Bush, Neil

<a href="http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/will-mob-connected-hustler-be-first-person-spill-beans-trump">http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/will-mob-connected-hustler-be-first-person-spill-beans-trump</a>Is a former mob-connected hustler—a real estate developer who in 2010 worked on the same floor as Donald Trump as his “senior advisor”—threatening to spill some beans that could harm the president’s reputation?Sure looks that way, based on an intriguing <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/publicity-over-dispute-by-former-trump-partners-could-tarnish-president-one-warns-1492680604" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration-line: none;">Wall Street Journalstory</a> that exposed aspects of a bitter feud between two of Trump’s former key business associates. The newspaper revealed that Russia-born Felix Sater, a twice-convicted one-time Mafia associate, is demanding hush money from a former boss, Kazakhstan-born Tevfik Arif, whose Bayrock Group worked in a close partnership for nearly a decade with the Trump Organization.Sater warned Arif in writing that news headlines will read, “The Kazakh Gangster and President Trump,” unless Arif forks over $3.5 million to reimburse Sater for legal expenses he claims he’s owed, the Journal reported. Specifically, Sater is threatening to reveal negative information about Arif’s “past relationship with President Trump and the Republic of Kazakhstan,” as well as Arif’s alleged connections to “organized crime figures and his business activities in Kazakhstan,” which involve “dealings in the post-Soviet metals industry there.”Spokespeople for Bayrock and Arif have called the allegations “unsubstantiated falsehoods.” The general counsel of Trump Organization didn’t respond to calls and emails.Sater, however, may not even need the dough. I’ve discovered that he and a former Trump Organization colleague, Daniel Ridloff, received roughly $20 million, in the settlement of a case that is linked to an alleged multi-billion-dollar global money laundering scheme originating in Kazakhstan and stretching to Russia and the U.S.Both men were accused in a 2013 complaint filed by a Swiss financier of absconding with nearly $43 million from the sale of an Ohio shopping mall (Tri-County Mall near Cincinnati) to American Pacific International Capital (APIC), which is company is based in San Francisco. One of the directors is businessman Neil Bush, the son of former President George H.W. Bush and brother of former President George W. Bush.In the shopping center complaint, the financier included <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/17/nyregion/17trump.html" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration-line: none;">an exhibit</a>, a 2007 New York Times article that revealed numerous details about Sater’s criminal past. The article said Sater had pled guilty and become a cooperating federal witness. Sater’s cooperation agreement was unsealed by a federal judge in 2013, but many other documents in related cases are under court seal.Five days after the Tri-County Mall complaint was filed, the case was settled.Neither Sater or Ridloff, whose <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-ridloff-33182b40/" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration-line: none;">LinkedIn bio</a> says he worked in “Acquisitions & Finance” in 2010 for the Trump Organization, will comment about the subject. In his own <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/felix-s-153455" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration-line: none;">LinkedIn bio</a>, Sater describes himself as a former “Senior Advisor to Board of Directors” of one of Neil Bush’s oil companies (TxOil) that once drilled in Turkmenistan, an oil-rich part of the former Soviet Union.Bush tells me he’s never heard of Sater. Bush also says that the mall was purchased for $43 million by APIC at a public auction, and then transferred to a Singapore publicly held real estate company he chairs called SingHaiyi Group. “I helped the group [SingHaiyi] find the property through a friend,” Neil Bush says. When told about the subsequent litigation against Sater and Ridloff, Bush says: “I don’t remember anything like that. We bought it at a sheriff’s auction. If the funds filtered through some undesignated [entity] or intermediary, I’m unaware of that.”A second lawsuit filed in U.S. Federal Court (Southern District of New York) may shed additional light on Sater and Ridloff’s Kazakhstan-related business activity. In this case, the BTA Bank (once one of Kazakhstan’s largest banks) and the government of Almaty (the country’s largest city) are accusing three Kazakh men—a former Almaty mayor, his son and a former chairman of BTA Bank—of absconding with billions of dollars and laundering the money.The defendants, Viktor and Ilyas Khrapunov, and Mukhtar Ablyazov, respectively, deny the allegations and claim the charges are politically motivated.That’s not the view of Matthew L. Schwartz, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice at the prestigious law firm of Boies Schiller Flexner, who represents the city of Almaty and the bank. “The international financial fraud perpetrated by Ablyazov, Viktor and Ilyas Khrapunov, and their associates is as large and far-flung as they come,” Schwartz says. “It involves billions of dollars and has touched at least two dozen different countries—from Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine to the United States, England, and France—and just about everyplace else.”=1 mil from rev  moon for ed co

