1998 St. Pete Times expose' on Bushes. Plus 2007 call from PBP to investigate Jeb and Lehman Bros.

[madfloridian]

It's really scary what is happening in Florida right now with the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Some of the details are finally leaking out, and it is devastating.

Lehman Brothers collapse costs Florida and its citizens $1 billion

A price tag is now emerging for what last year’s collapse of investment giant Lehman Brothers could cost the state of Florida: more than $1 billion. The losses could make Florida and its citizens among the biggest casualties in the biggest bankruptcy ever.

More than $440 million disappeared from the pension fund that pays benefits for some 1 million retirees and public employees.

Counties, cities and school districts face a loss of more than $300 million for roads, sewers and schools.

The losses mean less operating cash for sewers in Port St. Lucie and classrooms in Jefferson County, for example.

The state has $290 million less to pay for everything from hurricane claims to health care, community colleges and care for infants with disabilities.

Here is the 2007 Palm Beach Post call for an investigation into Jeb Bush's involvement in the harm done to the state.

The Florida Politics blog link to the article calling for the investigation.

It is pretty bad stuff.

# Until January 2007, Jeb Bush, as governor, is one of three trustees of the State Board of Administration. The SBA administers $180 billion in Florida assets, including the Local Government Investment Pool.

# In February, out of office, Mr. Bush forms Jeb Bush & Associates.

# In June, the Lehman Brothers investment firm hires Jeb Bush & Associates as consultants.

# In July and August, Lehman Brothers sells the Florida pool $842 million in mortgage-backed debt. At the time, the SBA's executive director is Coleman Stipanovich. Promoted to the job in 2002 by Gov. Bush and the other SBA trustees, Mr. Stipanovich is the brother of Jeb Bush's former campaign manager.

# In November 2007, local governments and school districts that kept their short-term cash in the supposedly low-risk investment pool find out that the investments sold by Lehman Brothers and other brokerages have gone bad and rush to withdraw $12 billion, nearly half the pool's assets.

# In December 2007, after the state temporarily freezes accounts to stop the run on the state pool, Mr. Stipanovich resigns.

# In December 2007, after the Lehman Brothers link to Florida is reported, the former governor sends an "emphatic" denial of wrongdoing to The St. Petersburg Times. A Lehman Brothers spokeswoman insists that "there's no link between Bush and Lehman's sale of debt to Florida."

The year Jeb Bush was elected governor things changed in this state. There was a powerful expose' that year in the St. Pete Times of the Bush family and how they got the money to run. I love the title.

Make the Money and Run

Everyone needs to read all of this article even if you read it back then in 1998. Jeb got elected in spite of it because he was coated in Teflon and nothing stuck. Absolutely nothing.

The 45-year-old Republican nominee for governor has hawked luxury condos in South Florida, sold industrial sites for IBM, made bank loans in Venezuela and marketed giant water pumps in Nigeria. He has even tried to sell imported shoes to Wal-Mart.

His corporate ties are a web of more than two dozen companies, including obscure, privately held ventures called Uno, Uno Dos and Oriental Trading, and bigger public companies such as SunTrust, Anchor Glass, Ideon and American Heritage Life Insurance. Bush's network is far-reaching and lucrative. The 27-year-old who arrived in Miami in 1980 so broke that he used his American Express card to pay his MasterCard bill is now worth $2.4-million.

The son of former President George Bush has followed the family's patrician play book: Hurry up and get rich, then go into public service.

It's hard to pick and choose what to clip and post, the whole article is enlightening.

Still, his earliest jobs came from friends of the family. After earning his degree in Latin American studies at the University of Texas, Jeb Bush was hired in 1974 by Texas Commerce Bank. The Houston institution was founded by the family of James A. Baker III, a pal of George Bush who would later run his presidential campaign and serve as U.S. treasury secretary and then secretary of state.

