[iwar] Bush defends his corporate record

From: televr (yangyun@metacrawler.com)
Date: 2002-07-03 13:10:09
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Date: Wed, 03 Jul 2002 20:10:09 -0000
Subject: [iwar] Bush defends his corporate record
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Bush Corporate Record Examined 

By Scott Lindlaw
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, July 3, 2002; 12:36 PM 

WASHINGTON ЦЦ The White House acknowledged Wednesday that when he was 
a corporate director, President Bush failed to promptly disclose stock 
sales as required by
federal law. A spokesman blamed it on a "clerical mistake" by company 
lawyers, though Bush has said government regulators lost it.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Bush had followed the law by 
informing regulators of his intention to sell stock in Harken Energy 
Corp., a Texas oil company, in 1990.
But he conceded that because of a "mix-up, a clerical mistake" by 
Harken lawyers, Bush had not promptly reported the sale after it took 
place.

Reacting to a wave of corporate accounting scandals in recent weeks, 
Bush has proposed that top company leaders be required to promptly 
disclose their sales or purchases of
company stock for personal gain. The law already says company insiders 
must disclose publicly, by the 10th day of the month following the 
transaction, a sale or purchase of stock
in their companies. The report is known as a Form 4.

Fleischer said that on June 22, 1990, Bush filed a form 144 Ц the 
notice of intention to sell Harken stock. "The president has called 
for prompt disclosure of a sale; the president in
his own personal action disclosed promptly the intent to sell," 
Fleischer said.

But, he said: "In the case of the second form, the additional form, 
the Form 4s, there was indeed a mix-up, a clerical mistake, involving 
the lawyers at Harken, and in that case the
Form 4 was not filed."

That explanation was at odds with one Bush himself offered during his 
1994 campaign for governor of Texas. Bush said at the time that he had 
filed the required report, and that
the SEC must have misplaced it.

Questioned on which version was accurate, Fleischer said: "It's 
exactly as I indicated."

One Form 4 filing came more than eight months late and disclosed Bush 
had sold $848,560 of Harken stock, according to SEC documents. That 
sale was on the same date that
Fleischer said Bush had given notice that he intended to sell.

Dan Bartlett, the White House communications director, said the 
eight-month delay resulted from a miscommunication between Bush's 
lawyer and Harken's lawyers.

"These types of late filings are not out of the ordinary," Bartlett 
told The Washington Post in Wednesday's editions. "It would be like 
doing a 60 in a 55" speed-limit zone, he said.

Bush filed Form 4s late on four occasions, according to an internal 
Securities and Exchange Commission finding that was reported by a 
nonpartisan watchdog group, the Center
for Public Integrity. Those sales involved stock worth more than $1 
million.

On the largest sale, Bush sold his stock for $4 a share, just before 
the company filed a quarterly report revealing it had lost $23 million 
during the period. By the end of the year,
the memo says, it was trading at around $1.

The SEC investigated whether Bush had benefited from insider 
information when he sold Harken stock before its value plunged, then 
failed to report the transactions.

Though the memo indicates SEC investigators observed a pattern of late 
filings by Bush, the agency said in 1993 it would not bring a case 
against him.

Bush's father was president at the time the SEC memo was drafted in 
1991.

Asked by a reporter Tuesday about the matter, the president said 
curtly: "Everything I do is fully disclosed; it's been fully vetted. 
Any other questions?"

Fleischer said Bush plans next week to deliver a speech before 1,000 
business leaders in New York about corporate responsibility. Democrats 
have seized on the corporate
accounting scandals and suggested that Bush Ц with his strong support 
from the business community, and his own business background Ц is soft 
on corporate wrongdoing. The
address will express the "faith he has in our free-enterprise system," 
Fleischer said. "Our free-enterprise system creates wonderful 
opportunities and wealth for the American
people from all walks of life."

But, Fleischer said: "If there are any bad players in our 
free-enterprise system, they will be held accountable by this 
administration and by the government."


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