Neil Mallon Bush, born January 22, 1955, is a brother to President <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/George_Walker_Bush" title="George Walker Bush">George Walker Bush</a> and former Florida Governor <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Jeb_Bush" title="Jeb Bush">Jeb Bush</a> and the son of former President <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/George_Herbert_Walker_Bush" title="George Herbert Walker Bush">George Herbert Walker Bush</a> and <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Barbara_Bush" title="Barbara Bush">Barbara Bush</a>.

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<h2>Contents</h2>

[<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Neil_Mallon_Bush#" class="internal" id="togglelink">hide</a>] </div>

<ul>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Neil_Mallon_Bush#Mallon">1 Mallon</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Neil_Mallon_Bush#Profiles">2 Profiles</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Neil_Mallon_Bush#Related_SourceWatch_Resources">3 Related SourceWatch Resources</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Neil_Mallon_Bush#External_links">4 External links</a></li>

</ul>

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<h2>Mallon</h2>

It is noted by several sources that the "Mallon" name derives from Neil Mallon, a one-time president of <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Dresser_Industries&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Dresser Industries (page does not exist)">Dresser Industries</a> (acquired by <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Halliburton" title="Halliburton" class="mw-redirect">Halliburton</a> in 1998/<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://getdonkey.com/archives/000291.php">merger engineered by</a> <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Dick_Cheney" title="Dick Cheney">Dick Cheney</a>) with strong connections to the Bush patriarchy.

<ul>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/DD/dod4.html">"The Handbook of Texas" Online: Dresser Industries</a>: "By 1927 the company's annual sales had reached $3.7 million, and some 400 workers were required to keep up with the demand. Dresser's descendants, who had been operating the company since the founder's death, decided to sell it, and in 1928 the Wall Street investment-banking firm of <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=W.A.Harriman_and_Company,_Incorporated&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="W. A. Harriman and Company, Incorporated (page does not exist)">W. A. Harriman and Company, Incorporated</a>, converted the firm into a public company by issuing 300,000 shares of stock. H. Neil Mallon was selected as president and chief executive officer; he held that position until his retirement in 1962."</li>

</ul>

<ul>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.mlrmag.com/pubaddnl/Girlonthestreet/01e.htm">The Sins of the Father</a>: "...Yuppie elite groups operating out of Yale, produce many familiar names, like Prescott Bush, grandfather of George Dubbya. ... Prescott convinced his partners at the banking house of <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Brown_Brothers_Harriman" title="Brown Brothers Harriman" class="mw-redirect">Brown Brothers Harriman</a>--among them Averell Harriman, a fellow <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Skull_and_Bones" title="Skull and Bones">Skull and Bones</a> member-- to wave the firm's nepotism rule so George could work there. Uncle George Herbert Walker, Jr. offered him a job at G.H. Walker and Co., the private Wall Street banking firm founded by his father, Bush's maternal grandfather. ... Instead of taking those two prospects, George opted for a third family tie. He met with Henry Neil Mallon, the president of Dresser Industries. Mallon offered George his first job at Dresser subsidiary International Derrick and Equipment Company (Ideco), in Odessa, Texas. Brown Brothers Harriman had underwritten Dresser's transition from a private company to a publicly traded one. Years later, George named a son after Mallon.... "</li>

