Bush's Brother Neil To Make Millions Off GOP's “No Child Left Behind” Act...
Business Week October 6, 2006 at 09:20 AM
READ MORE: George W. Bush
Across the country, some teachers complain that President George W. Bush's makeover of public education promotes "teaching to the test." The President's younger brother Neil takes a different tack: He's selling to the test. The No Child Left Behind Act compels schools to prove students' mastery of certain facts by means of standardized exams. Pressure to perform has energized the $1.9 billion-a-year instructional software industry.
Now, after five years of development and backing by investors like Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and onetime junk-bond king Michael R. Milken, Neil Bush aims to roll his high-tech teacher's helpers into classrooms nationwide. He calls them "curriculum on wheels," or COWs. The $3,800 purple plug-and-play computer/projectors display lively videos and cartoons: the XYZ Affair of the late 1790s as operetta, the 1828 Tariff of Abominations as horror flick. The device plays songs that are supposed to aid the memorization of the 22 rivers of Texas or other facts that might crop up in state tests of "essential knowledge."
READ WHOLE STORY
This is Jeb's brother Neil Bush. He cost American taxpayers $1 billion after some shady loans he made caused the Silverado Savings and Loan to go under in 1988. Now he's making millions selling software to Florida schools. Now he's divorcing his wife and leaving her broke, after he had several affairs and contracted a venereal disease (scroll down). Coincidentally, Neil was scheduled to have dinner with John Hinckley's brother the day after the Reagan Assassination attempt.
Bush Family Values Photo Album
TRUST OR HUSTLE: The Bush Record
BACKGROUND ON THE S&L BAILOUT. The failure of hundreds of U.S. Savings and Loans during the 1980s, as detailed in such sources as Stephen Pizzo’s Inside Job1 and Pete Brewton’s Untold Story,2 cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $500 billion.3 A U.S. House committee concluded that over three-quarters of all S&L insolvencies appeared to be linked to serious misconduct by senior insiders or outsiders.4 In 1988, the comptroller of the currency found that less than 10 percent of recent bank failures had been caused solely by economic factors.5
One indication of the role of criminal conduct in S&L losses was the workings of just one New York figure, Mario Renda, who worked in conjunction with the Mob, according to a sworn federal deposition.6 Renda brokered as much as $5 billion per year in deposits into 130 S&Ls across the county, all of which failed.7 As Kwitny noted, “many of these deposits were made on the specific condition that the S&Ls would lend money out to borrowers Renda would recommend, who turned out to be local Mafia people or strangers from out-of-state.”8
The Bush family’s dealings illustrate some of the ways this S&L loot was extracted. In some loan transactions, money was simply siphoned out fraudulently to outsiders under lucrative arrangements with bank directors; Neil Bush’s record illustrates these type of transactions. In other instances, as exemplified by Jeb’s S&L dealings, loans were made for speculative investments or ventures without attempts to secure repayment if they were not profitable. Political connections often helped protect S&L misconduct;9 in the Bush’s case, George senior’s record demonstrated laxity toward the perpetrators, several of whom were in his own social circles.
NEIL BUSH. In 1990, federal regulators filed a $200-million lawsuit against Neil Bush and other officers of the Silverado Banking, accusing them of “gross negligence” contributing to its $1 billion collapse.1 “Our conclusion is that Silverado was the victim of sophisticated schemes and abuses by insiders and of gross negligence by its directors and outside professionals,” FDIC Senior Deputy General Counsel Douglas H. Jones said in a statement.2
Bush was reprimanded by the Office of Thrift Supervision for “multiple conflicts of interest” as a paid director of the S&L, including his approval of $132 million in loans from Silverado to two business partners, Bill Walters and Kenneth Good.3 Bush, in turn, had received $550,000 in salaries from a company funded by Walters and Good plus a $100,000 loan from Good that was subsequently forgiven.4 Walters and Good looted an estimated $330 million from Silverado; one Silverado director had shared instructions on how to establish family trusts to protect such secreted funds from repossession by the government.5
A top federal regulator testified to Congress that Washington officials postponed Silverado’s shutdown from October to December 1988, after George Bush’s presidential campaign was successfully culminated.6 The director of the Office of Thrift Supervision asked the Treasury Department to investigate whether political considerations caused the delay, but no such probe was conducted.7 Neil got off paying only $50,000 in a settlement of the $200 million federal suit against him other Silverado directors.8 He didn’t have to worry about his $250,000 legal bill, as Thomas Ashley, a friend of George Bush senior and the head of a banking association that was lobbying the federal government for bank deregulation, formed a legal defense fund to pay the bills.9 >>>cont
READ MORE: George W. Bush
Across the country, some teachers complain that President George W. Bush's makeover of public education promotes "teaching to the test." The President's younger brother Neil takes a different tack: He's selling to the test. The No Child Left Behind Act compels schools to prove students' mastery of certain facts by means of standardized exams. Pressure to perform has energized the $1.9 billion-a-year instructional software industry.
