Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 26, 1993 TAG: 9303260279
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-13 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
REGULATOR ADMITS FAVOR TO NEIL BUSH
Former bank regulator William Seidman says he timed the filing of a lawsuit to minimize embarrassment to George Bush's son Neil, and later communicated with Barbara Bush about her son's predicament.Seidman, former chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., also details in his forthcoming memoirs what he characterizes as an attempt by a top Bush administration official to influence regulators' handling of the case.
Under Seidman, the FDIC filed a civil suit against Neil Bush and other directors of the Denver-based Silverado Banking, Savings and Loan Association for $200 million.
After that, Seidman said, Charles Bartlett, a friend and newsletter publisher, wrote him a note saying Barbara Bush was angry because the FDIC announced its suit on Oct. 1, 1990.
That was the same day that the Treasury Department's Office of Thrift Supervision announced a hearing on related administrative charges against Neil Bush.
"Charley's note indicated that Barbara Bush had been informed that we had plotted the case against Neil in such a way as to bring him maximum embarrassment," Seidman wrote in the memoirs, to be published this spring.
In fact, just the opposite was true, he said. Even though he had recused himself from the Neil Bush case, Seidman said he decided to time the filing of the suit so that it and the thrift office hearing "could be seen as part of the same activities, rather than a separate proceeding."
Seidman said he believed the FDIC was obliged to sue Neil Bush but that he had Bartlett write a note to Barbara Bush saying, "Please believe that Seidman has the deepest compassion for Neil, and for the anguish that his problems are causing his parents."
Seidman said the note was "my effort to let her know that I really felt badly about Neil Bush's problems, that I was trying to ensure that he was being treated fairly."
In December 1990, Seidman said White House Counsel C. Boyden Gray called FDIC General Counsel Alfred J.T. Byrne in December 1990 to find out if the jurisdiction of the administrative charges against Neil Bush could be moved from the thrift office to the federal courts.
Byrne, who was not directly involved in the case, then called Timothy Ryan, director of the thrift office, Seidman said. Ryan had the power to make the final decision on administrative conflict-of-interest charges.
Seidman said Ryan complained about Byrne to the inspector general of the Treasury Department. Byrne and Gray, however, have denied that any impropriety took place.
After an investigation, the Justice Department decided it had insufficient evidence to prosecute, and Byrne "got a rap across the knuckles" from the inspector general's office, Seidman said.