</ul>

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<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.dallasworld.org/archives/media/11142002.htm">14 November 2002, Dallas News</a>: "Former President George Bush will receive the prestigious H. Neil Mallon Award on Friday from the World Affairs Council of Greater Dallas. He'll be introduced by Dallas political legend Robert Strauss at the council's annual award dinner. ... The late Mr. Mallon, former chairman and chief executive of Dresser Industries, was a Yale University classmate of Mr. Bush's father, Prescott Bush. ... Mr. Mallon founded the Dallas Council on World Affairs, which was recently renamed the World Affairs Council. He also brought George Bush to Texas to work for Dresser and later helped him start his oil business in the Midland area."</li>

</ul>

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<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://getdonkey.com/archives/000291.php">30 June 2002</a>: "In merging with Dresser, Cheney picked a firm with long ties to the Bush family. Prescott Bush, the father of the former President Bush, was the banking representative who helped finance the deal that established Dresser and served on the company's board. The former president wrote in his autobiography that Neil Mallon, the former president of Dresser Industries, was a mentor second only to my father. ... It was Mallon who helped former President Bush get into the oil business, and Bush worked for Dresser for 21/2 years. The brother of the current President Bush, Neil, is named after Mallon."</li>

</ul>

<h2>Profiles</h2>

According to information gathered by ABCNews in 2000, Neil Bush is a "Houston businessman [who] worked on [his brother George?s] failed 1978 congressional campaign and helped out with each of his father?s campaigns. Currently director of <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Interlink&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Interlink (page does not exist)">Interlink</a>, an international consultancy based in Houston ? in his father?s offices. Noted most for his involvement as director of the failed <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Silverado_Savings_and_Loan&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Silverado Savings and Loan (page does not exist)">Silverado Savings and Loan</a>, which cost the federal government $1 billion to clean-up during the S&L crisis. Regulators never pressed charges, but he paid $50,000 to settle a lawsuit lodged by the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Federal_Deposit_Insurance_Corporation" title="Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation">Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation</a>. Married to <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Sharon_Smith&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Sharon Smith (page does not exist)">Sharon Smith</a>, who he met while campaigning for his father in New Hampshire. They have two children, Lauren and Pierce. Education: St. Alban?s preperatory; Tulane University BA International Relations; MA Business."<a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/DailyNews/GOPCVN_bushdynasty.html">[1]</a>

...

"According to legal documents disclosed on Tuesday, Sharon Bush's lawyers questioned Neil Bush closely about the deals, especially a contract with <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Grace_Semiconductor_Manufacturing_Corp.&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (page does not exist)">Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp.</a>, a firm backed by <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Jiang_Mianheng&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Jiang Mianheng (page does not exist)">Jiang Mianheng</a>, the son of former Chinese President <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Jiang_Zemin&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Jiang Zemin (page does not exist)">Jiang Zemin</a>, that would pay him $2 million in stock over five years." -- see online <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.thememoryhole.org/pol/neil-bush-contract.htm">copy of contract</a> at the Memory Hole.

"Bush said he was co-chairman of <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Crest_Investment_Corporation" title="Crest Investment Corporation">Crest Investment Corporation</a>, but worked only an average of three to four hours a week. For that, he received $15,000 every three months."

<h2>Related SourceWatch Resources</h2>

<ul>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Bush_League" title="Bush League">Bush League</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Marvin_Bush" title="Marvin Bush">Marvin Bush</a> (brother)</li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Dorothy_Bush_Koch" title="Dorothy Bush Koch">Dorothy Bush Koch</a> (sister)</li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Prescott_Sheldon_Bush" title="Prescott Sheldon Bush">Prescott Sheldon Bush</a> (grandfather)</li>

