Poor Martha | ||||||
e-mail message, March 26, 2004 | ||||||
W. Bush, board members discussed a stock offering they hoped would bring in enough money to keep the company solvent. | ||||||
Bush was named to the board's 'Fairness Committee,' which was to measure the effects of bankruptcy on small stockholders. By late May 1990, internal memos warned that there was no source of immediate financing, loans were slipping out of compliance, banks were demanding guarantees of sufficient equity to cover loans. | ||||||
As Chairman of the audit committee actually working with the accounting consultants called in by the board, Bush knew exactly how grim their conclusions were. He was warned, along with other directors, in a May 25 memo that it would be illegal to dump his stock. In June he left the small stockholders holding the bag. He dumped $848,560 of the stock without disclosing the sale to the SEC. | ||||||
On Aug 22 Harken's second quarter report predicted $23 million in losses. Once the news hit the street, the stock sank immediately from $4 to $2.57. It bottomed out at 22 cents a share. | ||||||
Today Martha Stewart is going to jail and George Bush is President. | ||||||
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References: | ||||||
Vulliamy, Ed, Bush squirms in sleaze scandal, July 14, 2002, The Observer |
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The Center for Public Integrity The buying of the President 2004, President George W. Bush, as seen on web site March 26, 2004, The Center for Public Integrity, Investigative journalism in the Public Interest |
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Frost, Greg, USA: Bush Oil Firm Did Enron-Style Deal, October 9, 2004, Reuters, CorpWatch |
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CBS News Bush Sold Stock Despite Promise, July 16, 2004, CBS Marketwatch |
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