Jeb Bushs ties to fugitive go against image he promotes

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The Washington Post: Jeb Bushs ties to fugitive go against image he promotes
By Tom Hamburger and Robert OHarrow Jr.

In the 1980s, Bush helped an executive bypass federal rules.

Jeb Bush was a young man building a real estate business in Miami in 1985 when health-care entrepreneur Miguel Recarey Jr. hired him to help locate office space in South Florida.

Bush, then the son of the vice president, later provided another service: opening doors in Washington, where Recarey had mounted an aggressive lobbying effort for a waiver from Medicare rules that would allow his fast-growing company to continue to expand.

Recarey got what he wanted. But two years later, the firm, International Medical Centers, was shut down as regulators searched for millions in missing federal funds. Facing charges of bribery and bilking Medicare, Recarey fled the country to avoid prosecution. He remains a fugitive in Spain, where a court denied U.S. requests for extradition.

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But new interviews and a review of congressional testimony show that Bush engaged in multiple calls on Recarey’s behalf to senior administration officials — and that his advocacy made a difference.

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Bush’s work with Recarey was one early element in what would become a sprawling business portfolio that he developed before and after his eight years as governor.

He was involved in dozens of businesses, starting in real estate in the 1980s when he joined forces with a politically connected developer, Armando Codina. Bush later established a lucrative consulting practice, becoming part-owner of a professional football team, sitting on corporate boards and, most recently, launching a successful Florida-based investment partnership.

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In one case, Bush reportedly advocated for a federal loan guarantee for a Miami contractor later convicted of fraud in applying for the loan, though Bush later said he did not recall doing so. He became a board member and consultant to a Florida-based manufacturer whose two top officers are now serving federal prison sentences for defrauding investors and the U.S. government. And he worked with another Florida firm investigated for alleged fraud involving a deal to sell water pumps to Nigeria underwritten by the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/jeb-bushs-tie-to-fugitive-cuts-against-savvy-business-image-he-promotes/2015/03/18/0a627a84-c804-11e4-b2a1-bed1aaea2816_story.html