</ul>

<h2>External links</h2>

<ul>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.hereinreality.com/hinckley.html">"Bush Son Had Dinner Plans With Hinckley Brother Before Shooting,"</a> Associated Press, March 31, 1981: "The (Houston Post) said in a copyright story, Scott Hinckley, brother of <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=John_W.Hinckley,Jr.&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="John W. Hinckley, Jr. (page does not exist)">John W. Hinckley, Jr.</a>, who allegedly shot [Ronald] <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Ronald_Reagan" title="Ronald Reagan">Reagan</a>, was to have dined tonight in Denver at the home of Neil Bush, one of the vice president's sons." This would have been the night after the assassination attempt on President Reagan.</li>

<li>Rick Casey, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2241139">Sex, lies and computer chips</a>, Houston Chronicle, November 21, 2003.</li>

<li>Harvey Rice, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2241393">Neil Bush provides sample for paternity case</a>, Houston Chronicle, November 22, 2003.</li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1504&ncid=1504&e=14&u=/afp/20031127/ts_afp/us_bush_china_031127073757">Bush's brother has 400,000-dollar contract with Chinese firm</a>, AFP, November 27, 2003: "'There's certainly the appearance of influence being sought,' the paper quotes Charles McMillion, a Washington business consultant who advised a congressional commission on US-China policy as saying. 'If nothing else, it doesn't look good.'"</li>

<li>Stephen Fidler and Thomas Catán, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1069493552660">Consultant on Iraq contracts employed president's brother</a>, FT.com, November 27, 2003: "Neil Bush ... has had a $60,000-a-year employment contract with a top adviser to a Washington-based consulting firm set up this year to help companies secure contracts in Iraq."</li>

<li>Alec Russell, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/11/27/wneil27.xml">Bush brother tells of sex adventures and tangled deals</a>, Telegraph/UK, November 27, 2003.</li>

<li>Bruce Einhorn, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/dec2003/tc2003128_9007_tc058.htm">Neil Bush: No Saving Grace. Aspiring chip tycoon Winston Wong figured hiring the President's brother would be a big plus. He's finding it's not that easy</a>, Business Week, December 8, 2003.</li>

<li>Ron Nissimov, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/2292184">HISD wary in deal with Bush brother</a>, Houston Chronicle, November 14, 2003.</li>

<li>Cynthia Leonor Garza, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3742329.html">"Former first lady's donation aids son. Katrina funds earmarked to pay for Neil Bush's software program,"</a> Houston Chronicle, March 24, 2006.</li>

<li>David Rossie, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0402-21.htm">"Mother Bush Takes Care of her Brood,"</a> Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin (New York) (Common Dreams), April 2, 2006.</li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_42/b4005059.htm">"No Bush Left Behind. The President's brother Neil is making hay from school reform,"</a> BusinessWeek Online, October 16, 2006 (issue); <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100706F.shtml">truthout</a>, October 7, 2006.</li>

<li>Bill Berkowitz, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.mediatransparency.com/story.php?storyID=157">Neil Bush's family values</a>", Media Transparency, October 30, 2006.</li>

<li>Siraj Wahab, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=92840&d=27&m=2&y=2007&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Kingdom">"JEF Diary: American President’s Brother Building Bridges With Saudis,"</a> Arab News, February 27, 2007.</li>

<li>Bill Berkowitz, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.mediatransparency.com/story.php?storyID=182">Neil Bush of Saudi Arabia: During recent visit, President’s brother describes the country as a 'kind of tribal democracy'</a>", Media Transparency, March 11, 2007.</li>

</ul>

</div>

<div id="mw-normal-catlinks" class="mw-normal-catlinks"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Special:Categories" title="Special:Categories">Category</a>:

<ul>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:George_W._Bush" title="Category:George W. Bush">George W. Bush</a></li>

</ul>

</div>

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Neil_Mallon_Bush

===

As the global economy has tanked in recent years, international companies have sought every advantage they can muster in seeking to score business deals abroad. One tactic, especially favored by big energy firms, is to retain the services of a middleman or “fixer.” These obscure but vital players use clout, brains and wiles to broker deals between industry and third-world leaders, and to generally grease the gears of the global oil and gas trade.