Now, after five years of development and backing by investors like Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and onetime junk-bond king Michael R. Milken, Neil Bush aims to roll his high-tech teacher's helpers into classrooms nationwide. He calls them "curriculum on wheels," or COWs. The $3,800 purple plug-and-play computer/projectors display lively videos and cartoons: the XYZ Affair of the late 1790s as operetta, the 1828 Tariff of Abominations as horror flick. The device plays songs that are supposed to aid the memorization of the 22 rivers of Texas or other facts that might crop up in state tests of "essential knowledge."
READ WHOLE STORY
This is Jeb's brother Neil Bush. He cost American taxpayers $1 billion after some shady loans he made caused the Silverado Savings and Loan to go under in 1988. Now he's making millions selling software to Florida schools. Now he's divorcing his wife and leaving her broke, after he had several affairs and contracted a venereal disease (scroll down). Coincidentally, Neil was scheduled to have dinner with John Hinckley's brother the day after the Reagan Assassination attempt.Bush Family Values Photo Album
TRUST OR HUSTLE: The Bush Record
BACKGROUND ON THE S&L BAILOUT. The failure of hundreds of U.S. Savings and Loans during the 1980s, as detailed in such sources as Stephen Pizzo’s Inside Job1 and Pete Brewton’s Untold Story,2 cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $500 billion.3 A U.S. House committee concluded that over three-quarters of all S&L insolvencies appeared to be linked to serious misconduct by senior insiders or outsiders.4 In 1988, the comptroller of the currency found that less than 10 percent of recent bank failures had been caused solely by economic factors.5
One indication of the role of criminal conduct in S&L losses was the workings of just one New York figure, Mario Renda, who worked in conjunction with the Mob, according to a sworn federal deposition.6 Renda brokered as much as $5 billion per year in deposits into 130 S&Ls across the county, all of which failed.7 As Kwitny noted, “many of these deposits were made on the specific condition that the S&Ls would lend money out to borrowers Renda would recommend, who turned out to be local Mafia people or strangers from out-of-state.”8
The Bush family’s dealings illustrate some of the ways this S&L loot was extracted. In some loan transactions, money was simply siphoned out fraudulently to outsiders under lucrative arrangements with bank directors; Neil Bush’s record illustrates these type of transactions. In other instances, as exemplified by Jeb’s S&L dealings, loans were made for speculative investments or ventures without attempts to secure repayment if they were not profitable. Political connections often helped protect S&L misconduct;9 in the Bush’s case, George senior’s record demonstrated laxity toward the perpetrators, several of whom were in his own social circles.
NEIL BUSH. In 1990, federal regulators filed a $200-million lawsuit against Neil Bush and other officers of the Silverado Banking, accusing them of “gross negligence” contributing to its $1 billion collapse.1 “Our conclusion is that Silverado was the victim of sophisticated schemes and abuses by insiders and of gross negligence by its directors and outside professionals,” FDIC Senior Deputy General Counsel Douglas H. Jones said in a statement.2
Bush was reprimanded by the Office of Thrift Supervision for “multiple conflicts of interest” as a paid director of the S&L, including his approval of $132 million in loans from Silverado to two business partners, Bill Walters and Kenneth Good.3 Bush, in turn, had received $550,000 in salaries from a company funded by Walters and Good plus a $100,000 loan from Good that was subsequently forgiven.4 Walters and Good looted an estimated $330 million from Silverado; one Silverado director had shared instructions on how to establish family trusts to protect such secreted funds from repossession by the government.5
A top federal regulator testified to Congress that Washington officials postponed Silverado’s shutdown from October to December 1988, after George Bush’s presidential campaign was successfully culminated.6 The director of the Office of Thrift Supervision asked the Treasury Department to investigate whether political considerations caused the delay, but no such probe was conducted.7 Neil got off paying only $50,000 in a settlement of the $200 million federal suit against him other Silverado directors.8 He didn’t have to worry about his $250,000 legal bill, as Thomas Ashley, a friend of George Bush senior and the head of a banking association that was lobbying the federal government for bank deregulation, formed a legal defense fund to pay the bills.9 >>>cont
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