That's what they are. Bloody hands, evil hearts.
A small bit of the corruption was described by Joe Conason in 2000 in an article regarding the corruption of the University of Texas board of regents by Gov. G.W. Bush after he appointed cronies to the board and it was privatized to avoid open meetings as required by law.
http://www.utwatch.org/utimco/nativeson.htmlexcerpt:
Until very recently, the citizens of Texas had no way to ascertain precisely where their largest public university's money had been in- vested and with whom. Even though considerably more information about UTIMCO's investments is now available, the identities of its limited partners remain hidden without an exhaustive search of SEC filings-and some- times are impossible to discover even then. Remarkable as this arrangement might seem, it was perfectly lawful according to the Texas attorney general. With most of those transactions and partnerships safely concealed behind thick corporate veils, it was not easy to discover that the regents-and a bit later, the directors of UTIMCO-were funneling millions of dollars from the university endowments to the friends and business associates of Thomas Hicks, and also to major Republican contributors (who were sometimes the same people). But gradually, under pressure from a few newspapers, public-interest organizations, and legislators, a smattering of names and figures were pried out of the UTIMCO files.
The most persistent digging was undertaken by R. 0. Ratcliffe of the Houston Chronicle; the task of forcing open UTIMCO's meetings was shouldered largely by Suzy Woodford, the executive director of Common Cause Texas, and State Representative Sylvester Turner, a Houston Democrat. And from that piecemeal information, a familiar pattern began to emerge.
Under the guidance of Tom Hicks, a growing portion of the university's investment choices had a decidedly Republican tinge. On March 1, 1995, the regents voted to place what would prove to be a comparatively modest $10 million with The Carlyle Group, a Washington-based merchant bank that is chaired by Frank Carlucci, the former secretary of defense in the Reagan Administration. The specific fund was Carlyle Partners 11, described with exquisite delicacy on the firm's Web site as pursuing "an investment strategy focused upon the intersection of government and business." Among Carlyle's partners are numerous former Reagan and Bush administration figures, including Richard Darman, economic adviser to President Bush, and James Baker III, the polished former White House chief of staff, secretary of state, and Bush-Quayle campaign chairman. That a firm run by his father's associates would be awarded an investment contract only weeks after George W. took office was unseemly at best. But the Texas governor had his own long-standing and lucrative ties to Carlyle that dated back almost a decade.
Among his more obscure business activities was a corporate directorship at Caterair, one of the nation's largest airline- catering services, which was acquired by Carlyle in 1989. The next year, a seat on the company's board was arranged for George W. by the former Nixon White House aide and longtime Bush associate Fred Malek, who was then an adviser at Carlyle. Although Bush remained on the catering company's board until 1994, his earnings as a Caterair director are not specified on his personal financial forms filed with the Texas Ethics Commission. These days it is the governor's father who benefits from the Washington investment firm's largesse. Since leaving the White House, George Herbert Walker Bush has been paid by Carlyle for speeches at events sponsored by the merchant bank. His spokesman, Michael Dannenhauer, was uncertain when, exactly, the speechmaking arrangement began. Dannenhauer declined to provide any further details: "We don't talk about his earnings or his investments or anything like that."
Carlyle's spokesman did not return calls seeking information about the firm's relationship with the Bushes. It is known, however, that the ex-president joined up with Baker, Carlucci, and Darman on a more formal basis in early 1998 when he became a "senior adviser" to Carlyle Asia Partners (a fund set up to buy distressed businesses in the Far East). His speaking and consulting fees are reportedly invested with Carlyle, and a source close to the firm says that Bush Senior also has enjoyed a ""carried interest"" in one or more Carlyle partnerships meaning that he was awarded a share of profits without putting up any of his own funds.
Over the past two years he has delivered speeches in Asia, where he remains popular among politicians and government officials and where he was inevitably followed by representatives of Carlyle Asia. This extraordinary circumstance underscores the question of probity that haunts the career of George W. Bush: his political appointee oversaw the awarding of $10 million in public investment funds to a firm that not only had maintained a long-term business relationship with Bush but later employed and compensated Bush’’s father as well. Tom Hicks said that he did not know of the connection between Governor Bush and Carlyle when the March 1995 investment was approved. "I knew Jim Baker was involved with them," he recalled. But, Hicks added, he had informally recommended against investing with Carlyle, although he couldn't remember whether he had voted against the deal. "I had hired two former Carlyle employees and I had insight that there were issues within that organization."
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
