Jonathan Bush
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Jonathan James Bush (born May 6, 1931), an American banker, a brother of President George H. W. Bush, and an uncle of President George W. Bush.
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[edit] Education
Bush graduated from the Hotchkiss School and Yale University. Like his brother and nephew, he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon and Skull and Bones.
[edit] Career
Bush founded J. Bush & Co. which provided discreet banking services for the Washington D.C. embassies of foreign governments for many years. In 1997, Riggs Bank bought J. Bush & Co. and made Bush CEO & President of Riggs Investment, a firm based in New Haven, Connecticut.
In the early 1980s, Jonathan Bush helped organize investors for George W. Bush's first oil venture, Arbusto, later called Bush Explorations.
During the 2000 Presidential Campaign, Jonathan Bush was a major contributor and fundraiser to his nephew's election and was named a "Bush Pioneer" for raising more than $100,000 for the campaign. [1]
[edit] Controversy
On Saturday, May 15, 2004, onThe Washington Post, published an item about Jonathan Bush which states: "A political Web site written by a Democratic operative drew attention yesterday to the fact that President Bush's uncle, Jonathan J. Bush, is a top executive at Riggs Bank, which this week agreed to pay a record $25 million in civil fines for violations of law intended to thwart money laundering."page E02
The bank accounts under investigation may have been Saudi, though the article does not state that. It does, however, go on to say: "...a source familiar with the multiple federal investigations of the bank's Saudi accounts and other embassy accounts say Jonathan Bush's investment advice unit has "no relationship whatsoever" with any of the Riggs's Saudi accounts." Moreover, the newspaper quotes a spokesman for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency as saying "any suggestion of political influence in the Riggs situation is 'preposterous.'"
In 1991, Bush was fined $30,000 in Massachusetts and several thousand in Connecticut for violating registration laws governing securities sales. He was barred from securities brokerage with the general public in Massachusetts for one year.
[edit] Family
Bush is the father of NBC entertainment reporter Billy Bush and healthcare CEO Jonathan S. Bush, and resides in New Haven, Connecticut and North Haven, Maine, with his wife Josephine Bush.
