-Caveat Lector-
>From http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19419-2002Jul3.html
}}}>Begin
washingtonpost.com
Bush Corporate Record Examined
By Scott Lindlaw
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, July 3, 2002; 12:36 PM
WASHINGTON �� 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 � 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 � with his strong support
from the business community, and his own business background � 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."
� 2002 The Associated Press
End<{{{
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