S_e_x, lies and computer chips

S_e_x, lies and computer chips


Date: Tuesday, December 02, 2003 12:46 PM




JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER


www.ZaZona.com



In some parts of the world it is assumed that members
of the Royal Family have influence. And in those regions,
anyone who has had both a father and a brother as
presidents of the United States is a member of a
Royal Family.

In this case the Royal Family is the Bush's, and the favors will be
done for China and Taiwan.




http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2241139

Nov. 21, 2003, 7:49PM

Sex, lies and computer chips

By RICK CASEY
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle

Maybe the president of Taiwan did pay presidential younger brother Neil
Bush a million bucks for a recent 30-minute meeting in New York.

I expressed skepticism in a recent column, but that was before I saw
Exhibit 24 in the files of Bush's contentious divorce.

I didn't realize Bush's advice was so valuable.

The exhibit is a two-page contract between Bush and Grace Semiconductor
Manufacturing Co., which recently opened a $1.6 billion computer chip
production plant in Shanghai.

The co-founder and CEO is Winston Wong, son of a wealthy Taiwanese
plastics magnate. The contract bears Wong's and Bush's signatures.

Under the contract Bush has two duties:

7 "To provide GSMC from time to time with business strategies and
policies; latest information and trends of the related industry, and
other expertized advices (sic)."

7 "To attend Directors Board Meetings."

For this the contract provides that Bush be paid $400,000 a year in
company preferred stock for five years -- a total of $2 million worth
of stock.

In addition, he is to get $10,000 to cover expenses for each board of
directors meeting he attends.

It is unclear whether Bush has started receiving the stock. In a sworn
deposition last March, he noted that the contract, dated Aug. 15, 2002,
provided for the first $400,000 stock installment to be paid "within
one month after the first Board Meeting of GSMC for the year 2002." But
no board meeting had been held.

Bush did not return phone calls to Ignite!, his Austin-based
educational software company. Calls to the U.S. office of Grace
Semiconductor and to Bush's divorce attorney, Rick Flowers, also were
not returned.

The question remains: What does Bush offer Grace that is worth $2
million?

In the deposition, Sharon Bush's attorney, David Brown, put it
directly:

"Now, you have absolutely no educational background in semiconductors,
do you Mr. Bush?"

"That's correct," Bush responded.

Pressed later, Bush said, "But I know a lot about business and I've
been working in Asia quite a long time."

He said he has a master's degree in business administration and an
undergraduate degree in international economics, and has done a good
deal of business in Asia in the past 12 years.

"I feel I've had pretty extensive business interaction over there and
that's what I would bring, just general business knowledge," he said.

I asked some Silicon Valley semiconductor industry analysts what Bush
could bring.

"It's hard to say," said George Burns of Strategic Marketing Research,
a Santa Cruz firm that covers the semiconductor industry. "Certainly he
could act as a lobbyist."

Fred Zieber, an industry analyst with Pathfinder Research in San Jose,
said, "I don't have a clue. You can speculate, but nothing rises to the
top."

Both mentioned that the United States has some restrictions on the
export of semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China, so Bush might
be able to help smooth the way for Grace to buy equipment.

But Bush did not mention lobbying in his deposition, and it's not
included in the contract.

Another theory is simpler.

In some parts of the world it is assumed that members of the Royal
Family have influence. And in those regions, anyone who has had both a
father and a brother as presidents of the United States is a member of
a Royal Family.

Membership is good for business. Bush, for example, had raised $23
million for his software firm at the time of the deposition, despite
the fact that a series of businesses he started over the years went
belly up.

Bush said 60 percent of the $23 million came from overseas -- much of
it from the Middle East and Asia.

Grace CEO Wong was already one of those investors when he signed Bush
to the $2 million contract. His co-founder of Grace was Jiang Mianheng,
son of then-Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

"That's the way Grace is," said industry analyst Dan Hutcheson of VLSI
Research. "They're very tied into the government."

He said Grace may be paying for more than they are getting from Bush,
who has been somewhat politically radioactive ever since he was
sanctioned for his role in the Silverado Savings & Loan scandal 15
years ago.

"They may be too far away to realize that," said Hutcheson.

I'd have more faith in Bush's assessment that his business experience,
not his blood relations, led to the contract if it weren't for
something else in the deposition.

As has been reported, Bush admitted to having sex with several women in
Hong Kong and Thailand during an earlier business trip. In the
deposition, he said a woman would knock on the door of his hotel room.

Under questioning he said he didn't know them before or see them
afterward, and he didn't pay them any money.

"Were they prostitutes?" he was asked.

"I don't know," he said.

Since he was under oath, I assume he was telling the truth. Perhaps
that means that rather than assuming the businessmen with whom he was
meeting provided them for his entertainment, he holds open the
possibility that they saw him in the hotel bar and were so attracted to
him that they bribed the bartender for his room number.

Maybe that's what happened. And maybe Grace contracted to pay him $2
million in stock for his expertise.


You can write to Rick Casey at P.O. Box 4260, Houston, TX 77210, or
e-mail him at rick.casey@chron.com.




http://www.mw-zander.com/de/news/news_semiconductor_facts1.jsp?id=1153


26.11.2003
Brother of President Bush linked to China foundry, says report
Neil Bush, brother of United States President George Bush, has a
contract worth $2 million to provide advice to Chinese foundry Grace
Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. according to a report on the website
of the Houston Chronicle. The account refers to exhibit 24 in the files
of Neil Bush4s divorce from Sharon Bush, and describes it as a
two-page contract between Bush and Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing
Co. dated August 15, 2002. The account also quotes Sharon Bush4s
lawyer asking Neil Bush questions about what he did for Grace
Semiconductor Manufacturing.

Under the terms of the contract Bush has two duties, the report said:
"To provide GSMC from time to time with business strategies and
policies; latest information and trends of the related industry, and
other expertized advices (sic)." And "to attend Directors4 Board
Meetings." The contract stipulates that Bush be paid $400,000 a year in
company preferred stock for five years, for a total of $2 million in
stock, the report said. Secondly the contract states that Neil Bush is
be paid to $10,000 to cover expenses for each Grace Semiconductor board
of directors meeting he attends, the report said.

However, the report added that it is unclear whether Neil Bush has
started receiving the stock and referred to a sworn deposition from
March 2003 in which Neil Bush noted that the contract provided for the
first $400,000 stock installment to be paid, "within one month after
the first Board Meeting of GSMC for the year 2002." Grace Semiconductor
Manufacturing is one of several companies in mainland China that is
intent on spending hundreds of millions of dollars on capital
expenditure to become a world player in the semiconductor industry.
Grace began processing wafers at a fab in Shanghai in September and
executives expect the company to be producing 10,000 200-mm diameter
wafers a month by the end of 2003.

The Houston Chronicle article quoted Neil Bush admitting he has no
educational background in semiconductors but arguing that he is
experienced in Asian business.

Source: SBN, 11/23/2003


M+W Zander







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