American Statesman, 11/9/01]
FACT: Prince Bandar threw George Bush Sr. a party.
In 1985, Bandar threw a lavish party for Bush, who never forgot the courtesy, and always had time for the Saudi Ambassador.
[Source: The New Yorker, 3/24/03]
FACT: The Saudis and Bush daughter Dorothy shared Thanksgiving - bringing the families together as family.
"But a smaller moment may have cemented the bond between the elder Bush and Bandar. When George and Barbara Bush visited the troops in Saudi Arabia during the Thanksgiving holiday in 1990, Bush called Bandar, who was in Saudi Arabia at the time. Bandar went to the private quarters in the royal palace where the Bushes were staying. Bush had tears in his eyes, and Bandar, worried, asked what had happened. Bush explained that Dorothy, their recently divorced daughter, was alone at the White House with her children. They had called her from the airplane and learned that Bandar's wife, Haifa, had invited Doro and her children to spend Thanksgiving with her. ("I don't have parents now," Haifa told me. "The Bushes are like my mother and father. I know if ever I needed anything I could go to them.")"
[Source: The New Yorker, 3/24/03]
FACT: Rich Saudis bailed out George W when his oil company went bust? "?in the 1980s, when oil prices were dropping, investors with close ties to the Saudi royal family bailed out a tiny Texas oil company, Harken Energy, when one of its directors was George W. Bush, now the president."
[Source: Atlanta Journal Constitution/Cox Newspapers, 5/2/04]
See more on this in the timeline of Bush in the oil business.
FACT: Even Republican operatives say the Bush relationship with the House of Saud is "unprecedented."
"[The] Bush dynasty's many decades of entanglement and money-hunting in the Middle East have created a major conflict of interest that deserves to be part of the 2004 political debate. No previous presidency has had anything remotely similar. Not one."
[Source: former Republican strategist Kevin Phillips in Los Angeles Times, 1/11/04]
FACT: The White House briefed Saudi Arabia's Prince Bandar on plans to attack Iraq even before briefing Colin Powell.
Powell was informed of the decision to go to war after Prince Bandar, in a 12 minute meeting with President Bush: "He told Condi Rice initially, and then he told Rumsfeld, and then he told Karl Rove. Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador, learned on a Saturday.
They then called Powell in on Monday, two days later, this Jan. 13, 2003 , two months before the war started -- 12-minute meeting, one of the most fascinating meetings in the Oval Office in a long time. And Powell said... the president said, "I've decided it looks like war."
And Powell said, "are you sure?" Questioned him a little bit: "You will be owning this place; are you fully aware of the consequences?" And then the president said, "I want you with me. Will you be with me?"
And Powell, who had resisted war, but felt also that this was a decision to be made by the commander in chief, said, "I'll be with you." And then the president said, "time to put your war uniform on." Powell left that meeting saying to himself, "he's going to do it." It was a momentous meeting for Powell.
[Source: PBS, Bob Woodward, 4/21/04, http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/jan-june04/woodward_4-21.html ]
FACT: Saudi Prince Bandar was briefed on the classified war plan for Iraq
"Sitting on the edge of the table, [Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Richard] Myers took out a large map labeled TOP SECRET NOFORN. The NOFORN meant NO FOREIGN ? classified material not to be seen by any foreign national. ?"
"Staring intently at the 2-by-3 foot Top Secret map, Bandar, a former Saudi fighter pilot, asked a few questions about air operations. Could he have a copy of the large map so that he could brief the crown prince? he asked.
"Above my pay grade," Myers said.
"We?ll give you all the information you want," Rumsfeld said. As for the map he added, "I?d rather not give it to you, but you can take notes if you want."
[Plan of Attack, 264-265]
FACT: Sen. John McCain has called this briefing "unusual" and said he'd like to know more.
Republican Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) says Bandar Briefing was unusual. "The only one I'm curious about is a briefing to Bandar. I don't understand that and I'd like to know a little more about it ... because I've never heard of foreigners being given privileged intelligence information, no matter how close an ally they were, before other members of the administration were. And so I`d just like to know a little more about it. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it. I just think it's unusual"
["Hardball," MSNBC, 4/20/04]
A Timeline of Bush's foray in the Oil Business
1977: Bush founds Arbusto Energy.
1979: Arbusto Energy begins operations.
"Bush organized his first company, Arbusto Energy Inc. ("Ar-boo-stow" is Spanish for Bush) in 1977 on the eve of a run for Congress and quickly put it to use as a credential for the political contest. But according to records on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Arbusto didn't start active operations until March 1979, months after Bush lost the race to Democrat Kent Hance. Bush opened a small office in Midland's aging Petroleum Building, the same structure where his father started out in 1950."
[Source: Washington Post, 7/30/99]
1980 - 1984: Arbusto performance is mediocre. Most investors lose money
"Bush's performance was about average, at best. By 1985, Arbusto had drilled, or had taken part in drilling, 99 wells, hitting oil or gas about 50 percent of the time. 'There's a lot of luck and a lot of science to oil drilling,' Rea said. 'Drilling is hit or miss. He didn't have the luck.' Most who invested lost money. By the end of 1984, securities filings show, Bush's limited partners had invested $4.66 million in Bush's various drilling programs but they had received cash distributions of only $1.54 million."
