Bush Violated Security Laws
Four Times, SEC Report Says

Washington, Oct. 4) George W. Bush violated federal securities laws at least four times when he was a director of a Texas oil firm in the late 1980s and early 1990s, according to an internal government report.

The document was prepared by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1991 during its well-publicized investigation into whether Bush had benefited from insider information when he sold Harken Energy Corp. stock before its value plummeted, and then failed to promptly report the transaction to the SEC in violation of federal law. Bush’s stake in Harken helped make him a multimillionaire.

The internal SEC memorandum, prepared by the commission’s enforcement division and obtained by The Public i from sources, discloses what was previously not known--that Bush also had been tardy in reporting three other transactions involving stock in Harken, on whose board he sat as director.

(This report was prepared in collaboration with Talk magazine, whose article, "George W. Bush . . . And the Horse He Rode In On," appears in the magazine's November issue.)

The Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 requires company insiders to disclose publicly, in a report called a Form 4, all stock purchases and sales by the 10th day of the month following the transaction.