Britney Spears panties! Shirts on, shirts off!

It's pretty obvious that the Bush Crime Family is about the worst the
country has to offer... but like turds in a toilet bowl they rise to
the top.

Very very depressing.

Bush's uncle tangled in options probe: SEC
Wed Feb 7, 2007 5:30pm ET14

By Tim McLaughlin

NEW YORK (Reuters) - President George W. Bush's uncle, William H.T.
"Bucky" Bush, was part of a group of outside directors at a defense
contractor who realized about $6 million in unauthorized pay from an
options backdating scheme, according to U.S. securities investigators.

Bush and other non-employee directors who served on the board of
Engineered Support Systems Inc., now owned by DRS Technologies Inc.,
are not accused of any wrongdoing in a civil complaint filed on
Tuesday by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The SEC complaint, however, says the non-employee directors benefited
from stock options not approved by shareholders.
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"As a result, the company provided significant additional compensation
to its outside directors beyond what shareholders had approved," the
SEC complaint said. "These same directors later realized approximately
$6 million from the exercise of their addtional stock options."

The complaint did not break out how much Bush and the other outside
directors received from a total of 132,000 shares of unauthorized
shares.

Bush, whose brother is former President George H.W. Bush, was
unavailable for comment. He served on St. Louis-based ESSI's board
from 2000 until the St. Louis defense contractor was acquired last
year for nearly $2 billion by DRS, which sells engineering services to
the U.S. military.

Bush served on ESSI's audit committee and received $2,500 a month in
consulting fees, an arrangement that later was ended for him and other
outside directors. Bush also received a fixed amount of ESSI shares
each year for his work on the board.

Before the DRS deal was approved in January 2006, Bush held ESSI
shares worth $3.8 million, SEC filings show.

Between 1995 and early 2005, ESSI's stock climbed nearly 900 percent
as the company sold cargo loaders, generators and trailers to the
Pentagon. ESSI's board was politically connected and included several
retired generals.

The SEC on Tuesday accused ESSI's former chief financial officer, Gary
C. Gerhardt, and former controller, Steven J. Landmann, of
orchestrating a backdating scheme that spanned six years. In all,
executives and directors netted $20 million in unauthorized pay,
according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in St. Louis.

Outside directors received backdated options issued in 1996, 1998,
1999 and 2001, the SEC complaint alleges.
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Landmann has agreed to give back about $519,000 in option-related
compensation while paying $367,585 in penalties and interest. He did
not admit or deny the SEC allegations, and will be permanently barred
from serving as an officer of publicly-traded company.

Records unsealed in federal court in St. Louis late last year show
that the SEC is investigating Michael F. Shanahan Sr., who co-founded
ESSI; his son, who served on the board's compensation committee; and
Shanahan Sr.'s son-in-law, David Mattern, who was general counsel.

The SEC wants the Shanahans and Mattern to produce e-mails, meeting
notes, telephone logs and board meeting minutes related to the pricing
of Engineered Support stock options, court papers show.

The SEC's complaint against Gerhardt said nearly half of the
unauthorized and undisclosed gains from options backdating, or about
$8.6 million, went to Shanahan Sr. He has not been charged by the SEC.

Court records also show there is an ongoing criminal investigation
that mirrors, in part, the SEC's probe.

(c) Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.