Palast -Did Wyly Coyotes' Ill-Gotten Loot Buy White House?

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Thu, 14 Apr 2005 23:09:21 -0700 (PDT)

Palast -Did Wyly Coyotes' Ill-Gotten Loot Buy White House?

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Give It Back George

Did Wyly Coyotes' Ill-Gotten Loot Buy White House?

By Greg Palast http://www.issuesandalibis.org/

 

http://gregpalast.com/

 

 

When the feds swoop down and cuff racketeers, they also load the vans

with all the perp's ill-gotten gains: stacks of cash, BMWs, hideaway

houses, whatever. Their associates have to cough up the goodies too --

lady friends must give up their diamond rocks.

 

Under the racketeering law, RICO, even before a verdict, anything

bought with the proceeds of the crime goes into the public treasury.

 

But there seems to be special treatment afforded those who loaded up

on the 'bennies' of crimes committed by George Bush's buddies.

 

On Friday, the Manhattan District Attorney's office announced it had

captured a couple of Texas varmints, the Wyly Brothers, Charles and

Sam. The two have 'fessed to concealing half their holdings in one of

the rich boys' companies, Michaels Stores. The grand jury is still out

on deciding to indict the two for the crime of fraud upon the stock

market.

 

Who are these guys? The billionaire brothers are " Pioneers " - not the

kind that built little houses on the prairie, but the kind that agreed

to raise over a hundred grand for George W. Bush's first Presidential

run. Sam anted up more than a quarter million for the Republican

National Committee in 2000.

 

But that's just the tip of the cash-berg for Bush. In 2000, Sen. John

McCain was wiping the electoral floor with Bush Jr. in the Republican

primaries until that March when the Wylys secretly put up two and half

million dollars for a campaign to smear Bush's opponent just days

before the crucial Southern primaries.

 

They repeated the trick in 2004, putting up cash for the Swift Boat

Veterans for Truth, the vicious little snipes who tore apart the Kerry

campaign.

 

So what makes these guys so thrilled with Mr. Bush? There are more

than ninety million reasons. While George W. was governor of Texas,

investigative reporter Joe Conason discovered, a Wyly family private

investment fund, Maverick Capital of Dallas, was awarded a state

contract to invest $90 million for the University of Texas endowment.

 

That's not all. As Governor, Bush signed into law an electricity

" deregulation " bill that was little more than ill-disguised raid on

consumers' wallets by Texas power companies. The bill was in part

drafted by an outfit called GreenMountain.com, a power company owned

by - you guessed it - Sam Wyly.

 

On the day George W. signed the deregulation bill, Sam Wyly said,

" Governor Bush's hard work and leadership have paid off. " And, it

seems, in 2000 and 2004, the Wylys paid back.

 

Last week, the Wyly brothers, knowing law men will probably seize

their gains anyway, announced they would turn over their hidden loot

to Michaels Stores' treasury -- a kind gesture, like a bank-robber

turning over stolen cash in hopes of leniency.

 

But what about the racketeering rule requiring all cronies of the

wrongdoers to give up the benefits of alleged crime?

 

If the G-men don't know where the tainted booty is cached, try this

address: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Ask for George or Dick.

 

Now it might be unfair to say that George Bush's campaigns succeeded

solely because of the Wyly's loot. After all, the number one campaign

contributors were Pioneer Ken Lay and his associates at Enron.

 

OK now, Mr. President, give it back- the millions stuffed in the

pockets of the Republican campaign kitty filched from Enron retirees

and the suckers in the stock market who didn't have the inside track

like the Wylys.

 

When I worked as a racketeering investigator for government, nothing

was spared, including houses bought with purloined loot. Let there be

no exception here. It's time to tape up the White House gate and hang

the sign: " Crime Scene: Property to be Confiscated. Vacate Premises

Immediately. "

 

 

© 2005 Greg Palast's report for BBC Television on the President's

evasion of the military draft can be seen in the BBC documentary,

" Bush Family Fortunes, " updated in a special US edition on DVD. See a

segment at. Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller,

" The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. " View his writings. For interviews,

contact