In 1977, Texas Commerce sent 24-year-old Bush to open a branch in oil-rich Venezuela. When the bank's top executives visited, they brought along bank director Lady Bird Johnson who arranged a visit with Venezuela's president.

I hear that AG Bill McCollum is not eager to investigate Jeb Bush. They share the right wing ideology, so it is not surprising that Bill would leave it alone.

The full impact on our state is just coming out. Lots of nervous people.

Just think. Jeb was supposed to be the president, not George.

[NYC_SKP]

1. Ahhhhhh. Interesting.

Worthy of further study, no?

[madfloridian]

2. It will probably never happen.

And there is so much that needs that investigating.

[imdjh]

3. The Miami Herald ran stories about Jeb's criminal connections- and he won anyway.

So I don't have a lot of faith in much happening now.

That whole family is rotten to the core- and they will get away with it. That's why I can't get excited about torture charges. It simply will not happen.

[dotymed]

24. WE HAVE TO

get the money out of politics. i am sooo tired of being
manipulated by thE wealthy/elite "ruling class.
All they do is screw us to make more money. PUBLIC FINANCING.

[leveymg]

27. This is Silverado S&L all over again. Brother Neil didn't go to jail, so we got this.

Jonathan should have gone to jail for Riggs. George Sr. got away with BCCI.

Nobody could've seen it coming.

The whole stinking family are pirates. They'll be back, if we don't do something.

[Mika]

4. Just like the Jeb picked state fund managers were buying Enron when it was crashing.

Republican criminals.

[Sherman A1]

5. Thanks for posting

I will read it all a bit later.... time for work now.

[Hannah Bell]

6. k/r

[glowing]

7. Why do you think Christ is leaving. There's only so many holes in the damn

he can plug, before the whole thing breaks. He's been doing his best to cover for that ass..

[madfloridian]

9. He's getting out while he can.

:hi:

[glowing]

26. man.. glad you didn't get me on the spelling.. I made him Christ not Crist. LOL.

He's just scared someone will out him from the BFEE Klan before he gets out of the state. For the life of me, I don't understand why he doesn't switch sides... If he cast off the looney toons, he might actually win.. but as a Puke, no way I'll vote for him.

[seafan]

8. There are so many places to start when examining Jeb Bush's deceit.

Jeb Inc.

[madfloridian]

10. And a good place to start is your great journal.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/seafan

Great Florida stuff there.

[seafan]

15. Thanks, mad. Glad to see you exposing these criminals as well.

Keep it up.


This latest hat trick by the Republican legislature, Senate Bill 360, and now blessed by Crist, to ease regulations on developers who are salivating over what's left of Florida's uninhabited areas is the last f-ing straw.

Old Charlie needs his corporate benefactors' money right now, so he can run for Senate. I was willing to give him the benefit of many a doubt, against my better judgment, but this is absolutely brazen opportunism by this shallow excuse for a governor in a state that is still reeling from the gang rape by Jeb Bush & Co.


Florida and her people deserve infinitely better than the wreckage from these greedy cretins.




Tribune file photo (2007)
Critics say that Senate Bill 360 would force taxpayers to shoulder the bill for roads to accommodate sprawling development.

[bluesmail]

11. If you control the financial system

you control the economy.

[Captain Hilts]

12. Bill McCollum is AG now?!?!?! The same guy so obsessed with Bubba's blow job

he got voted out?

[madfloridian]

13. He's also running for governor.

He is the choice of the religious right.

[madfloridian]

14. 2002 St. Pete Times: Jeb and the water pump company fiasco

U.S. fraud suit targets ex-partner of Jeb Bush

"Gov. Jeb Bush's former business partner in a venture to sell water pumps abroad defrauded the U.S. government of more than $74-million, federal authorities contend in a lawsuit.

The Justice Department alleges that MWI Corp. of Deerfield Beach, a water pump company whose equipment Bush marketed to foreign countries, fraudulently helped Nigeria obtain U.S. taxpayer-backed loans during his father's administration.

