Regulators Confirm Bush’s Son Was Questioned in Thrift Probe
Federal regulators said Thursday that the former chairman of Silverado Banking, Savings & Loan Assn. has been penalized, and confirmed that one of President Bush’s sons has been questioned in connection with the failure of the Colorado thrift.
But a spokesman for the Office of Thrift Supervision would not discuss the nature of the agency’s recent discussions with Neil Bush, who served on Silverado’s board from 1985 until August, 1988, a month before regulators seized the Denver institution.
“He’s been here a couple of times in the past week and a half,” said OTS spokesman William Fulwider, who declined to confirm details of a Houston Post report that the President’s son met for four hours Monday with OTS enforcement officer Rosemary Stewart.
Fulwider confirmed, however, that OTS officials are actively pursuing their investigation of Silverado, which was on the ropes financially when the government stepped in at an estimated cost to taxpayers of $500 million.
Asked whether the questioning of Neil Bush could be interpreted as a signal that the President’s son is a target of the investigation, Fulwider responded: “You can assume everybody in a senior position is likely to have been interviewed in one way or another, and that does not necessarily mean that any action is likely to be taken against them.”
The OTS announced Thursday that former Silverado Chairman and Chief Executive Michael R. Wise had signed a consent agreement barring him from entering into any working relationship with a federally insured financial institution without prior approval of federal regulators.
In a similar action Wednesday, the agency said that identical agreements had been signed by two other former Silverado directors, Richard K. Vandapool and Robert M. Lewis.
None of the three former officers admitted any wrongdoing. “Wise denied any wrongdoing and maintained that he had consented to avoid the time and expense that would be involved in litigating the case,” the OTS statement said.
In announcing the latest enforcement action, the OTS cited its “grave concern about the soundness of Silverado’s management in the months before its closing.”
The agency said that its concern focused on the danger of “too great a concentration of business in commercial loans in a depressed market” and “an exceptionally large number of problem transactions with related parties,” a reference to so-called insider loans.
James Monroney, a former staff analyst at the Federal Home Loan Bank Board in Topeka, Kan., has alleged that Silverado would have been taken over much sooner if Neil Bush had not been a board member. But Bush has denied those accusations.