Which on the surface makes it hard to understand why U.S. and foreign firms continue to seek the services of Neil Bush. The son of one president and brother of another, Neil’s political clout has declined since Barack Obama replaced George W. Bush in 2009, and neither brains nor wiles is Neil’s strong suit. Two decades ago, the Washington Post observed that his business ventures had “a history of crashing and burning in spectacular fashion,” and time, alas, seems not to have improved his record.

Neil claims to have 30 years in the <a href="http://txoilltd.com/AboutTXOil/OfficersDirectors/NeilBush.aspx">energy industry</a>, though at least 10 people from the Texas oil patch I spoke with said they had never heard of him playing any notable role in the energy business. Of the former first sibling, one international oil executive and consultant said, “I can’t imagine anything he could bring to the table.”

Yet Bush, who declined comment for this story, seems to have no trouble staying busy and prosperous. Chinese firms hire him to try to open doors in Africa, and U.S. companies retain him to do the same in Central Asia. Neil is also the founder and CEO of a number of small energy companies — it’s not clear exactly what they do or if he has financial backers — and lives a life of ease and comfort in Houston, where he resides with his second wife in a luxury condo and regularly graces the social pages.

He travels far in search of deals. As the chairman of Houston-based <a href="http://txoilltd.com/">TX Oil</a>, Neil met with Turkmenistan’s crackpot Stalinist dictator, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, in an effort to gain offshore oil concessions in the Caspian Sea. The tightly controlled state media claimed that he <a href="http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/news/articles/eav022610b.shtml">brought a letter from former President George H.W. Bush</a> wishing “sound health and successes” to Berdymukhammedov, and thanking him for inviting Neil “to your beautiful country and for receiving him personally despite your heavy work load.”

In November 2010, Neil returned to the country for the Turkmenistan International Oil and Gas Conference, and TX Oil hosted the event’s closing cocktail party. “The oil business is in the Bush family bloodline,” he declared, according to an account in an energy industry publication, Nefte Compass.

TX Oil is still <a href="http://www.eurasianet.org/node/61765">reportedly</a> in the running for Turkmen concessions, alongside brand name competitors like Chevron and ConocoPhillips. Not everyone seems happy about Bush’s potential involvement. “It is the eastern tradition to receive all guests with open arms,” said a <a href="http://www.newscentralasia.net/moreNews.php?nID=577">story</a> in News Central Asia. “However, as independent observers we would recommend that the government of Turkmenistan should consider carefully before committing to any proposals brought by Neil Bush. For one thing, [his company] is a virtually unknown entity … On top of that, he has a history of questionable business practices.”

Indeed, he does. Neil first distinguished himself when the Silverado Savings and Loan of Denver went belly up in 1988 at a time when his father was finishing a second term as Ronald Reagan’s vice president. While serving on the S & L’s board of directors, Neil voted to approve $100 million in loans to two of his business partners — he somehow neglected to mention the relationships to fellow board members — who both subsequently went bankrupt. This adventure in socialized capitalism cost U.S. taxpayers $1.3 billion.

One of the loan recipients was JNB International, an energy exploration company Neil founded with $100 out of his own pocket, and somewhat larger sums from two Denver real estate moguls. “Tell him Neil Bush called,” he reportedly told a secretary when leaving a message for a Denver oilman during this period. “You know, the vice president’s son.”

The family safety net spared Neil from the full consequences of his misdeeds. In regard to Silverado, federal investigators found “breaches of his fiduciary duties involving multiple conflicts of interest.” The younger Bush was banned from banking and ordered to pay a $50,000 fine at a civil trial, but a Republican fundraiser held on his behalf helped ease the sting of settling that debt.