Much of the loan money went for secret payoffs to Nigerian officials and equipment that was vastly overpriced and unneeded, the lawsuit says.

The company denies the allegations, many of which surfaced four years ago when a former MWI employee sued the company.

Bush, campaigning for governor at the time, shrugged off questions about the deal as little more than complaints from a disgruntled former staffer.

Now the Justice Department is making many of the same charges."

Never heard anymore about this being pursued. Teflon, I say.

[Dappleganger]

16. I dare that fucker to run for president in 2012.

Expose that family for what they truly are as well as the mess they left FL in today.

[madfloridian]

17. He probably will run in 2012.

He has an inflated sense of his importance and competence.

[Gabi Hayes]

18. we all know there's brazilllions of articles on the family that preys together:

Jeb: Liaison to Anti-Castro Right

George Herbert Walker Bush's second eldest son, John Ellis or Jeb, was also linked to clandestine schemes in support of the Contras. Soon after congressional prohibition in late 1984, Jeb helped put a right-wing Guatemalan politician, Dr. Mario Castejon, in touch with Oliver North. Jeb acted as the Reagan administration's unofficial link with the Contras and Nicaraguan exiles in Miami.

Jeb was contacted in February 1985 by a friend of Castejon, who gave him a letter from Castejon to be passed on to then Vice President Bush. In his letter Castejon, a pediatrician and later an unsuccessful National Conservative Party presidential candidate, requested a meeting with George Bush to discuss a proposed medical aid project for the Contras. Jeb forwarded the letter to his father. In a March 3, 1985, letter, Vice President Bush expressed interest in Castejon's proposal to create an international medical brigade.

"I might suggest, if you are willing, that you consider meeting with Lt. Colonel Oliver North of the President's National Security Council Staff at a time that would be convenient for you," Bush wrote. "My staff has been in contact with Lt. Col. North concerning your projects and I know that he would be most happy to see you. You may feel free to make arrangements to see Lt. Colonel North, if you wish, by corresponding directly with him at the White House or by contacting Philip Hughes of my staff."

Castejon later met with North in the White House, where he also saw President Ronald Reagan. When Castejon returned to Washington for a second visit, he was introduced to members of North's secret Contra support network, including retired Maj. Gen. John Sing- laub and Contra leader Adolfo Calero. Castejon also met with a group of doctors working with Rob Owen, North's liaison with the Contras.

http://www.williambowles.info/bush/preys.htm

[annm4peace]

19. wow. Thought Cheney and Bush Co were after CA

wow.. it is FL that is also being Fleeced by Jeb Bush.

Two economys destroyed.

[bertman]

20. Great stuff, Madflo. Recommend.

But let's not forget that other Bush bro who's making his fortune the honest way--working for a living. Marvin, the security bidness magnate, who is a principal in the company that handled security for the World Trade Center complex.

Sheesh, if you made this shit up people would think you were crazy or paranoid.

[sce56]

21. No news here just the same old Bushit that has eaten away at the country like a cancer

And the M$M has as usual ignored the real news here giving the BFEE a pass!

[UTUSN]

22. The B.F.E.E. owe the country CHINGOS!1 n/t

[dmr]

23. This sounds fishy

How many things do we get to keep if there's a default?

From the "make the money & run" link:

In 1984, Codina and Bush bought 1390 Brickell, a Miami office building. A third partner defaulted and a savings and loan that held the note went belly up. S&L regulators eventually said Codina and Bush could keep the building.

They sold it in 1991 for $8-million. Bush characterizes the selling price as enough to cover their costs and legal fees.

Even though the building was a headache, the tax write-off eased the pain. In 1985, 1987 and 1988, Bush reported no income for federal income tax purposes because of large losses taken on real estate and other business investments.

[NBachers]

25. "No Income" for him and "No Income" for me are two different things.