[Source: Washington Post, 7/30/99]
1982: Bush receives $1 million bailout from James Baker friend
"In 1982, [Bush] decided to raise more money by going public. But first, in January 1982, he got a generous $1 million transfusion from Philip A. Uzielli, a New York investor who paid that much for 10 percent of Arbusto's far less valuable stock. It was a badly needed boost. Arbusto's balance sheets showed that at the end of 1981, it had little more than $48,000 in the bank and more than half of all its assets consisted of 'accounts receivable,' money owed to it by others. At the same time, the company owed almost $300,000 in bank loans and close to $120,000 to other creditors? Bush said he didn't know at first that Uzielli was also a Princeton classmate and friend of Baker, the manager of George H.W. Bush's 1980 presidential primary campaign."
[Source: Washington Post, 7/30/99]
1982: Bush brings Arbusto public, renames company "Bush Exploration."
"Bush's public drilling partnership made its debut in April 1982 under the name of Arbusto, but the 'Bust; label the company had taken on may have hampered it. In what he has described as a "marketing" move, the vice president's son changed the name to Bush Exploration and in June issued a new prospectus. The offering was still a flop."
[Source: Washington Post, 7/30/99]
1984: With Bush Exploration failing, Spectrum 7 steps in
By 1984, the outlook was bleak. "We didn't find much oil and gas," said Michael Conaway, Bush's chief financial officer. "We weren't raising any money." Then, as Bush's father was headed for reelection as Ronald Reagan's vice president, two investors from Cincinnati, William O. DeWitt Jr. (Yale '63) and Mercer Reynolds III, stepped in. Heads of an oil exploration company called Spectrum 7, they'd met Bush earlier?.DeWitt said they stayed in touch with Bush in the months that followed and eventually decided a merger would be a good idea. They joined up on Feb. 29, 1984, in a stock exchange that left DeWitt and Reynolds with 20.1 percent each of Spectrum 7 and Bush with 16.3 percent (1,166,400 shares). Bush was named Spectrum 7's chairman and CEO with a $75,000-a-year salary and Rea was named president with $85,000.
[Source: Washington Post, 7/30/99]
1986: Spectrum 7 fails. Harken steps in
"Mr. Bush's company merged with another concern, becoming Spectrum 7 Energy Corp. But its fortunes didn't improve. 'We lost a lot of money in the oil business,' says Philip Uzielli, a director of Spectrum 7 and friend of Mr. Bush . 'We had a lot of dry wells. . . . Things were terrible. It was dreadful.'"
[Source: Wall Street Journal, 12/6/91]
"The merger with Spectrum carried Bush only another two years. Then, the stunning price collapse in 1986 "just dried up all exploration money." ? The only hope seemed to be finding another angel. Bush, Rea and Conaway started looking for small or medium-sized companies they might approach. Rea remembers they contacted at least one, in Pennsylvania, and were turned down. Harken ended the search for them. The company had been taken over in 1983 by a group headed by a New York lawyer and management expert, Alan G. Quasha, who seems to have had a penchant for stars on his board?. Representatives of Harvard University's endowment fund and a wealthy Saudi real estate magnate were given seats on the board in 1987?. The merger became final in September 1986, with Harken handing over one share of its publicly traded stock in return for roughly five shares of Spectrum."
[Source: Washington Post, 7/30/99]
1987: When Harken, too, begins to fail, Bush is bailed out by Saudi money
"In 1987, a Swiss bank linked to BCCI and a Saudi investor bailed out Harken Energy, where George W. Bush was a director, with $25 million in financing."
[Source: Craig Unger, "House of Bush, House of Saud," excerpted in Salon.com, 3/12/04]
"On that spring day in Little Rock, cash for Harken was the topic. Ultimately, Stephens put a rescue plan in motion: Union Bank of Switzerland, which ordinarily didn't invest in small U.S. firms, would make an exception, giving Harken $25 million in exchange for a stock interest. At the time, UBS was a joint-venture partner with BCCI in a Geneva-based bank. And although Harken officials, including Messrs. Bush and Quasha, say they were unaware of it, Mr. Stephens was also well acquainted with BCCI?. Stephens brought in a new patron: a real-estate magnate from Jedda, Saudi Arabia, who bought most of Union Bank's Harken shares. He was Abdullah Bakhsh."
[Source: Wall Street Journal, 12/6/91]
"Mr. Bakhsh has had business dealings with some of the most prominent people in Saudi Arabia, including, according to a friend, former Saudi oil minister Ahmed Zaki Yamani and current oil minister Hisham Nazer. One of his co-investors in the U.S. says he believes the sheik has also invested with members of the Saudi royal family."
[Source: Wall Street Journal, 12/6/91]
1990: Harken wins Bahrain deal despite lack of international experience
"Harken Energy Corp. -- though it had never drilled a single well overseas or in water -- recently won the rights to drill potentially lucrative offshore wildcat wells in a contract bestowed by the government of Bahrain. When the Harken deal was announced in January 1990, it attracted only perfunctory notice. More recently, a number of publications have written about the case, raising questions about whether Bahrain might have chosen Harken in part because a presidential son sat on its board."
[Source: Wall Street Journal, 12/6/91]
1990: Bush dumps Harken stock before share prices plummet
On June 22, 1990, Bush sold 2/3 of his Harken holdings: 212,140 shares of Harken, at $4 a share. Two months later, Harken announced a staggering $23 million 2nd quarter loss. The announcement immediately drove the share price down 20%. By year's end the stock, which Bush sold at $4 a share, fell to just $1 a share. By selling when he did, Bush saved $600,000
[Source: US News and World Report, 3/16/92; Washington Post, 7/14/02].
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