Neil went on to found a gas-exploration company called <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2004/04/sharon_bush200404?printable=true#ixzz1U07Fgq2L">Apex Energy</a> with $2.3 million from Bush-family friend Louis Marx Jr. Neil, who put up $3,000 of his money, received $300,000 in salary over the next two years, at which point Apex went broke. Little gas was ever found.

Next up came a brief stint at TransMedia Communications, owned by a cable TV baron who had raised more than $300,000 for George H.W. Bush. Neil’s annual pay was $60,000 and his job description was daunting: “learn the business.” In 1993, two years after the conclusion of the first Gulf War, the emir of Kuwait flew Bush Sr. over on his private plane for a ceremony honoring him for leading the coalition that evicted Saddam Hussein. Neil and former Secretary of State James Baker traveled along to try to arrange a power plant deal for Enron, which never happened.

The post-Silverado years proved dark for Neil, so it was fortunate that another family friend, Jamal Daniel, stepped in to help out. A Syrian-American fixer with substantial interests in the international energy business and beyond, Daniel <a href="http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=9433">has close ties</a> to the ruling families in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.

Daniel, who lives in Houston, was a major donor to the presidential campaigns of both Bush Sr. and Bush Jr., and to the latter’s 1994 Texas gubernatorial campaign. In 2003, after the invasion of Iraq, he and other Bush administration ALLBAUGH  cronies set up <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=New_Bridge_Strategies">New Bridge Strategies LLC</a> to advise companies seeking business in post-Saddam Iraq. The consulting firm didn’t work out so well — probably because few businesses cared to invest in war-torn Iraq — though the Paris-based newsletter Intelligence Online reported in June that Daniel had invested in an oil deal in Iraqi Kurdistan, so the invasion wasn’t a total loss for him. (There is no indication that Neil had any role in the investment.)

Daniel treats Neil like next of kin. Over the years, he has paid for Neil’s family to take a trip to Disneyland Paris and bought Neil and his wife, Sharon, <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2004/04/sharon_bush200404?printable=true#ixzz1U07Fgq2L">a $380,000 cottage in Maine</a>. Neil also married his second wife, Maria, at Daniel’s Houston mansion.

In return, Neil has occasionally exerted himself. Back in the late-1990s, Daniel made Neil co-chairman of Crest Investment Corporation and paid him $60,000 annually for a few hours of work per week. Separately, Daniel and other Bush Family Friends financially backed Neil’s education company, Ignite! Much of the firm’s business was obtained through sole-source contracts from school districts in Texas. In 2006, his mother <a href="http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/3742329.html">donated an undisclosed amount of money</a> to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund with specific instructions that it be earmarked to buy Ignite! products for local schools that took in hurricane evacuees.

Yet for all the handouts from the Bush family network, Neil’s ventures still failed to generate much profit....

Neil has received relatively little press attention since his divorce, though he has been living well. In February 2005, Mexican magnate Jaime Camil hosted a 50th birthday party for Neil at his estate in Acapulco. The <a href="http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/features/3034118.html">Houston Chronicle reported</a> that two dozen Houstonians flew down for the festivities. “Saturday night, the host-with-the-most pulled out the stops at his expansive villa,” wrote the newspaper’s society columnist. “A lavish fireworks display topped off a night that included a 16-piece mariachi band, dancers from Mexico City’s Ballet Folklorico and gourmet fare.”

The truth is, failure has been very good to Neil. He currently resides in a <a href="http://houston.blockshopper.com/property/0670730000004/4_sw_oak">$1.6 million, six-bedroom, five-bathroom condominium</a> located near Houston’s upscale West Oaks Mall. He has in recent years set up at least 10 firms in Houston and Austin, according to incorporation records filed with the Texas secretary of state’s office. His companies have generic names like GCC Source Point, Global XS2, BTZ Holdings and ATX Oil, and it’s hard to find out much about them since they are registered as limited liability companies (and hence little public disclosure is required), mostly don’t have websites and almost never turn up in news accounts. If he has consummated any deals through these firms, they were probably not big.

