Over the next three years,Neil Bush encouraged Silverado to approve $200 million in loans to Bill Walters and Kenneth Good without fully disclosing to the other directors that both men were part owners of Neil's coming to the other directors that both men were part owners of Neil's company,JNB Exploration.Nor did Neil mention that owed Walters $100,000 for a personal loan and that he had been forgiven another $100,000 loan by Good.When Kenneth Good offered to buy 80 percent of JNB Exploration and promised to put $3.1 million into the company by September 1987,Neil leaped."It was a sweet deal," he said.
Too sweet,thought Evans Nash who was concerned about Neil's relationship with the high-flying developer.Good lived lavishly,even by big-spending standards,and Neil seemed too dazzled by Good's $10 million home that covered thirty-three thousand square feet...Good sped around Denver in a Maserati and flew to Monte Carlo on a private jet.
Neil was not at all concerned that Good had persuaded Silverado to forgive $8 million in loans that he could not pay but Nash was;he wanted out.He`sold his interest in JNB Exploration to Neil who immediately increased his salary to $120,000 a year, plus tax-free bonuses He also joined the :Petroleum Club and refinanced his home with a $300,000 mortgage from Silverado which gave him a 2-percent break on the interest rate.
Neil.financially dependent on Good,persuaded Silverado to extend a $900,000 line of credit ti the developer so that Good could participate in a business deal that JNB Exploration had in Argentina.Neil and his JNB business partner James Judd used the money to purchase a 50 percent interest in an oil concession in northern Argentina,but they ran out of money before the drilling started.
"In most circles,people might have sued us because there was a contractual obligation,"said James Judd."To be quite frank,the fact that Neil was involved in this particular deal--I can't help but think there was some preferential consideration."
Rather than sue the son of the Vice President, the Argentine industrialist Santiago Soldati who owned the other 50 percent interest took on the full cost of the project.Two years later Soldati was invited as a special guest to George Herbert Walker Bush's inaugural.
-Excerpted from "The Family" by Kitty Kelley
Too sweet,thought Evans Nash who was concerned about Neil's relationship with the high-flying developer.Good lived lavishly,even by big-spending standards,and Neil seemed too dazzled by Good's $10 million home that covered thirty-three thousand square feet...Good sped around Denver in a Maserati and flew to Monte Carlo on a private jet.
Neil was not at all concerned that Good had persuaded Silverado to forgive $8 million in loans that he could not pay but Nash was;he wanted out.He`sold his interest in JNB Exploration to Neil who immediately increased his salary to $120,000 a year, plus tax-free bonuses He also joined the :Petroleum Club and refinanced his home with a $300,000 mortgage from Silverado which gave him a 2-percent break on the interest rate.
Neil.financially dependent on Good,persuaded Silverado to extend a $900,000 line of credit ti the developer so that Good could participate in a business deal that JNB Exploration had in Argentina.Neil and his JNB business partner James Judd used the money to purchase a 50 percent interest in an oil concession in northern Argentina,but they ran out of money before the drilling started.
"In most circles,people might have sued us because there was a contractual obligation,"said James Judd."To be quite frank,the fact that Neil was involved in this particular deal--I can't help but think there was some preferential consideration."
Rather than sue the son of the Vice President, the Argentine industrialist Santiago Soldati who owned the other 50 percent interest took on the full cost of the project.Two years later Soldati was invited as a special guest to George Herbert Walker Bush's inaugural.
-Excerpted from "The Family" by Kitty Kelley