One of Neil’s firms is registered at an address that doesn’t exist and several are registered at his condo, including a firm called Nexus Energy, which actually operates from (or at least has an office at) an oil firm headed by his current wife’s ex-husband, Robert Andrews. Neil established Nexus in late 2008 “to pursue business opportunities both overseas and in the United States,” according to a corporate profile it has distributed. “[Neil has] cultivated many relationships among private business people and large energy related enterprises in Asia and the Middle East. Nexus seeks to leverage these relationships to act on behalf of a client or partner company.” In November 2009, Neil represented Nexus at an energy conference in New Orleans, at which Karl Rove tagged along.

Firms from China regularly retain Neil, which isn’t surprising given the deep ties his family has there. Bush Sr. was appointed as U.S. liaison in Beijing under President Gerald Ford, and during his presidency sought greatly expanded trade with Beijing while downplaying human rights concerns. George W. Bush also forged a close relationship with China, and Neil’s deceased uncle, Prescott Bush Jr., was a close friend of former premier Jiang Zemin and did a good deal of business there.

In March of this year, Bush Sr., wife Barbara and Neil had dinner at the residence of the Chinese consul general in Houston. The Chinese government expressed hope in a written statement that the Bushes would “continue playing an important role in making contributions to … the friendship between the two peoples.” For their part the Bush family said the visit felt “like home,” and expressed special pleasure at being served “their favorite Beijing Roasted Duck.” The consul general and the Bushes also “exchanged views on China-U.S. relations … and other issues of their common interest.”

These sorts of ties have surely contributed to Neil’s list of Chinese clients, mainly companies seeking natural resource deals in Africa, including Shougang Holdings, a state-owned steel giant. In 2009, Neil led a delegation of the company’s officials to Liberia, where Shougang was seeking an iron ore mining concession. The Neil connection didn’t help: An Israeli firm ultimately won out.

The same year Neil traveled to Ghana with executives from oil giant Sinopec, the world’s seventh largest firm and a major competitor of U.S. companies. Neil managed to get meetings with top local political leaders. A source familiar with Bush’s efforts said that he opened doors in Ghana with the help of his friend Chris Wilmot, a businessman originally from Ghana who now lives in Houston. “Chris has the ties in Ghana that go all the way to the top,” this person told me. “Neil was riding on his coattails over there.” To no avail. Neil’s clients didn’t get the deal they were angling for.

On a weekday morning, I stopped by TX Oil’s headquarters in a bland office building on Westheimer Road in Houston. New Age music played from a Bose system in the reception area, which was decorated with a cowboy painting, an aquarium and a leather sofa. The office wasn’t bristling with activity, and the secretary told me no one would be available to talk to me about TX Oil.

“Is there a brochure or any information you can give me?” I asked.

“Not yet,” she replied with a cool smile.

Why do companies keep hiring Neil? It can’t be for his business acumen. More likely, his employers write checks out of friendship, loyalty and interest in currying favor with his family’s business and political network. In a reflection of the declining value of the Bush family name in the age of Obama, Neil does not seem to command the fees he once did.

In 2002, he received payments of $2 million in stock and $10,000 per board meeting <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_50/b3862062.htm">from Grace Semiconductor</a> — a firm backed by the son of Jiang Zemin — even though he knew nothing at all about semiconductors. Last December he was named a director of <a href="http://www.ctrg.com.hk/en_US/home.htm">China Timber Resources Group</a>, which has forest resources in Guyana and China. Neil’s director’s fee is a mere $1,200 a month, which the company said “was determined with reference to his experience, scope of work, level of involvement, seniority as well as the prevailing market conditions.” Ouch.

It’s getting tougher to be a fixer who can’t fix much.

Ken Silverstein is an Open Society Institute fellow and contributing editor to Harper’s magazine.  <a href="http://www.salon.com/2011/08/28/neil_bush_3/">http://www.salon.com/2011/08/28/neil_bush_3/</a>

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Bush, Neil

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